'Hillsdale of the South'
January 9, 2023 3:34 PM Subscribe
For more than 50 years, New College of Florida has been one of the country’s most liberal colleges, known for attracting brilliant, unusual thinkers who go on to do cool and/or great things. But New College also is part of Florida’s public university system, which puts it under the thumb of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. And last week DeSantis announced he was packing the college’s Board of Trustees with six nominees that would create a hard-right majority specifically selected with the intent of converting the progressive institution into a conservative training ground. The nominees include a who’s who of the right-wing mouthpiece circuit, and both the governor's supporters and critics say this is a taste of what to expect as DeSantis guns for the U.S. presidency.
(disclosure: I've worked for New College and have several friends who work there or graduated from there.)
The nominees include:
The other nominees are New College alumna and West Palm Beach attorney Debra Jenks, who has made at least 49 contributions to Republican PACs or candidates, including Trump, Sonny Perdue and Kelly Loeffler; Mark Bauerlein, a conservative professor at Emory University who was among a group of academics who publicly endorsed Trump for president; and the head of a local faith-based high school, who endorses the view that everything from BLM to feminism goes against Christian beliefs.
For now, New College’s brand-new president Dr. Patricia Okker, a former English professor and dean at University of Missouri, is staying positive, telling faculty in an email that this could be a "tremendous opportunity for New College" and that "our new trustees will bring fresh ideas and new perspectives."
Not everyone is as optimistic. In keeping with the school's activist tradition, present and past students calling themselves NCF Students for Educational Freedom is up on Twitter, saying “We believe that freedom means diverse, equitable and inclusive campus, not a hostile suppression of those who oppose you politically.”
Why should we care about a tiny liberal arts college in the state of Florida? They note:
As Rufo put it as part of a series of tweets: "Gov. DeSantis is going to lay siege to university 'diversity, equity, and inclusion' programs.”
The nominees must be confirmed by the Florida Senate, but seeing as the chamber has a supermajority of wholly-owned DeSantis Republican toadies, they’ll almost surely install them if given the chance.
(disclosure: I've worked for New College and have several friends who work there or graduated from there.)
The nominees include:
Christopher Rufo, a Fox News regular, Trump favorite and ringleader behind the right’s CRT-based attacks-- who stood alongside DeSantis when the governor signed Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill into law.Lest there be any doubt, DeSantis’ chief of staff told the Daily Caller, “It is our hope that New College of Florida will become Florida’s classical college, more along the lines of a Hillsdale of the South.”
Charles Kesler, conservative eminence grise, professor at Claremont McKenna College, editor of the Claremont Institute’s Review of Books, and noted Trump defender.
Matthew Spalding, the sloppy historian and plagiarism apologist who led Trump’s 1776 Project and is professor and dean at Hillsdale College, the private Christian college in Michigan that is churning out templates for conservative charter schools and has curried favor with Ginni and Clarence Thomas.
The other nominees are New College alumna and West Palm Beach attorney Debra Jenks, who has made at least 49 contributions to Republican PACs or candidates, including Trump, Sonny Perdue and Kelly Loeffler; Mark Bauerlein, a conservative professor at Emory University who was among a group of academics who publicly endorsed Trump for president; and the head of a local faith-based high school, who endorses the view that everything from BLM to feminism goes against Christian beliefs.
For now, New College’s brand-new president Dr. Patricia Okker, a former English professor and dean at University of Missouri, is staying positive, telling faculty in an email that this could be a "tremendous opportunity for New College" and that "our new trustees will bring fresh ideas and new perspectives."
Not everyone is as optimistic. In keeping with the school's activist tradition, present and past students calling themselves NCF Students for Educational Freedom is up on Twitter, saying “We believe that freedom means diverse, equitable and inclusive campus, not a hostile suppression of those who oppose you politically.”
Why should we care about a tiny liberal arts college in the state of Florida? They note:
“Make no mistake, this is a strategic attack by DeSantis, who doesn’t want universities training young folks to think critically. He’s targeting a small college, with a smaller alumni base (so less people to fight back) in a conservative part of Florida (so less local elected officials to fight back)…Oh yeah, that: The board-packing comes a week after DeSantis requested all state-funded Florida universities to report by January 13 on all spending and resources related to diversity, equity and inclusion -- raising concerns that he is seeking ammunition to do this at other colleges as well.
“This is a witch hunt. The governor is once again looking for another fake Boogeyman that he can then pretend to attack, all to curry favor with Republican primary voters as he prepares to run against former President Donald Trump in the 2024 presidential race…
“This impacts ALL OF US. If you think DeSantis will STOP at New College you are WRONG. He has already gone after the transparency process of hiring presidents, has created BS surveys for students to take, gone after tenure, changed the accreditation process, threatened performance funding with HB7, used UF to hire a sham Surgeon General and tried to CENSOR professors from serving as expert witnesses, and is now going after ALL diversity, inclusion and equity programs.”
As Rufo put it as part of a series of tweets: "Gov. DeSantis is going to lay siege to university 'diversity, equity, and inclusion' programs.”
