A Florida bill that would have limited the governor’s role in choosing state university presidents has been indefinitely postponed.

Just two and a half weeks after House Bill 1321 passed the Florida House, the Senate withdrew the bill from consideration along with its companion, Senate Bill 1726, according to the Florida Senate.

Scott Perry, USF Faculty Senate Vice President, said the bills would have diminished the governor’s “power” in appointing university presidents.

“This legislation is the legislature fighting back against that, and they want to say the control of who becomes president should be at the local level,” Perry said.

The two bills that would change how state universities carry out presidential searches have been postponed amid USF’s hunt for a new leader, raising concerns about political influence in the decision.

Related: USF takes next steps for presidential search

Perry said the bill would bring state university presidential searches under Florida’s Sunshine Law, keeping “transparency” in government by keeping records public and accessible to the public.

This would eliminate confidential searches, where candidate information and records are kept private, Perry said. 

However, Senate Bill 1726 would still retain some exemptions from the Sunshine Law, such as keeping candidate information confidential until the final stage and allowing the governor to promote a candidate, the bill stated. 

House Bill 1321 would also implement term limits for the Board of Governors and require members of the Board of Trustees to be Florida residents or alumni of the schools they represent, according to the bill. 

But the search to name a successor for USF President Rhea Law remains ongoing.

The Presidential Search Committee met once in late March, but there have not been any more updates. 

USF spokesperson Althea Johnson said the search is expected to move forward once the firm, SP&A Executive Search, “has completed their work” with the University of Florida.

UF’s BOT selected Santa Ono as the next university president on Tuesday.

SP&A is a “woman- and minority-owned” company that serves higher education to help fill administrative roles, according to its website.

Related: How the USF community can have a voice in presidential search

As USF continues its quest for a new university president, Perry said the decisions made to install a leader will be “key” for the continued success of the university.

“We’re an AAU school, we’re part of the top three percent of universities in the country,” Perry said. “The next president should be somebody who really believes in the academic process and understands academic behavior.”

Steve Lang, president of USF’s chapter of the United Faculty of Florida, said administrations with “political missions” are more focused on furthering political goals than academic ones. 

Lang said that “effective leaders” in education have strong academic backgrounds.

“We want our administration to focus on supporting that [academics], not on a political agenda,” Lang said. 

Related: USF faculty discuss what a politician as next university president could mean

Gov. Ron DeSantis had previously opposed House Bill 1321 on multiple occasions, such as in a Pensacola news conference and through social media.

In a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, DeSantis said the bill should have been nicknamed “Make Universities Woke Again Act.”

“[The political left] do not want elected officials to hold universities accountable,” DeSantis said in the video.

But DeSantis’s choices for presidential candidates have not all held universities to higher standards, Perry said.

DeSantis’ picks to serve at Florida universities include Lt. Gov. Jeanette Nuñez as the interim president of Florida International University and former State House Speaker Richard Corcoran as the president of New College of Florida.

More recently, Juvenile Justice Secretary Eric Hall was chosen as interim president of Pasco-Hernando State College.

At USF, a politician as the new president would cause “unnecessary friction,” Lang said.

“What happens is that person is not consistent with what the faculty and the students are doing,” Lang said. “It becomes dissonant because the students may have values and directions that they want to go in that differ greatly from [the] administration.”

Correction — A previous version of this story misquoted USF spokesperson Althea Johnson. The firm SP&A Executive Search will help with USF’s presidential search when it completes its work with the University of Florida.