The battle for new college

Even if Google theoretically had a board of directors “controlled” top down hiring process, in theory the profit motive would still be for the board to want to hire talented engineers. It might lack certain feedback from project managers and such - it might hurt productivity/morale (corporate bureaucracies tend to do that just like govt bureaucracies). But it’s not like a corporate board of directors would be inclined to hire a bunch of bumbs.

Can’t say that for a political process, especially where the motive is to undermine real work (I.e. when they appoint industry cronies to lead the EPA, FDA, or whatever). Unlike a corporate board, they most definitely would hire a bunch of political bumbs, that’s actually the point.

 

DeSantis's crony gleefully admitting that they want to drive the students away so they can recruit "mission-aligned" students (i.e., right-wing Republicans):

I thought the mission of universities was to educate and help students think critically about the world around them. Chairman Rufo apparently sees them as reeducation camps.

 

This roils my innards. Son got a Philosophy degree there. He sharpened critical writing skills there. I guess the whole department will be sanitized.

 

That's what they want, for you to be sick. They want it for all who oppose them and they want it for those in academia. They won't truly neuter higher ed in FL, but will continue to do surface damage, mostly in the name of psychological warfare.

 

I wonder what will happen to this professor if DeS reads this? kudos to the professor for having the willingness to speak out on the record

New College was made the enemy in governor's culture war (msn.com)

New College of Florida is currently a prisoner of war – a culture war. Here’s how it went: The culture war word of the month is “woke” and the culture war theme of the month is higher education. Wars need enemies, so there has to be a “woke campus." If there’s no real one, slap the label on an existing school. But big universities fight back, so tiny New College was made the enemy and targeted for overhaul by the governor.
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At New College we didn’t trash the classics and we didn’t worship them – instead we understood, compared, and debated them. I couldn’t resell those books even if I wanted to – they are so full of highlights, underlines, and notes as to be unreturnable. That’s because professors at New College expected us to base our understanding and even our disagreements on what’s in the text. The writing-centered curriculum (so many term papers!) demanded that we be responsible to standards of evidence and reasoning, the critical thinking skills that mark a good college education and last a lifetime. No wonder they have a stellar record of producing doctors, lawyers, fellowship and award recipients, and business leaders like my wife.

That’s the truth about New College, but they say that truth is the first casualty of war, and tragically my alma mater is now living that saying. The students and faculty did not enroll at a “woke campus” or enlist in a culture war. Now they’ve been forced to play roles they didn’t pick and don’t deserve: scapegoats for someone else’s grievances, or pawns in a game whose only winners are politicians. It’s unfair and immoral to cynically use students like my son in these ways. That’s not a partisan statement; it’s an appeal to a basic sense of decency I hope Floridians of any political stripe will demand from their officials.

Still, there is hope. Except for President Okker, New College is so far a prisoner of war and not yet a casualty of war. The trustees are right about one thing: A good liberal arts education is a precious thing, and some of them have an admirable record as advocates for it. If the trustees sincerely believe that truth, reason, and evidence are more important than power and self-interest, they will soon discover that there’s no need to overhaul New College: The college they were sent to “fix” has in truth been delivering the blessings of a rigorous and life-changing education to generations of lucky students like me.

Dr. Glenn Whitehouse is a New College of Florida alum, and a founding faculty member and administrator at Florida Gulf Coast University.

 

Very good piece. As an alumni’s parent it mirrors my one off experience/impression. So much writing and high demand for critical thought

 

New College could lose $29 million in donations after DeSantis' takeover, alum says

 

Not stopping with New College....

Tallahassee insiders close with the Legislature and Governor DeSantis’ administration have confirmed that Rep. Randy Fine (R-Brevard) is being encouraged to apply for the job as FAU’s president.

“I have been approached about the position,” Chairman Fine told The Florida Standard. “It’s obviously very flattering for the governor to want me to do this. It’s something I will consider seriously.”

Could a Florida Legislator Be FAU’s Next President?

 

Good. Libbie agenda has to be curbed.

 

My undergraduate school, Binghamton University, has offered New College students the opportunity to transfer there and to pay the same amount as they paid at New College. Binghamton is a progressive school that offers an exceptional education.

 

Randy Fine is a disgusting jackass with absolutely ZERO academic credentials. I can't believe that this is what some of you want, to tear down higher education in this state.

 

Let’s make ‘em narrow-minded, insecure, fear-prone and empty of the arts. Let’s make sure those kids don’t come close to having a well-rounded education with a proclivity towards creative and independent thought.

Let’s teach those damn libbies a lesson!!!!!

 

This seems to be a balanced look at DEI at NC and a good profile of faculty and students. Long Read. Even Rufo seems to admit he is FOS.

Ron DeSantis Chose the Wrong College to Take Over — The Atlantic.


Suddenly, the Sarasota campus found itself at the center of the culture wars. A DeSantis spokesman declared that the college had been “completely captured by a political ideology that puts trendy, truth-relative concepts above learning.” Christopher Rufo, the most outspoken new trustee, vowed to take it back. “We are now over the walls and ready to transform higher education from within,” he tweeted. In New College, Rufo saw every excess of “wokeness” in academia. He believes that critical theorists spent decades pursuing the “ideological capture” of universities, installing “coercive ‘diversity, equity, and inclusion’ programs.” At New College, he charges, the students and faculty faced something like “a hostage situation.”

New College has problems, some typical of left-leaning colleges. Some of the criticisms and proposals put forth by the new trustees are reasonable. But Rufo’s indictment, which has been embraced by the populist right, is mostly wrong. New College was never captured by a large and fearsome DEI bureaucracy. In fact, the academic program cultivates a fierce and idiosyncratic independence. And when it hired its first dean of diversity, equity, and inclusion in 2022, it wasn’t surrendering to the woke left. It was responding to an explicit mandate from a DeSantis appointee.
In short, a banker appointed by DeSantis led an aggressive top-down push for sweeping new DEI initiatives in all of Florida’s public colleges, compelling every campus, including New College, to put more emphasis on DEI. Months later, Rufo (who says DeSantis appointees should be obeyed for the sake of democracy) arrived at New College and lambasted the very DEI bureaucracy another DeSantis appointee had helped create, talking as if it had been imposed by leftist radicals.


On some level, Rufo seemed to grasp the dissonance between his initial rhetoric about DEI at New College and its reality. “I’m actually quite happy to see this report, to see what the status quo is, and for those who are concerned about disruption, this is really not as great of a disruption as even maybe I would have predicted,” he said at the meeting where the trustees heard Thiessen’s report. “But these are decisions based on principle.” But later, he emailed me that “you have to look at this on a proportionate, rather than absolute, basis.” New College is tiny, so “on a per capita basis, this is a large DEI department,” he argued, adding that “as the old phrase goes, one rotten apple ruins the bunch.”

 

I assume the new students will all be given "Brown Shirts" to comply with the new dress code?