The nominees must be confirmed by the Florida Senate, but seeing as the chamber has a supermajority of wholly-owned DeSantis Republican toadies, they’ll almost surely install them if given the chance.
they’ll almost surely install them if given the chance.
Are there any opportunities to deny them the chance, or is this just a watch-sadly-as-the-fuckers-take-out-another-one situation?
posted by Not A Thing at 3:48 PM on January 9, 2023 [3 favorites]
Are there any opportunities to deny them the chance, or is this just a watch-sadly-as-the-fuckers-take-out-another-one situation?
posted by Not A Thing at 3:48 PM on January 9, 2023 [3 favorites]
Welp, I'm depressed.
posted by jenfullmoon at 3:49 PM on January 9, 2023 [4 favorites]
posted by jenfullmoon at 3:49 PM on January 9, 2023 [4 favorites]
Florida is a lost cause. DeSantis, who lacks anything that even vaguely resembles a redeeming quality, won the last governor's election in a landslide. I think the people who are moving down here in droves now are coming because of him and people like him, not in spite of. The whole state's full of bigots and bullies and I hate that I'm stuck here.
posted by Daily Alice at 3:50 PM on January 9, 2023 [35 favorites]
posted by Daily Alice at 3:50 PM on January 9, 2023 [35 favorites]
Personally, as an SJC alum, I think it's hilarious— and revealing — that he sees Hillsdale as exemplary of a classical education.
Christofascist by way of a classical gloss, more like.
posted by Ivan Fyodorovich at 3:54 PM on January 9, 2023 [7 favorites]
Christofascist by way of a classical gloss, more like.
posted by Ivan Fyodorovich at 3:54 PM on January 9, 2023 [7 favorites]
Spits.
I honestly think Desantis is the most dangerous person in America. Dogwhistles and direct fash calls out of every orifice, but self-controlled enough not to scare Capital and the 'middle' away like Trump did.
Despite him looking like the mitotic product of a frat-house rapist perpwalk that was squeezed through a juicero, he's young and "eloquent" enough to appeal to the masses. As well as acceptably white male-er than a fuckin' family KKK robe that's been repurposed into a befreckled lad's bedspread.
Watch him pass some market-calming measures or a few more legal giveaways to the corps in Florida, and watch him promise the same nationally, and we'll see how friendly all the corps & big money who were on team-get-rid-of-trump-because-he's-too-chaotic suddenly are to the dems.
This Chucklefuck is going to be Prez in 2 years unless something gives.
posted by lalochezia at 4:15 PM on January 9, 2023 [15 favorites]
I honestly think Desantis is the most dangerous person in America. Dogwhistles and direct fash calls out of every orifice, but self-controlled enough not to scare Capital and the 'middle' away like Trump did.
Despite him looking like the mitotic product of a frat-house rapist perpwalk that was squeezed through a juicero, he's young and "eloquent" enough to appeal to the masses. As well as acceptably white male-er than a fuckin' family KKK robe that's been repurposed into a befreckled lad's bedspread.
Watch him pass some market-calming measures or a few more legal giveaways to the corps in Florida, and watch him promise the same nationally, and we'll see how friendly all the corps & big money who were on team-get-rid-of-trump-because-he's-too-chaotic suddenly are to the dems.
This Chucklefuck is going to be Prez in 2 years unless something gives.
posted by lalochezia at 4:15 PM on January 9, 2023 [15 favorites]
Florida is a lost cause. DeSantis, who lacks anything that even vaguely resembles a redeeming quality, won the last governor's election
I am not from Florida, but this is bad thinking. DeSantis didn't win so much as Crist lost. In a pro choice wave, Dems ran a pro life candidate. Never give up, there is so much more hope for Florida than a lot of other places. Ceding Florida to the fascists is something democrats keep doing, and the pattern needs to be reversed.
posted by eustatic at 4:20 PM on January 9, 2023 [31 favorites]
I am not from Florida, but this is bad thinking. DeSantis didn't win so much as Crist lost. In a pro choice wave, Dems ran a pro life candidate. Never give up, there is so much more hope for Florida than a lot of other places. Ceding Florida to the fascists is something democrats keep doing, and the pattern needs to be reversed.
posted by eustatic at 4:20 PM on January 9, 2023 [31 favorites]
I am not from Florida, but this is bad thinking. DeSantis didn't win so much as Crist lost. In a pro choice wave, Dems ran a pro life candidate.In the other high-profile statewide race, stridently anti-abortion Marco Rubio crushed his vocally pro-choice opponent Val Demings.
posted by kickingtheground at 4:31 PM on January 9, 2023 [14 favorites]
The space for a "classical college" is already taken by St. John's College in Santa Fe.
