Gov. Ron DeSantis’ office has asked colleges and universities across Florida to hand over detailed information on grants received by faculty and research over the last six years.

“There is a huge cost associated with this. Immense resources that could be going elsewhere,” said University of South Florida engineering professor David Simmons, who serves as president of the school’s faculty senate.

“Faculty research is already available publicly available on databases like Google Scholar,” he said. “Right now, we don’t know why this has been requested.”

DeSantis told state university leaders last month that the review was part of his offices effort find inefficiencies and make the public higher education system a “well-oiled machine.” He added that his team will be rooting out non-compliance with state laws over diversity, equity and inclusion programs.