Following a longstanding feud with the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges, Florida officials announced they were launching a new accreditation agency with five other university systems.
The Commission for Public Higher Education will include schools in the State University System of Florida, University System of Georgia, University of North Carolina System, University of South Carolina System, University of Tennessee System and Texas A&M System.
The other schools were previously accredited by the Southern Association, which state officials have long taken issue with. Accreditation agencies evaluate universities on standards of educational quality and are required for access to federal funds.
Tensions first bubbled in 2021, when the organization raised concerns after former state education commissioner Richard Corcoran was added to a list of finalists during a presidential search at Florida State University.Though Corcoran, now president of New College, was not selected, Board of Governors members protested, saying the accreditation body had overreached.
The accreditation body then launched an investigation into political interference at the University of Florida after a group of professors were told they were not allowed to testify as experts in cases against the state.
The next year, the legislature passed a bill requiring universities to change accrediting agencies after an evaluation cycle, and gave them the power to sue an accreditor for damages if they felt they were negatively impacted.
At the time, the law received pushback for the amount of administrative work the changes would take.
Since then, some universities have begun the long process to switch and seek accreditation from the Higher Learning Commission instead. The new Commission for Public Higher Education will be another option for universities, though they ultimately have the final choice.
In 2023, DeSantis sued the Biden administration over accreditation agencies. The lawsuit was dismissed by a federal judge.
Tackling accreditation bodies was also a target of Project 2025, a conservative playbook designed as an outline for Donald Trump’s second term, which laid out a process in which states could authorize and become accrediting bodies.
In a news conference Thursday announcing the new accreditation body, DeSantis praised the state for leading in removing diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.
“It will upend the monopoly of the woke accreditation cartels and provide institutions with an alternative that focuses on student achievement,” he said.
Board of Governors member Alan Levine, who has been vocal about frustrations with accrediting bodies operating “outside their lanes,” said he is excited about the new option, and that state university system chancellor Ray Rodrigues had been working on it for years.
“I didn’t know much about the accreditors back then, but I learned really quickly how influential they are and how omnipresent,” Levine said. “We’re the ones that govern the institutions. We are the governing body, boards of trustees, the legislature. We run our system of higher education.
“If there’s a problem with us violating a standard of accreditation, then it’s fair to come in, doing during accreditation cycle or in the interim period, and cite for us what exactly we’re out of compliance with,” he continued. “But these areas were not areas where there was even a remote issue with compliance.”
Levine said he hopes to see the accreditation landscape become more competitive, including for medical and law schools.
“When you when you see so many high quality institutions coming together like this, that’s a really strong statement,” he said.
This is a developing story and may be updated.