by Philip “Tre” Mobley III, Santa Fe College Journalism Club President
It has been 3 months since tech billionaire, Elon Musk, first sent the “What have you done this week” email to his recently acquired Twitter staff before making major cutbacks. It has also been two months since Trump’s DOGE email was sent with the same goal. Next up to bat is Gov. Ron DeSantis and his new FL DOGE team as they address the state colleges with an ultimatum.
On April 4, an email was sent to the presidents of universities across Florida from the Office of the Governor, stating “The Executive Office of the Governor has established an EOG DOGE Team which will …. identify, review, and report on unnecessary spending, programs, courses, staff, and any other inefficiencies.” DeSantis is gearing up to make big changes in higher education, following closely in the footsteps of his superiors.
Two deadlines were given. The first required campuses to send every grant awarded to the institution, all research published by staff at the institution, and all filled and vacant positions held by any employee with a non-instructional role within the past six years by the specified date of April 18 to the Office of the Governor.
Similar to the federal DOGE, DeSantis is targeting colleges in an attempt to defund any errant liberal arts initiatives or silence the stray professor who pushes ideologies not in support of his narrative. And sadly, it’s working.
When speaking with professors about the email they received, their fear was placed on the published works, as they were worried that a spotlight would be shown on their colleagues, on their campus, endangering their jobs. This fear bled into the interviewing processes as no one would go on the record, anxiously reminding me not to publish their names.
However, when speaking with Dr. J. Nathaniel Sutherland, the Provost and Vice President of Academic Affairs at Santa Fe College, he explained that there would be nothing to fear for Santa Fe. He further stated that Santa Fe has only had two projects funded by federal grants in the past 6 years, both were working with the National Science Foundation to help students succeed in the STEM fields. Sutherland also wrote in an email to the staff that he was certain that “Santa Fe College is a good steward of taxpayers’ dollars,” supporting his claim that there was no reason to be afraid.
If this is this case, then why are so many professors nervous to express themselves outside of the classroom? DeSantis’s goal in sending this email was to do two things: to decrease state spending and to spread fear.
However, that brings us to the second deadline (due on April 30) within the email, which focused more on the requesting the information of employees with “noninstructional” roles asking if the position is on a tenure track, if the position is remote (or hybrid/in-person), and if multiple individuals fill the same position.
It can be assumed that with this information DeSantis is getting ready to blindly remove funding from those bigger colleges whose values are not in line with his, as well as cutting back on funding so that the universities will be forced to weigh the value of the “non-instructional” workers that make up their campus.
On February 3, 2025, Governor DeSantis announced his plans for the fiscal budget of 2025-2026. While Florida spent overall 4.1 billion dollars on big campuses (like UF or FSU) in 2024, that number is being reduced to a projected 3.9 billion dollars in 2025. This means that DeSantis aims to cut federal spending on Florida universities by 200 million dollars, all while community colleges are still receiving the same 1.7 billion that they have in previous years.
By firing workers, cutting programs, and monitoring spending, DeSantis is attempting to maintain his role as Florida’s conservative leader and protector from DEI. While colleges can recover from these major slashes, it can be assumed that DeSantis won’t stop here but will continue to use DOGE tactics to control Florida universities and to appease the goals of Donald Trump.
This article was written in collaboration with the Iguana to bring awareness to a new student publication called The Tick. The Tick is singularly focused on vocalizing student/faculty stories and values at Santa Fe. For more information, please find us @sf_Journalism on Instagram or email us at SFJclubemail@gmail.com.