It uses a Latin&Greek classical canon for its curriculum, but apparently, actually knowing Green and Latin makes the canon less useful for right wing indoctrination.
posted by ocschwar at 4:33 PM on January 9, 2023 [6 favorites]
It uses a Latin&Greek classical canon for its curriculum, but apparently, actually knowing Green and Latin makes the canon less useful for right wing indoctrination.
posted by ocschwar at 4:33 PM on January 9, 2023 [6 favorites]
Sorry, Florida isn't lost, but there are huge undercurrents still poorly addressed by Dems and it goes way beyond pro life/choice
Florida is ground zero for an effective decentralized short and long-term information warfare plan to turn Spanish-speaking voters against the dems.
posted by lalochezia at 4:34 PM on January 9, 2023 [18 favorites]
Florida is ground zero for an effective decentralized short and long-term information warfare plan to turn Spanish-speaking voters against the dems.
posted by lalochezia at 4:34 PM on January 9, 2023 [18 favorites]
Are there any opportunities to deny them the chance
Sadly, I don't think so. For many years, Bill Galvano, a Republican from nearby Bradenton and the Senate president, was able to keep the GOP at bay. But he's out of office now, and apparently is reading the handwriting on the wall -- he issued a lukewarm "well I hope this is a good thing blah blah" statement. The GOP will vote unanimously for this and it will carry, short of some miracle I'm not seeing.
posted by martin q blank at 4:40 PM on January 9, 2023 [1 favorite]
Sadly, I don't think so. For many years, Bill Galvano, a Republican from nearby Bradenton and the Senate president, was able to keep the GOP at bay. But he's out of office now, and apparently is reading the handwriting on the wall -- he issued a lukewarm "well I hope this is a good thing blah blah" statement. The GOP will vote unanimously for this and it will carry, short of some miracle I'm not seeing.
posted by martin q blank at 4:40 PM on January 9, 2023 [1 favorite]
Florida has already begun to set up direct confrontations with institutional accreditors: Last year, the state passed a law that requires every public college and university to change to a new accreditor every time they renew their accreditation. This is not only an expensive and unnecessary waste of lots of time and money, I don't expect that accreditors will allow it. If these new trustees begin making decisions that clearly violate the institution's mission or the appropriate role of trustees, I expect that the institution's accreditor will attempt to reign them in - accreditation is required for access to federal funding so it's virtually required for nearly every reputable institution, particularly public colleges and universities. I think that Governor DeSantis is going to discover that he has no special influence with or power over institutional accreditors; he and his minions are still doing tremendous damage but their power is not unlimited.
posted by ElKevbo at 4:55 PM on January 9, 2023 [14 favorites]
posted by ElKevbo at 4:55 PM on January 9, 2023 [14 favorites]
BTW, the daughter of a friend of mine just started at New College. She's been dreaming of attending the school since she was a kid. She's utterly heartbroken by this. I think the faculty will hold the line for a while but they're fighting a tide. Perhaps the bigger issue is that this will clobber the admissions effort, which might give them an excuse to simply shut down the college.
Also: I don't really want this to be a Florida politics thread, but remember that until the Charlie Crist debacle, Democrats lost the previous three governor's racers by a total of 3 percentage points. And DeSantis, despite his clout here, has near zero charisma and is a terrible public speaker. The state is not gone forever, nor is DeSantis the inevitable front-runner. But right now he can truly do what he wants here.
posted by martin q blank at 5:04 PM on January 9, 2023 [21 favorites]
Also: I don't really want this to be a Florida politics thread, but remember that until the Charlie Crist debacle, Democrats lost the previous three governor's racers by a total of 3 percentage points. And DeSantis, despite his clout here, has near zero charisma and is a terrible public speaker. The state is not gone forever, nor is DeSantis the inevitable front-runner. But right now he can truly do what he wants here.
posted by martin q blank at 5:04 PM on January 9, 2023 [21 favorites]
In Florida, the Right to Vote Can Cost You [Brennan Center, Sept. 7, 2022] In 2018, Floridians approved the Voting Restoration Amendment, known as Amendment 4, which aimed to restore voting rights to most state residents with past felony convictions who have completed their sentences. Amendment 4 put an end to Florida’s categorical policy of lifetime disenfranchisement for felony conviction, a policy with clear racist origins that was estimated to disenfranchise 1 in 4 Black men in the state.
However, not even a year later, Florida’s Republican-controlled legislature passed Senate Bill 7066, which bars people from regaining their voting rights if they have outstanding court debts related to a felony conviction [...] Any law that requires people to pay to vote is fundamentally antidemocratic. But to make matters worse, Florida makes it virtually impossible for people with past convictions to determine with certainty what they might owe.
"The SPLC [Southern Poverty Law Center] filed a federal lawsuit [McCoy v. DeSantis] that describes how the payment requirement is an unconstitutional poll tax and discriminates against people based on their wealth."
posted by Iris Gambol at 5:06 PM on January 9, 2023 [16 favorites]
However, not even a year later, Florida’s Republican-controlled legislature passed Senate Bill 7066, which bars people from regaining their voting rights if they have outstanding court debts related to a felony conviction [...] Any law that requires people to pay to vote is fundamentally antidemocratic. But to make matters worse, Florida makes it virtually impossible for people with past convictions to determine with certainty what they might owe.
