USF is deleting some of the university’s webpages, news articles, PDF documents and internal audits with content on diversity, equity and inclusion. 

USF spokesperson Althea Johnson said the university is “reviewing and updating” its websites “to comply” with “all” state and federal guidance, policies and laws.

Two Florida First Amendment attorneys said deleting such webpages is not a violation of the Florida Public Records Law or a First Amendment infringement, but there could be exceptions depending on how USF is conducting the process.

Deleted pages used to include DEI awards USF had received, anti-racism documents, department appointments, discussions on structural racism and efforts to promote diversity in graduate courses.

A USF policy formerly named “The Diversity and Equal Opportunity-Discrimination and Harassment” was amended on Jan. 31 and is now called “Equal Opportunity-Discrimination and Harassment.”

Some USF departments that were impacted by webpage deletions were psychology, history and English.

The pages included the departments’ DEI commitment statements and programs, according to the Wayback Machine, a public digital archive that saves webpages over the years.

Brian Connolly, chair of the history department, said he was informed by the College of Arts and Sciences during an in-person meeting “within the last month or so” that pages with DEI content would be deleted. 

Connolly said his understanding is that CAS was removing webpages at the direction of the USF upper administration, who was responding to demands by the Board of Governors and “their interpretation” of Senate Bill 266.

Senate Bill 266 was signed by Governor Ron DeSantis in 2023 to ban universities from “spending federal or state dollars on discriminatory initiatives,” which include DEI efforts, according to the Florida Department of Education.

Related: Some USF students reconsider their careers after Trump’s DEI cuts 

CAS Dean Elizabeth Spiller declined to comment and said Johnson would be “best able” to answer questions.

Johnson did not answer the Oracle’s questions about when pages started being deleted, how many are unavailable or what guidance departments are receiving from the university.

She instead referred to the act of “updating” USF websites as a “regular” process.

Timothy McGinn is a First Amendment attorney at Gunster, a law firm with 12 offices around Florida. He said in-person meetings are a way to “get around” public records laws.

“It’s not as if these websites disappeared by themselves,” McGinn said. “You don’t get that error message just sort of out of the blue. Someone took it down.”

Judith Bryant, chair of the psychology department, said she was not aware of page deletions before the Oracle contacted her and, therefore, was not involved in “any such” effort. 

A deleted psychology department webpage provided a description of its diversity committee, dedicated to “promoting best educational practices” for students to help improve a diverse and respectful community.

Related:  Some faculty, students consider leaving state due to DEI legislation

Thomas Julin is another First Amendment attorney at Gunster and has experience handling public records cases. 

Julin said he was “not surprised” to hear about USF’s webpage erasures.

“All universities and institutions and government agencies are doing that, in light of what the [Donald] Trump administration is doing, as well as what the [Ron] DeSantis administration is doing,” Julin said.

Some other colleges around the country deleting or altering webpages include the Florida Institute of Technology, Florida State University, University of Pennsylvania, University of Southern California and Columbia University.

FSU has a list of 20 words that are being flagged when deciding which webpages to delete, according to the Tallahassee Democrat.

Johnson did not clarify which specific words are being marked at USF. 

A deleted page from the College of Behavorial and Community Sciences previously showed results from an audit overseen by its diversity and inclusion committee.

The report showed that “just over a third” of CBCS graduate courses had one or more keywords “related to diversity and inclusion” in their titles and descriptions. 

Some of the USF websites with mentions of DEI that are still up include classes and scholarship descriptions and research on the USF Digital Commons database. 

Julin said he doesn’t think the elimination of webpages violates the Florida Public Records Law — as long as USF is maintaining a record of the content previously available.

“You can’t just destroy a public record,” Julin said. 

Julin said universities have to keep the former webpages in a place where custodians can easily access them.

Johnson did not say whether USF is keeping a record of the deleted webpages at the time of publication.

McGinn explained that the government speech doctrine allows the government to send out the message that “it thinks is appropriate and best represents its values.”

This “basically” means USF is allowed to decide what it wants and what it doesn’t want on its webpages, he said.

“We don’t always think of, you know, a state university as being sort of like the state government, but it is an arm of the state,” McGinn said. “So, these same ideas continue to apply.”

Related: DEI’s future at USF: The question on everyone’s mind

Connolly is worried the erasure won’t stop at the webpages. 

A deleted history department webpage previously described its diversity committee, which was initially designed to create a positive “atmosphere” and an inclusive environment within the department.

Connolly said the committee still exists despite the content removal. However, he is uncertain about its fate.

“I assume given the demands of the state of Florida that the committee will not exist much longer,” he said.