ORLANDO, Fla. — Florida’s DOGE team has asked state universities to turn over data on every undergraduate course offered at the 12 schools, including the syllabus and names of faculty members who are instructing it in the next two academic years.

The DeSantis administration sent its request Monday to the Board of Governors, which oversees Florida’s public universities, and wants the reams of data by Dec. 3. The governor’s office provided a copy of the letter to the Orlando Sentinel upon request Friday.

“As we continue our work to identify opportunities to improve higher education in Florida, we are seeking additional information regarding the rigor and performance of programs, majors, and departments within each university,” it reads.

The request comes as the DeSantis administration has taken deep dives into spending — launching controversial audits of numerous cities and counties, including Orlando and Orange County, and universities. The effort is modeled on the federal Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, launched by Elon Musk right after President Donald Trump returned to office.

The letter sent Monday seeks more detailed information on performance at state universities, including names of each academic department and major offered, which majors each course accrues credit toward, if courses are taught in person, online or as a hybrid, how many students are applying and enrolling in honors programs and the syllabi for all courses.

It is not clear how many total courses are offered across the state universities, but most universities enroll thousands of undergraduates and offer hundreds of course options in a wide range of disciplines from accounting to zoology. The University of Central Florida’s course catalog spans almost 5,000 pages.

A syllabus is an outline of a course, often showing an overview of material covered in the semester, as well as required books and other expectations.

Robert Cassanello, the president of the statewide faculty union, called the letter “theater” from the governor’s office but said it will add to already anxious professors’ worries.

Earlier this month, the board of governors approved new new regulations requiring all course syllabi to be posted publicly. That’s made some nervous that state leaders might us syllabus information to criticize them, and the state’s DOGE letter just adds to that.

“I don’t know what DeSantis thinks he’s gonna find in the syllabi. They’re just using this as another thing to attack professors with,” said Cassanello, a history professor at UCF.

In February, DeSantis said his DOGE effort would be looking into every facet of universities, seeking data on finances and coursework — with an eye toward finding and eliminating diversity, equity and inclusion.

“We want to make sure that these universities are really serving the classical mission of what a university is supposed to be, and that’s not to impose ideology,” he said. “There are certain subjects that, you know, look if you want to do some of this, go to Cal Berkeley, go to some of these other places. We don’t really want to be doing some of this stuff in Florida.”

Robin Goodman, Florida State University’s faculty union president, criticized the request in an email to fellow union members.

DOGE is supposed to be about eliminating waste, she said, so it is not clear how course syllabi “relate to that mission. In fact, a data collection of this sort may be considered, by some, as wasteful in itself,” she wrote.

“Governor DeSantis might be looking for a good reading list for his retirement next year!” added the FSU English professor.

Earlier this month, a separate DOGE audit looked at university finances and deemed UCF Florida’s most efficient university.

With nearly 70,000 enrolled students, UCF is the state’s largest university and the nation’s third largest. The school spent $46,548 per degree last year. On average, a Florida university spent $78,781 per degree.

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