"The SPLC [Southern Poverty Law Center] filed a federal lawsuit [McCoy v. DeSantis] that describes how the payment requirement is an unconstitutional poll tax and discriminates against people based on their wealth."
posted by Iris Gambol at 5:06 PM on January 9, 2023 [16 favorites]
...more along the lines of a Hillsdale of the South...
What the actual shit? Y'all know that Hillsdale is only allowed to perpetuate its deeply racist / sexist / white supremacist policies because it doesn't accept any federal money? How does that work for a public university?
My thought is, rather than New College becoming the far-right educational theme park that DeSantis dreams of, the whole enterprise will probably crumble due to no funding (Hillsdale can caper along on private contributions because it's old (founded 1844) and has a bunch of wealthy / dead / both alumni. New College was founded in 1960 and, since it's tiny, has very few alumni, almost none of them extremely wealthy), faculty and student revolt, and the fact that DeSantis probably doesn't actually give a shit about New College and thus is unwilling to pour the resources into this clusterfuck that it would take to actually succeed but just wants a symbolic and headline-generating (hey it worked, front page MetaFilter) way to own the libs.
As usual, it's the students, staff, and faculty that will really suffer from this, so my thoughts (as someone who teaches in a--thank god--private college in Florida) are with them. Maybe they'll be able to use the ruins of the college as some kind of resort for the idle rich of Sarasota once it fails and begins to sink into the swamp. Ugh, fuck this guy sideways.
posted by lorddimwit at 5:10 PM on January 9, 2023 [9 favorites]
What the actual shit? Y'all know that Hillsdale is only allowed to perpetuate its deeply racist / sexist / white supremacist policies because it doesn't accept any federal money? How does that work for a public university?
My thought is, rather than New College becoming the far-right educational theme park that DeSantis dreams of, the whole enterprise will probably crumble due to no funding (Hillsdale can caper along on private contributions because it's old (founded 1844) and has a bunch of wealthy / dead / both alumni. New College was founded in 1960 and, since it's tiny, has very few alumni, almost none of them extremely wealthy), faculty and student revolt, and the fact that DeSantis probably doesn't actually give a shit about New College and thus is unwilling to pour the resources into this clusterfuck that it would take to actually succeed but just wants a symbolic and headline-generating (hey it worked, front page MetaFilter) way to own the libs.
As usual, it's the students, staff, and faculty that will really suffer from this, so my thoughts (as someone who teaches in a--thank god--private college in Florida) are with them. Maybe they'll be able to use the ruins of the college as some kind of resort for the idle rich of Sarasota once it fails and begins to sink into the swamp. Ugh, fuck this guy sideways.
posted by lorddimwit at 5:10 PM on January 9, 2023 [9 favorites]
If you think DeSantis will STOP at New College you are WRONG.
And if you think this will stop with DeSantis, also probably wrong (sadly). No doubt other republican governors who are firmly dug into the current 'culture wars' are watching and will be tempted to follow suit. Ugh.
Also, I can't believe that's how the president responded - I know they are ultimately politicians and tend to avoid being brash, but a "tremendous opportunity"??!?
posted by coffeecat at 5:18 PM on January 9, 2023 [7 favorites]
And if you think this will stop with DeSantis, also probably wrong (sadly). No doubt other republican governors who are firmly dug into the current 'culture wars' are watching and will be tempted to follow suit. Ugh.
Also, I can't believe that's how the president responded - I know they are ultimately politicians and tend to avoid being brash, but a "tremendous opportunity"??!?
posted by coffeecat at 5:18 PM on January 9, 2023 [7 favorites]
This is just heartbreaking. New College is the weirdo gem of public education in Florida, whether DeSantis even knows anything about it or not. UF, FSU, and FIU have some excellent programs, and the many regional universities provide great service to the community, but New College provides an outstanding liberal arts education at public college prices.
(Hello to all the Johnnies and Hampshire grads. Metafilter certainly attracts a type, doesn't it?)
posted by hydropsyche at 5:29 PM on January 9, 2023 [15 favorites]
(Hello to all the Johnnies and Hampshire grads. Metafilter certainly attracts a type, doesn't it?)
posted by hydropsyche at 5:29 PM on January 9, 2023 [15 favorites]
“The space for a 'classical college' is already taken by St. John's College in Santa Fe.”
Annapolis and Santa Fe.
SJC in Annapolis (by some reckonings from 1696) is the third oldest college in the US, though the classical 'New Program' wasn't established until 1939. The Santa Fe campus was established in 1964.
I am very, very fearful that the fascists could come to dominate SJC, but the college has been pretty resistant to this, mostly because of how the curriculum and pedagogy is structured. It's really difficult to be explicitly political there. The clown that's the president of the farcical 'University of Austin' was formerly president of the Annapolis campus and he wasn't happy there. Numerous faculty, including some I knew, were students of Leo Strauss, but — this is absolutely true — I was the only student I knew who knew about this, or about the politics or activism of any of the faculty and administration, because I've always been politically literate while arguably (and frustratingly, for me) the majority of johnnies embody that ivory tower obliviousness (some people get sucked into that whole 'life of the mind' BS that elevates an ascetic aloofness even though half of what we read and care about are ethics and politics).
