One year later, New College’s hostile takeover remains appalling
As we start the New Year, let’s reflect upon Gov. Ron DeSantis’s hostile takeover of New College of Florida, which began in January 2023.
DeSantis appointed six individuals to fill open positions on the New College Board of Trustees. While many of these individuals are not even residents of Florida, here is the most important thing they have in common: they are all stars of America’s right-wing conservative movement.
The new trustees have longstanding affiliations with such entities as the Manhattan Institute, the Clairmont Institute, the Heritage Foundation and Hillsdale College. And many of them have written books detailing what life in America would be like if they could only have their way.
Though DeSantis has decried the allegedly liberal bias of New College, the school actually enjoyed a kind of academic neutrality before he interfered with it. However, the majority of the current board trustees are not impartial, and they are attempting to swerve New College in the direction of right-wing ideology.
The school is now guilty of the kind of politicization DeSantis accused liberals of practicing – a forced externally imposed ideology.
As if by prearrangement, the transformed board quickly fired President Patricia Okker and replaced her with Richard Corcoran, a former Florida House speaker who also served as DeSantis’ education commissioner. Whereas Okker’s salary was $300,000, Corcoran’s salary – combined with his job perks – now exceeds $1 million.
Corcoran seems to have a stereotypical notion of what a college should be. Under his leadership, an extensive athletics program has been imposed upon New College – one with coaches who are largely fundamentalist and athletes who have largely been recruited from fundamentalist schools.
Meanwhile, New College’s entry test scores have dropped precipitously, nearly half of its professors have resigned or taken extended leaves of absence and numerous students have transferred to other schools.
But the most notable transformation at New College is the change in tone emanating from Corcoran and the board trustees. Here are just a few examples:
● Athletes have been assigned to student dorms while returning students have been hidden away in off-campus hotels.
● While New College has always had a large contingent of LGBTQIA+ students, the current administration now appears intent on minimizing, if not eliminating, their presence. For instance, students who volunteered to lead the fall orientation were instructed not to wear Pride pins and other forms of LGBTQIA+ self-expression.
● New College’s diversity, equity and inclusion officer was removed from the position.
Meanwhile, the two board members who represent the values of the old New College and fight against the mean-spirited conservative juggernaut – student trustee Grace Keenan and faculty trustee Amy Reid – are routinely shut down or talked over during meetings.
At one point during the December board meeting, Reid began to raise concerns about potential financial conflicts of interest among the DeSantis-appointed trustees. She was abruptly told to produce concrete evidence – or to shut up.
Sadly, the exchange was a fitting example of the attitude held by the conservatives now in power at New College of Florida. They just want the old New College family to shut up.
Herb Guggenheim graduated from New College in 1978. A retired writing teacher and clinical social worker, he is also the author of three novels, including the 2022 book “RESURRECTION 2020.”