The battle for new college

Reagan went after the UC system (including firing the president of Berkeley, and raising tuition to make it harder for students to afford) and campus 'radicalism' when he was governor of California, these aren't new tactics being adopted, its the same tactics conservatives have used for decades.

 

You know far more on this subject matter of academia than I do and I completely defer to you as to the likely result of these measures.

The only thing I would say as an observer of politics is that the negatives you describe may be the feature rather the bug. Don't presume that those behind this measure are actually trying to maintain all of the indicia of academic excellence that you describe. They're looking to destroy the University as that form of university, and re-create it as something like the Hillsdale of the South, or the Protestant Ave Maria, etc.

I don't think they really care about what they burn them blow up along the way. They think academia and the way we have conceived it to date should be destroyed. I'm not sure they care about attracting "quality" faculty. They will attract like-minded "faculty", whose main qualification is pedagogical transmission of their version of the world, which likely will differ from the world that can be measured empirically.

This is just using state funds to create a university in name only, at least it in terms of how we traditionally understood the institution.

It's shortsighted only if you think they believe that what they are doing this in the best interest of the state of Florida as it has been understood. That's not a concern. They want to blow up the world as it exists

 

Yeah, its just gonna be like a little welfare program for cronies and grifters

 

It was highly ranked WAY before DEI was a thing

 

Interesting. I think I disagree with you although I hope you are correct. It does get into the issue of whether otherwise smart people really believe some of their own BS.

But I think that by the time there are reductions in rankings or other negatives, he will be long gone, either in the White House or in some other similar political venture, and will have washed his hands of the damage he has done, pocketing the short term political gains.

 

It's not EXACTLY like that, although by framing the CRA and other civil rights laws as something that is to be equity-based rather than equality-based, which is something we commonly see from academics and university administrations, then you have government enforcing its will on the university in a manner adverse to justice and university freedom.

We see this with all sorts of things like how Title IX is treated. Title IX is just supposed to prohibit gender discrimination but since its implementation, it's gone off the rails to effectively do all sorts of things like: requirement to treat men and women's sports equally regardless of how much revenue a given sport makes for the school, prohibiting "discrimination" on the basis of gender identity (allowing biological men to shower and compete with women) and other things of that nature. This sort of "equity-based" mentality has seeped its way throughout universities. This mentality applies to all sorts of civil rights initiatives like affirmative action, views of diversifying the campus, etc. You're not allowed to disagree with this sort of thing and universities have been accordingly hiring people from the top down who either openly advocate in favor of these equity-based initiatives, or are neutral to them. That's how you get an echo chamber in a place that's supposed to be pretty much the opposite of that.

In essence, the liberal "hijacking" of higher education was a slow process that took decades.It's how you get things like the University of Miami School of Law ushering a law professor out the door because he tweeted something political they didn't like. Now Republicans are trying a sharp correction so they're getting a lot of blowback.

University of Miami refuses to disavow punishing law professor over political expression

How Title IX transformed colleges, universities over past 50 years

 

Yes, or we can use that huge budget surplus we now have under DeSantis to help us out a bit.

 

Only conservatives?

 

Then we should probably be okay.

 

You really don’t understand what New College was.

 

You tell me ... are there examples of liberal governors firing university presidents for the perceived climate on campus? Anyways the point was that these arent new tactics being adopted, they are old as hell. I have a family member that works at a school which receives most of its funding from the Koch org, its not like conservatives just got interested in what happens in colleges. You just have a case of a guy visibly using state power, something that has happened previously for basically the same justifications. Florida is definitely on the same trajectory as California, so it all tracks.

 

From the New College of Florida website:

"Founded on Principles of Equality and Inclusion."

"Office of Outreach and Inclusive Excellence serves as a focal point for New College community outreach, as well as campus diversity, equity, and inclusion."

Diversity & Inclusion - New College of Florida

 

I spent a lot of time there. The college provided a rigorous education. Conversations I had with students and faculty were about scholarship not DEI.
It was an excellent school and nationally ranked. DeSantis wants to change what was excellent and exceptional.
And if gay students felt welcomed is that a problem?

 

Generally no because liberals have been running higher education for decades. They're more likely to have a cocktail party with the Obamas than they are to get chastized by a Democratic governor.

Most "conservative schools" or "schools run by conservatives" are small and not worth attacking because you're more likely to give those schools notoriety by attacking them than anything.

 

So it is just conservatives then that have been using those tactics?

 

So the school is lying on its website when it says that it has an office prioritizing DEI and that they were founded on principles of "equality and inclusion?"

 

Democrats took universities through enacting legislation in the name of "civil rights." Manipulating and shifting the interpretation of that legislation more and more over time to reflect equity over equality, then changing the universities essentially from the bottom up.

Republicans are now attempting to take them back through legislation and "culture wars" from the top down. That's really the primary difference.