TAMPA, Fla. – Senate Bill 7044 calls for post-tenure performance reviews every five years.

This idea is to hold tenured professors at state universities to the highest standards of accountability. The post-tenure review mentioned in SB 7044 would specifically address many aspects of professor's academic careers, including accomplishments, productivity, assigned duties in research, teaching, and service, as well as performance, evaluations and ratings. 

Law professor Peter Lake has been at Stetson University College of Law since 1990. He says the bill could impact the teaching profession in various ways.

"I think that to the extent the job gets harder, where the perception is that the body politic is suspicious of it's teachers, there is a bit of a chilling impact on what kind of careers people will pick and where they will go," he continued. 

"But, on the other hand, if there is dead water or there are people who aren’t performing, review processes can help people get motivated or perhaps move and open opportunity," he concluded. 

Lake does think more teaching opportunities in Florida public schools will happen as a result of the bill, and he hopes no matter what, the focus stays on the students.

The professor went on to mention that professors already have reviews, but that he wasn't surprised that the issue was addressed in the new legislation. "I think in general, the public is asking some really hard questions about what people like me do for a living and what does my day looks like," Lake told Spectrum News.  "And should I have, should people like me have special protections in the workplace that are very atypical for every other worker in America?"