This is inside-baseball stuff, but what I think is important and interesting is that while it's certainly true that no education is "unbiased" and education always is variously ideological, and certainly the so-called "classical" education at SJC is eurocentric and patriarchal, there really is a difference when you set up a curriculum that is ostensibly "classical" but in fact it's a cherry-picking exercise in indoctrinating students into christofascism under cover of the snobbish allure of the "classics", as you see with Hillsdale and charter schools, etc. SJC students are, on the whole, noticeably left of center — which is possibly why there are these numerous "classical" colleges that conservative parents can send their kids to that they can be sure will indoctrinate their kids in the way they prefer.
“...actually knowing Green and Latin”
When the New Program was established at Annapolis in 1939, it originally included learning Greek and Latin in the first two years, and French and German the final two. The program really is, to this day, very difficult and wide-ranging (with a few exceptions, there are no electives) and it turned out that four languages were too many. They removed Latin and German.
-
Obviously, the toxic mixing of politics and higher education is as old as higher education, and certainly American conservatives attacking US universities isn't new. When I was considering SJC in the mid-80s, Allen Bloom's book had just come out, and of course the University of Chicago Straussians had long been infiltrating their politics into the academy.
But it feels much more ubiquitous and dangerous to me these days.
More to the point, if you look at "classical statue twitter" and Thiel's crew and the like, I think it's clear that we're hip-deep into a period marked by a burgeoning neo-fascist movement that's attacking civil society along all possible fronts. I don't worry that SJC will become fascist because of its curriculum, or its admin or faculty — I worry that it might go that direction simply because more parents and students are already fascist and they'll think SJC is a good choice.
Anyway, while none of us here on MeFi are fooled by this appeal to supposed classical rigor as a ruse for a fascist remodeling of higher education, it's definitely a con that's effective with the rubes.
posted by Ivan Fyodorovich at 5:49 PM on January 9, 2023 [14 favorites]
Annapolis and Santa Fe.
SJC in Annapolis (by some reckonings from 1696) is the third oldest college in the US, though the classical 'New Program' wasn't established until 1939. The Santa Fe campus was established in 1964.
I am very, very fearful that the fascists could come to dominate SJC, but the college has been pretty resistant to this, mostly because of how the curriculum and pedagogy is structured. It's really difficult to be explicitly political there. The clown that's the president of the farcical 'University of Austin' was formerly president of the Annapolis campus and he wasn't happy there. Numerous faculty, including some I knew, were students of Leo Strauss, but — this is absolutely true — I was the only student I knew who knew about this, or about the politics or activism of any of the faculty and administration, because I've always been politically literate while arguably (and frustratingly, for me) the majority of johnnies embody that ivory tower obliviousness (some people get sucked into that whole 'life of the mind' BS that elevates an ascetic aloofness even though half of what we read and care about are ethics and politics).
This is inside-baseball stuff, but what I think is important and interesting is that while it's certainly true that no education is "unbiased" and education always is variously ideological, and certainly the so-called "classical" education at SJC is eurocentric and patriarchal, there really is a difference when you set up a curriculum that is ostensibly "classical" but in fact it's a cherry-picking exercise in indoctrinating students into christofascism under cover of the snobbish allure of the "classics", as you see with Hillsdale and charter schools, etc. SJC students are, on the whole, noticeably left of center — which is possibly why there are these numerous "classical" colleges that conservative parents can send their kids to that they can be sure will indoctrinate their kids in the way they prefer.
“...actually knowing Green and Latin”
When the New Program was established at Annapolis in 1939, it originally included learning Greek and Latin in the first two years, and French and German the final two. The program really is, to this day, very difficult and wide-ranging (with a few exceptions, there are no electives) and it turned out that four languages were too many. They removed Latin and German.
-
Obviously, the toxic mixing of politics and higher education is as old as higher education, and certainly American conservatives attacking US universities isn't new. When I was considering SJC in the mid-80s, Allen Bloom's book had just come out, and of course the University of Chicago Straussians had long been infiltrating their politics into the academy.
But it feels much more ubiquitous and dangerous to me these days.
More to the point, if you look at "classical statue twitter" and Thiel's crew and the like, I think it's clear that we're hip-deep into a period marked by a burgeoning neo-fascist movement that's attacking civil society along all possible fronts. I don't worry that SJC will become fascist because of its curriculum, or its admin or faculty — I worry that it might go that direction simply because more parents and students are already fascist and they'll think SJC is a good choice.
Anyway, while none of us here on MeFi are fooled by this appeal to supposed classical rigor as a ruse for a fascist remodeling of higher education, it's definitely a con that's effective with the rubes.
posted by Ivan Fyodorovich at 5:49 PM on January 9, 2023 [14 favorites]
A few Shimerians here too, FWIW. We have, uh, some experience with this sort of thing, but even the temporary skin-of-our-teeth victory our weird little college managed in 2010 doesn't seem like it would be feasible at NCF.
