“An intellectual reign of terror”

…this is what LeRoy Pernell, a Florida A&M Law professor said about the situation at New College in Sarasota,Florida. Pernell said this has many Florida professors looking to take jobs outside the state (thedailybeast).

Let me back up.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is on a roll to destroy public education. With the ban on books, support of vouchers, “Don’t Say Gay” bill this is seemingly just the start. Last January, DeSantis appointed six new conservative members to the Board of Trustees who, in turn, fired the sitting president and appointed Richard Corcoran, former education commissioner and Florida Speaker of the House and paid him twice what the previous position’s annual salary. The board then eliminated gender studies as a major. This move was praised by DeSantis as necessary to “save the school from ruin” (thedailybeast).

Corcoran established an athletics department, which drove up the enrollment but that came at a cost. Seems that newly enrolled students had lower test scores and GPA’s. According to USA Today, New College dropped 24 spots in the U.S. News and World Report rankings of top liberal arts colleges in the country.

Concerned that their university was being “corrupted by woke nihilism”, Christopher Rufo, one of the six newly-appointed New College trustees said the ‘new’ New College would focus on a “classical liberal arts education,” “colorblindness” and hiring faculty with expertise in topics ranging from “free enterprise” to “family life (wfla.com).

This week the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) slapped the college with a sanction for “egregious and extensive” standards violations during its conservative takeover this year. For a bit of context, AAUP has only done this 12 times in the last 30 years (thedailybeast).

The AAUP formed a special committee to investigate an “apparent pattern of politically, racially, and ideologically motivated attacks on public higher education” . The organization released a report detailing its findings, which were based on interviews with dozens of Florida professors, in December.

In a 32-page December report titled “Political Interference and Academic Freedom in Florida’s Public Higher Education System,” the AAUP accused state leaders of imposing an “aggressively ideological agenda” In the report, AAUP wrote that the decision to sanction came from the college’s “unprecedented politically motivated takeover” that was a “complete departure from shared governance”USA Today

AAUP said these changes were done “without meaningful faculty involvement and denied academic due process to multiple faculty members during their tenure applications and renewals” (thedailybeast). Additionally the report found denials of tenure based on political ideology and reappointments made without due process (wfla.com). The association said it publicly sanctions schools “for the purpose of informing Association members, the profession at large, and the public that unsatisfactory conditions of academic government exist at the institutions in question” (thedailybeast).

“The attack on academic freedom is part of an extensive assault on democracy worldwide,” the AAUP report stated. “Florida and other states following suit are part of a global rise in right-wing, nationalistic political agendas that know well the power of a diminished sense of citizenship, increased surveillance, and increased obedience to the state to control citizens for generations to come.”

(wfla.com).

In response, a New College of Florida spokesperson said the organization “lacks the authority to sanction the college”. “Their persistent targeting of New College for any change they disagree with is clear evidence that New College is at the forefront of reforming higher education,” the statement said (thedailybeast).

The attention the college is receiving is having a direct impact on enrollment. About 27% of New College’s students left by the start of the 2023-24 academic year. That’s about 186 of the 691 students who were there last fall, and double the percentage who left over the previous two years (tampabay.com). The school’s retention rate is 64.9%.

Data on faculty leaving is worse. In Interim Provost Bradley Thiessen’s July remarks to trustees, he said 36 faculty had departed over the last year. The school has fewer than 100 full-time teachers (tampabay.com).

Florida politicians are digging their heels in deeper and deeper to support a religious-based ideology. Will they get what they want? Maybe. Will it come at a cost of an exodus of faculty/students/families leaving the state? Maybe.

Rest assured, their journey of a thousand miles begins with this single step – in this case a single school, then another and another. Other states will soon follow.

These are my reflections for today.

March 1, 2024

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