RBH readers may have seen recent August photos and video of a dumpster load of library books being “culled” from the shelves of Florida’s New College in Sarasota. The pictures themselves were disheartening. The incident occurred when school was not in session and few were present on campus. It also raised suspicions of a purge of books out of favor with the conservative administration of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. The book dump, discovered and reported by students, received wide media coverage in both the Florida and national news reports.
Equally unfortunate was the similar disposal of a student library associated with the college’s nearly 30 year old gender studies program. That program was disbanded recently as part of Florida’s ongoing culture wars. The disturbing photos and video were followed by the news that one of the deans had been removed, and a series of explanations that this was part of the normal “weeding out” process that libraries do to keep their material current, a story that had several different versions as the incident gained traction.
But that according to our source, a faculty member who spoke to Rare Book Hub on background, this incident is just part of a much bigger and long running effort to reformulate the small public honors university which prided itself on it’s academically ambitious liberal arts programs into a less challenging and more conservative institution, more in line with the views DeSantis and his political friends.
According to our informant, New College is a small public college with an enrollment of about 700 students. It is the smallest unit in the Florida higher education system, and one that has seen declining enrollment.
Our source said New College stressed a student centered campus experience based on student autonomy and the idea that the student should play a major role in creating their own educational experience. New College has no grades and provides narrative evaluations instead. It features a tutorial system modeled on Oxford, which includes the requirement that each student write a thesis or pursue and write about a substantial individual study project.
One of the many recent changes to the school came in Jan. 2023 when DeSantis appointed six new trustees, all of whom were notable for their conservative leanings. Among them was conservative activist Christopher Rufo, who almost single handedly made the teaching of “critical race theory” a conservative talking point and hot button political issue.
Rufo and DeSantis teamed up as part of the governor’s “War on Woke.” Our source implied this campaign was part of the governor’s goal to seek higher office and to use opposition to gay, gender and sexuality studies to indicate a broader and more restrictive educational and political agenda.
In addition to legislative mandates, and conservative appointments, the prior president of the college Patricia Okker, who was hired in Jan of 2022 after an extensive search that included over a hundred applicants, was fired by the new trustees in Feb. 2023 and replaced with Richard Cocoran, a former Republican state legislator who had also been the Speaker of the State House. His resume included a stint as Secretary of Education during DeSantis' first term as governor.
Along with the purge of academic studies came a new emphasis on sports. New College, which formerly did not have a significant athletic program, added men’s and women’s baseball, softball, soccer and basketball programs and facilities in one fell swoop. It also offered many athletic scholarships to talented student athletes. These were seen as a way to boost enrollment and remix the student population along different lines.
But unfortunately, the newly recruited athletes were not fully informed about the school’s demanding academic honors curriculum, including thesis writing requirements. It also did not offer majors in subjects that they might have wanted to study, such as business and finance.
Our source also pointed to physical problems at the library, like a long neglected leaky roof, and constant churn of the staff, intimating some of the changes resulted from the perceived gender preference of a departing library staffer.
At the same time the attempted restructuring of New College was taking place, there was substantial negative attention paid to other parts of Florida’s higher education system. This was generated, in part, by the resignation of former University of Florida president Ben Sasse.
KIQS, an NPR affiliate, reported Aug. 22, “Spending by recently resigned University of Florida President and former Nebraska senator Ben Sasse is coming under scrutiny after the student-run newspaper found that he gave high-paying jobs to former members of his U.S. Senate staff and Republican allies.
“Reporting by the independent Florida Alligator shows that spending by the president's office tripled under Sasse as he hired former aides and allies and gave them salaries that outstripped comparable positions. Sasse has defended the expenditures, saying they were needed as the university adds satellite campuses and improves programs in science, technology and medicine. Sasse resigned July 31 after 17 months.”
The background information provided by our RBH Monthly faculty source coincided closely with the reporting over the last two years by the New York Times which has followed the situation at Florida’s New College in multiple articles since 2023.
Here is the list of recent NY Times stories. We have provided direct links to the articles, as well as gift links for those who are not subscribers or encounter a pay wall; but we do not guarantee they will work.
1. Jan. 2023 DeSantis Allies Plot the Hostile Takeover of a Liberal College
2. Feb. 2023 DeSantis’s Latest Target: A Small College of ‘Freethinkers’
3. July 2023 Conservative opinion D.E.I. Programs Are Getting in the Way of Liberal Education
4. Aug. 2023 Gender Studies Out, Jocks In
5. Sept. 2023 Sports Are In, Gender Studies Are Out at College Targeted by DeSantis
6. Jan. 2024 Recruited to play sports and win a culture war
We ran out of gift links
Reach Rare Book Hub writer Susan Halas at wailukusue@gmail.com
