Gov. DeSantis’ DOGE squad starts university probe

Faculty and staff at the University of North Florida (UNF) and other state schools are getting new marching orders from Gov. Ron DeSantis to start the week, courtesy of the state equivalent to Elon Musk’s federal Department of Governmental Efficiency (DOGE).

The state-level “DOGE” team mailed letters to university Presidents and Trustee Chairs last week to inform them of what’s happening in the coming weeks. UNF teachers learned of the communication on their faculty portal Monday.

In addition to DOGE swooping in for “site visits” to judge compliance with the executive order that began the state effort, the letter to university staff said the team will be “assessing your publicly available information over the coming weeks and months” and “will partner with the Board of Governors and Florida College System to request additional necessary information from each institution.”

This includes institutional budgets and subfunds, the “structure, staffing, budgets, and functions of administrative offices and administrator roles,” along with “facility usage reports; Course codes, descriptions, and syllabi; Full detail of all centers established on campus” and the “closure and dissolution of DEI programs and activities, as required by law.”

Presidents are expected to appoint proxies and provide contact information to “the EOG DOGE Team at [email protected] no later than April 2, 2025.”

That contact will be the main line of communication to DOGE.

“This preferred contact will receive the memorandum and all associated submission details, as well as future communications. Please note that this contact will be the sole individual at your institution with authority to access the portal, including uploading any required documentation.”

The Governor’s Office contextualized the letter in a response to an inquiry Monday morning.

“The letter clearly lays out the expectations of the colleges and universities. We expect timely and complete responses and look forward to working with our partners in higher education to eliminate waste and eradicate DEI,” said spokesperson Bryan Griffin.

Meanwhile, DeSantis told the Board of Governors last week that DOGE will probe some familiar topics, including diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives that theoretically have been ferreted out, courses deemed to be too ideological, and administrative bloat.

“There’s certain state policies that have been implemented, such as the abolition of DEI, which I know on a superficial level, the universities went and applied with,” DeSantis said.

“But as we’ve seen, you know, you kind of burrow in and rename, do what you want. And there is some sense in some quarters that whatever the law in the state of Florida is, it just is not obligatory on them and they can kind of do their own little fiefdom. That’s not going to fly here.”

In DeSantis’ first term, his administration greenlit many of those policies in the very colleges he’s targeted more recently. He said he “didn’t know what it was” then.

But now he frames it as an affront on “fiscal integrity” and a way to “enforce a political agenda and a political orthodoxy under the auspices of administration.”

DeSantis also told the Board of Governors that DOGE would dive into so-called “ideological studies.”

“First of all, it’s not my cup of tea, but that’s not what the people of Florida want their tax dollars to do. People want that, they can go to Cal Berkeley. They can go a bunch of different places. For us, we really want to focus on what the classical mission of a university should be,” DeSantis said.

Additionally, he condemned administrative “bloat” that “parallels the explosion of student loan money that’s gone out.”