It does seem like the accreditors are the most likely (or least unlikely) vector for stopping this nonsense, but unfortunately that will probably be an entirely different challenge from saving the school, and it doesn't seem like there's any pathway for that at all. But where there's resistance, there's hope.
posted by Not A Thing at 5:56 PM on January 9, 2023 [6 favorites]
It does seem like the accreditors are the most likely (or least unlikely) vector for stopping this nonsense, but unfortunately that will probably be an entirely different challenge from saving the school, and it doesn't seem like there's any pathway for that at all. But where there's resistance, there's hope.
posted by Not A Thing at 5:56 PM on January 9, 2023 [6 favorites]
Dems ran a cop against Marco Rubio. The Florida Democratic Party is a joke.
posted by sibboleth at 6:00 PM on January 9, 2023 [5 favorites]
posted by sibboleth at 6:00 PM on January 9, 2023 [5 favorites]
This is a really important post. Is there any alternative for some of the links other than directly linking to (and thus giving traffic to) highly problematic sources such as the Daily Caller?
posted by eviemath at 6:02 PM on January 9, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by eviemath at 6:02 PM on January 9, 2023 [1 favorite]
This crazy pants stuff is why I moved from Florida back to Michigan.
a burgeoning neo-fascist movement that's attacking civil society along all possible fronts
Exhibit 1.
Hillsdale free course:
The Great American Story: A Land of Hope
Study the Inspiring History of America
"This approach runs contrary to the prevailing academic view of America as irredeemably racist, sexist, and unjust—a view advanced recently by The New York Times’ 1619 Project. A proper study of American history proves that these claims are patently false, while providing timeless lessons about human nature that are essential to the preservation of self-government."
🤔🤐🤡
posted by clavdivs at 6:06 PM on January 9, 2023 [6 favorites]
a burgeoning neo-fascist movement that's attacking civil society along all possible fronts
Exhibit 1.
Hillsdale free course:
The Great American Story: A Land of Hope
Study the Inspiring History of America
"This approach runs contrary to the prevailing academic view of America as irredeemably racist, sexist, and unjust—a view advanced recently by The New York Times’ 1619 Project. A proper study of American history proves that these claims are patently false, while providing timeless lessons about human nature that are essential to the preservation of self-government."
🤔🤐🤡
posted by clavdivs at 6:06 PM on January 9, 2023 [6 favorites]
Is there any alternative for some of the links other than directly linking to (and thus giving traffic to) highly problematic sources such as the Daily Caller?
eviemath, that quote you're referencing is also in the Washington Post story linked in the FPP. As a former journo, I try to drill through to the original source whenever possible. I think you'll find every other link is to a non-problematic source (except for Twitter, which is sadly unavoidable sometimes.)
To save you a trip, here's the reference:
eviemath, that quote you're referencing is also in the Washington Post story linked in the FPP. As a former journo, I try to drill through to the original source whenever possible. I think you'll find every other link is to a non-problematic source (except for Twitter, which is sadly unavoidable sometimes.)
To save you a trip, here's the reference:
James Uthmeier, DeSantis’s chief of staff, told the far-right Daily Caller website (which was founded by Fox News host Tucker Carlson and pundit Neil Patel): “It is our hope that New College of Florida will become Florida’s classical college, more along the lines of a Hillsdale of the South.”posted by martin q blank at 6:12 PM on January 9, 2023 [3 favorites]
I got the gist and the context without following the link, yes. Metafilter does have a policy of not linking to certain sources - Daily Caller may not have quite made that list since it it’s not quiiiiite openly white supremacist propganda, but still a link that would merit caution in its use, eg. perhaps a warning to the reader before they click would be in order. I asked because in some few cases there is no alternative good link, and figured you would have more information about that than me. But there are often other alternatives to linking to problematic sites, even in cases where there is an overriding need to cite original sources: such as web sites to host screen shots that a post author could take and then link to when creating the post, or that show alternate copies of sites (eg. the Internet Archive). In this case, the fact that the relevant details are also reported in one of the other links that is typically regarded as an unbiased news source makes the necessity of linking to the Daily Caller for purposes of a Metafilter FPP (which isn’t held to the same standards as, say, an academic study) and driving traffic to their site even less arguable. Could I ask you to be more aware of the harm that driving traffic to sites that promote hate and bigotry causes in the future, and we can ask the mods to put content warnings on the relevant links for this post?
