{"id":177669,"date":"2026-03-04T11:59:05","date_gmt":"2026-03-04T11:59:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/177669\/"},"modified":"2026-03-04T11:59:05","modified_gmt":"2026-03-04T11:59:05","slug":"usf-florida-universities-to-pause-hiring-h-1b-faculty-until-2027","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/177669\/","title":{"rendered":"USF, Florida universities to pause hiring H-1B faculty until 2027"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/a>The Board of Governors voted on a measure that temporarily pauses Florida universities from hiring new faculty on H-1B visas. ORACLE GRAPHIC\/THOMAS MARRS<\/p>\n

The Florida Board of Governors<\/a> approved an amended regulation on March 2 that temporarily paused hiring new H-1B visa employees across all state universities.<\/p>\n

State universities, including USF, will not be able to hire any new employees using the H-1B visa program through January 5, 2027, according to Regulation 1.001<\/a>.<\/p>\n

H-1B visas allow \u201cnonimmigrant aliens\u201d to be hired for highly specialized work positions, such as university researchers and professors, according to the U.S. Department of Labor<\/a>.<\/p>\n

USF employs 24 people on the H-1B visa, according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In September, President Donald Trump issued an executive order<\/a> announcing a $100,000 fee for new H-1B visas.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Chancellor Raymond Rodrigues<\/a> said the amended regulation will give the BOG time to study the effect of the $100,000 fee and \u201cquantify\u201d its impact on Florida\u2019s university system.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Rodrigues said H-1B renewals are not subject to the $100,000 fee, which means university employees currently on the H-1B visa will not be affected.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe guideline is, if you\u2019re on campus now, you may remain on campus during the course of the pause,\u201d Rodrigues said.<\/p>\n

USF spokesperson Althea Johnson said that USF, as a state university, follows Florida laws and regulations established by the BOG.<\/p>\n

\u201cUSF is working to determine the implementation process of the revision, which does not apply to existing employees,\u201d Johnson said.<\/p>\n

While the pause will not affect existing employees, some USF professors said the amended regulation intrudes on university autonomy and creates a hostile environment for professors on visas.<\/p>\n

Related: DeSantis previews Florida DOGE findings in USF visit<\/a><\/p>\n

Adriana Novoa, a professor of Latin American history at USF, said she is concerned about the directive to pause hiring professionals on H-1B visas in Florida universities.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t understand how a so-called conservative governor would be so intrusive in practices that traditionally, governments didn\u2019t interfere,\u201d Novoa said. \u201cIn Florida, universities are supposed to have independence from the legislature and politicians.\u201d<\/p>\n

Novoa said she finds this interference \u201cappalling\u201d because she believes universities should have autonomy in choosing who to hire.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t understand why the governor keeps getting [to] be intruding in the activities of the university,\u201d Novoa said. \u201cThese visas have a purpose, you know.\u201d<\/p>\n

Novoa said she does not believe the amendment is beneficial to Florida universities, adding that \u201cignoring\u201d how universities work for political purposes is degrading their quality.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt really affects the reputation of the universities, and certainly that sends a bad message to those who come to study in the U.S. and perceive, through this bias, an anti-immigrant culture that will not make them feel welcome,\u201d Novoa said.<\/p>\n

Related: USF reviews DOGE findings, identifies areas for improvement<\/a><\/p>\n

A USF professor on an H-1B visa said the amendment is distressing because international professors are scared to protest and thus do not have the power to change or object to the decision.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The professor chose to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re not interested in giving us more security or more rights, or anything,\u201d the professor said. \u201cThey\u2019re only interested in playing these political games with people who are on this visa.\u201d<\/p>\n

The professor added that the amendment is not only concerning to professors and other employees on the H-1B visa, but is also unfair to anyone who relies on the university as a source of training, knowledge or expertise.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you try to interfere with faculty hiring, you\u2019re interfering with everything the university does and all aspects of social life that the university improves,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n

And while current employees on H-1B visas will not be affected by the amendment, the professor said it creates a hostile personal and professional climate for them.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople are not traveling,\u201d they said. \u201cPeople don\u2019t want to leave their supporters. And we are obviously from transnational families, [so] we have families back home from wherever we\u2019ve migrated.\u201d<\/p>\n

They said pausing the H-1B process for professors excludes international professors while also interfering with the student experience and education.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou say you want the best and the brightest talent, and you want them to come and teach your students, but you\u2019re essentially allowing people to discriminate on the basis of national origin,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Board of Governors voted on a measure that temporarily pauses Florida universities from hiring new faculty on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":177670,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[135,137,136],"class_list":["post-177669","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177669","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=177669"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177669\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/177670"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=177669"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=177669"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=177669"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}