TAMPA, Fla. — The University of Florida violated its own hiring procedures while bringing aboard Joseph Ladapo to a tenured position, according to a faculty committee report released Wednesday.
The hiring of Ladapo, whom Gov. Ron DeSantis picked last year to be the state’s surgeon general, did not adequately involve the input of faculty normally charged with reviewing a candidate’s application for tenure, the report found.
Administrators accelerated Ladapo’s start date to accommodate DeSantis’ announcement that the doctor would become the state’s next surgeon general, it said. And some faculty members felt Ladapo was the subject of “preferential treatment on the basis of his political opinions,” the report said.