(I’m guessing the “everything from BLM to feminism goes against Christian beliefs” site likely also hosts some hateful or highly bigoted content, but it at least doesn’t have the same profile as the Daily Caller.)
posted by eviemath at 6:42 PM on January 9, 2023 [2 favorites]
(I’m guessing the “everything from BLM to feminism goes against Christian beliefs” site likely also hosts some hateful or highly bigoted content, but it at least doesn’t have the same profile as the Daily Caller.)
posted by eviemath at 6:42 PM on January 9, 2023 [2 favorites]
This hurt--I had just read the heartbreaking article about X González that talks about how New College provided a scholarship and safe haven and just seemed really...nice.
posted by armacy at 7:09 PM on January 9, 2023 [3 favorites]
posted by armacy at 7:09 PM on January 9, 2023 [3 favorites]
For now, New College’s brand-new president Dr. Christina Okker
The new President is Patricia Okker, not Christina Okker, BTW. I feel for her because she seems like a good person and, if New College goes hard right or down altogether, she left a great job, and there's no going back.
posted by Rumple at 7:19 PM on January 9, 2023 [1 favorite]
The new President is Patricia Okker, not Christina Okker, BTW. I feel for her because she seems like a good person and, if New College goes hard right or down altogether, she left a great job, and there's no going back.
posted by Rumple at 7:19 PM on January 9, 2023 [1 favorite]
Rumple, sorry, not sure how I whiffed on that one. I initially had her bio linked there but it seemed unnecessary and this was already link-heavy.
Mods, if you happen to spot this, please feel free to switch it to Patricia or to Pat, which she uses in conversation.
And my apologies if the Daily Caller link is problematic. I wasn't aware of a policy on that. The Caller is distasteful but it's part of the journalism spectrum, at some level, so I used the link. It can be deleted if necessary. The other link eviemath mentioned does indeed express an abhorrent opinion (it is a web page for the school) but I felt it was needed to back up the assertion that the nominee is problematic.
posted by martin q blank at 7:38 PM on January 9, 2023 [1 favorite]
Mods, if you happen to spot this, please feel free to switch it to Patricia or to Pat, which she uses in conversation.
And my apologies if the Daily Caller link is problematic. I wasn't aware of a policy on that. The Caller is distasteful but it's part of the journalism spectrum, at some level, so I used the link. It can be deleted if necessary. The other link eviemath mentioned does indeed express an abhorrent opinion (it is a web page for the school) but I felt it was needed to back up the assertion that the nominee is problematic.
posted by martin q blank at 7:38 PM on January 9, 2023 [1 favorite]
To save you a trip, here's the reference
All good but why did you use it.
Hillsdale is powerful...They scare me and that is saying something. Is this new Florida Mecha MAGNA going produce alum like, oh, the guy who once had the world's largest private army or filled the Trump administration with a few key lackeys. A cash reserve that gives about 300k for each student.
disclosure: (I've visited Hillsdale and had several friends who graduated from there.)
posted by clavdivs at 7:39 PM on January 9, 2023 [3 favorites]
All good but why did you use it.
Hillsdale is powerful...They scare me and that is saying something. Is this new Florida Mecha MAGNA going produce alum like, oh, the guy who once had the world's largest private army or filled the Trump administration with a few key lackeys. A cash reserve that gives about 300k for each student.
disclosure: (I've visited Hillsdale and had several friends who graduated from there.)
posted by clavdivs at 7:39 PM on January 9, 2023 [3 favorites]
I'm in a New College alum group on FB and one of the long-time professors had this reminder:
I wasn’t here in the 60s, but by my count, this is at least the fifth existential crisis the college has faced. That doesn’t guarantee that we will prevail, but we should take some comfort in the fact that we have far more experience saving the college than others do in destroying it.
posted by Glinn at 7:41 PM on January 9, 2023 [17 favorites]
I wasn’t here in the 60s, but by my count, this is at least the fifth existential crisis the college has faced. That doesn’t guarantee that we will prevail, but we should take some comfort in the fact that we have far more experience saving the college than others do in destroying it.
posted by Glinn at 7:41 PM on January 9, 2023 [17 favorites]
New College of Florida is where Derek Black, son of the founder of Stormfront and godson of David Duke, learned to reject white nationalism. I wonder if Desantis is going after them out of revenge.
posted by Just the one swan, actually at 7:48 PM on January 9, 2023 [14 favorites]
posted by Just the one swan, actually at 7:48 PM on January 9, 2023 [14 favorites]
Another NC alum here. This shit is scary -- I'm quite worried about the current students and faculty. I'm trans, and the appointment of Chris Rufo in particular feels like a direct threat to trans and nonbinary folks at NC, but the rest aren't really any less scary.
posted by feckless at 9:44 PM on January 9, 2023 [6 favorites]
posted by feckless at 9:44 PM on January 9, 2023 [6 favorites]
As formalized in the New College constitution:
Motto: There is more to running a starship than answering a bunch of damn fool questions!
Mission: That the natural state of the human spirit is ecstatic wonder! That we should not settle for less!
Mascot: [ ]1
New College is a small bubble of concentrated Weird, existing in its own distinct spacetime, at the center of which is a 4x4 square grid of palm trees. Reality works a bit differently inside the bubble, which makes it inherently difficult to understand from the outside. That also makes it a fragile system. Years ago, as various things about the school began to change, I was forced to accept its impermanence. It is a living, evolving thing which cannot remain static, nor last forever.
