State university personnel; recruitment of faculty; performance assessment and reporting; employment practices; requiring certain oaths or statements prohibited; grievances.

(1) Except as delegated pursuant to paragraph (a), each state university president has the final authority for hiring the provost, the deans, and all full-time faculty for the university, and has an ongoing duty to assess the performance, productivity, and employment practices of the university’s provost and deans. The president of the university is encouraged to engage in faculty recruiting as appropriate, and shall provide a regular report and recommendations on employment practices to the board at least twice annually.

(a) The president may delegate hiring authority to individuals on the university’s executive management team within the president’s office, to the provost, or to individual deans; however, the president or the person delegated such hiring authority is not bound by the recommendations or opinions of faculty or other individuals.

(b) A state university may not require any statement, pledge, or oath other than to uphold general and federal law, the United States Constitution, and the State Constitution as a part of any admissions, hiring, employment, promotion, tenure, disciplinary, or evaluation process.

(2) Notwithstanding s. 447.401 or any other law related to faculty grievance procedures, personnel actions or decisions regarding faculty, including in the areas of evaluations, promotions, tenure, discipline, or termination, may not be appealed beyond the level of a university president or designee. Such actions or decisions must have as their terminal step a final agency disposition, which must be issued in writing to the faculty member, and are not subject to arbitration. The filing of a grievance does not toll the action or decision of the university, including the termination of pay and benefits of a suspended or terminated faculty member.

(3) Each state university board of trustees must have procedures for the review of the president’s selection and reappointment of each member of the university’s executive management team, and his or her respective contract and annual salary, before such contracts and salaries become effective, in accordance with the personnel program established by the Board of Governors.

(4) Each state university president shall annually present to the state university board of trustees the results of performance evaluations and associated annual salaries for all evaluated academic and administrative personnel earning an annual salary of $200,000 or more, regardless of the funding source for such salaries. The results may be presented in a summary or written format.