By Leila Wickliffe
Earlier this month, on January 6, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis made six new appointments to the New College of Florida Board of Trustees. Last year in March 2022, the governor signed the “Don’t Say Gay” bill into law, a law which bans public school teachers in Florida from holding classroom instruction about sexual orientation or gender identity. DeSantis continues his crusade against so-called “wokeness” as he attempts – once again – to clamp down on progressive left ideologies in schools, colleges, and other institutions through legislation. The appointees will be added to the now 13-member board at the college in hopes of overhauling the historically progressive college and reshaping it into a conservative image that fits DeSantis’s education restructuring plans.
The New College of Florida was first established in 1960 in Sarasota, Florida. According to US News and World Report, New College is number five on public national liberal arts college rankings. Additionally, New College ranks third in The Princeton Review’s ranking of the best colleges “making an impact” which is measured by student engagement and community service. It was the first college to have an open admissions policy that pledges to not to discriminate against any student and also first in the country to establish a program in environmental studies.
Chris Rufo, is one of the appointees. In recent years, Rufo has been known as a conservative activist and commentator, as he has led the fight against critical race theory in American institutions. Another appointee is Matthew Spalding, a professor and dean at the conservative Christian Hillsdale College. DeSantis’s administration did mention that Hillsdale College could be a model for what New College could become. This concerned Karen Stack whose son currently attends New College. She said, “We are very concerned that the freedom of education is going to be suppressed.” Though DeSantis did not announce the new board’s agenda, Rufo took to Twitter and hinted at the laundry list of tasks he wants to tackle, including replacing the diversity, equity, and inclusion programming with a small equality, merit, and colorblindness department. “We want to provide an alternative for conservative families in the state of Florida to say there is a public university that reflects your values,” he told the New York Times.
These appointments have raised concerns amongst students and faculty. They fear that the new trustees will target courses related to gender and diversity especially after Mark Bauerlein, an incoming trustee and an emeritus professor of English at Emory University, said, “I would get rid of gender studies if it had an outspokenly political aim.” New College’s policies give trustees a significant amount of power to shape and regulate student life. Any changes that the new board would desire could be achieved due to the new right-wing majority amongst the trustees.
In recent weeks, the Republican-controlled Florida Senate confirmed the appointees, and they have officially been added to the board. Rufo and Jason ‘Eddie’ Speir, co-founder of a Bradenton, Florida school, attended a forum and met with students and staff on January 25. Tensions were running high since the appointees were announced at the beginning of January, and the new trustees were met with mixed reactions and a certain amount of skepticism from the crowd. Rufo claimed that the dwindling numbers of enrollment and recruitment were due to the school’s liberal reputation. “We’re going to liberate the campus,” he told reporters. “We’re going to liberate administrators. We’re going to liberate faculty from the cultural hostage-takers.” Diego Villada, an assistant professor of theatre and performance studies, wore a pride flag on his shoulder to show solidarity with the LGBTQ community at the school. He claimed that he didn’t necessarily agree with what Rufo and Speir were alleging about the school, but he appreciated the two trustees for coming out and meeting with the community. “You are showing your face,” he said. “You are here, you are talking to us and you are letting us talk, which is what I appreciate.”
The threat that this trend could continue to other public universities. In October 2022, the University of Florida’s presidential search committee announced that they had tapped Nebraska’s Republican Senator Ben Sasse to be the sole finalist in their search for the school’s 13th president. Though this appointment does not have the aim as the appointments to New College, the concerns that faculty voiced were similar due to Sasse’s opposition to abortion and LGBTQ rights. Rufo told The New York Times if the restructuring of New College was a success he hopes that other conservative legislators would be motivated to do the same with other public institutions and said, “If we can take this high-risk, high-reward gambit and turn it into a victory, we’re going to see conservative state legislators starting to reconquer public institutions all over the United States.”