That said, and notwithstanding that New College has indeed survived a lot of crises over its history, I am concerned for it. Appointing Christopher Rufo was absolutely intended to be a spiteful provocation, as he is culturally and politically the antithesis of what the school represents. My sense is that Desantis wants to fundamentally change the nature of the school, but would accept its institutional failure as an acceptable alternative. Either way, it serves as another cynical victory in the culture war.
1. According to common lore, [ ] signified a blank space until a formal replacement could be agreed upon, but this never actually happened, and eventually the Empty Set came to be embraced as a suitably ironic mascot in its own right, because New College students are all a bunch of nerds.
posted by dephlogisticated at 10:25 PM on January 9, 2023 [9 favorites]
Motto: There is more to running a starship than answering a bunch of damn fool questions!
Mission: That the natural state of the human spirit is ecstatic wonder! That we should not settle for less!
Mascot: [ ]1
New College is a small bubble of concentrated Weird, existing in its own distinct spacetime, at the center of which is a 4x4 square grid of palm trees. Reality works a bit differently inside the bubble, which makes it inherently difficult to understand from the outside. That also makes it a fragile system. Years ago, as various things about the school began to change, I was forced to accept its impermanence. It is a living, evolving thing which cannot remain static, nor last forever.
That said, and notwithstanding that New College has indeed survived a lot of crises over its history, I am concerned for it. Appointing Christopher Rufo was absolutely intended to be a spiteful provocation, as he is culturally and politically the antithesis of what the school represents. My sense is that Desantis wants to fundamentally change the nature of the school, but would accept its institutional failure as an acceptable alternative. Either way, it serves as another cynical victory in the culture war.
1. According to common lore, [ ] signified a blank space until a formal replacement could be agreed upon, but this never actually happened, and eventually the Empty Set came to be embraced as a suitably ironic mascot in its own right, because New College students are all a bunch of nerds.
posted by dephlogisticated at 10:25 PM on January 9, 2023 [9 favorites]
Not A Thing: Hurray for Shimerians! I was thinking of that chapter in your history as well, but couldn't find any good links. It is somewhat different just because Shimer is private while New College is public, so the governor has more absolute power. Shimer's defense was shared governance, and ultimately at public institutions like New and the one where I work now, shared governance is always under threat by the government.
posted by hydropsyche at 4:08 AM on January 10, 2023 [3 favorites]
posted by hydropsyche at 4:08 AM on January 10, 2023 [3 favorites]
Surprised to not be surprised to find so many other NCF alumni on this thread. hi, everyone.
The general idea that the College is somehow a bastion of any type of orthodoxy, liberal or otherwise, is just untrue. Orthodoxy of any kind is antithetical to the culture there. Really, the only constant ruling principle is one of individual choice and ownership of one's own life. Sure, there's wide recognition that universalizing such a principle means extending respect for others' choices and fundamental humanity, but that used to be pretty uncontroversial.
While it would be a bit disingenuous to pretend that there isn't a general political skew around the campus, there is no doubt in my mind it is emergent from the student body, rather than being derived from or a product of the fine, classical, liberal arts curriculum on offer there.
Finally, as an NCF grad, I'm hereby going on record as saying I had never heard of critical race theory until republicans started accusing everyone of jamming it down kids' throats.
posted by voiceofreason at 7:49 AM on January 10, 2023 [6 favorites]
The general idea that the College is somehow a bastion of any type of orthodoxy, liberal or otherwise, is just untrue. Orthodoxy of any kind is antithetical to the culture there. Really, the only constant ruling principle is one of individual choice and ownership of one's own life. Sure, there's wide recognition that universalizing such a principle means extending respect for others' choices and fundamental humanity, but that used to be pretty uncontroversial.
While it would be a bit disingenuous to pretend that there isn't a general political skew around the campus, there is no doubt in my mind it is emergent from the student body, rather than being derived from or a product of the fine, classical, liberal arts curriculum on offer there.
Finally, as an NCF grad, I'm hereby going on record as saying I had never heard of critical race theory until republicans started accusing everyone of jamming it down kids' throats.
posted by voiceofreason at 7:49 AM on January 10, 2023 [6 favorites]
Came here to say what Daily Alice said. No much surprises me here in Florida when it comes to Republican cruelty but this made my stomach hurt.
DeSantis didn't win so much as Crist lost
Sorry, but as someone who has livedin Florida my entire life im going to respectfully tell you that you’re wrong. Florida is a red state and voters overwhelmingly voted against democrats. Republicans and maga-mouth-breathers have been moving here in droves since the height of the pandemic. Desantis will be president in 2024 and he’s going to make the Trump years look like a walk in the park.
posted by photoslob at 8:18 AM on January 10, 2023
DeSantis didn't win so much as Crist lost
Sorry, but as someone who has livedin Florida my entire life im going to respectfully tell you that you’re wrong. Florida is a red state and voters overwhelmingly voted against democrats. Republicans and maga-mouth-breathers have been moving here in droves since the height of the pandemic. Desantis will be president in 2024 and he’s going to make the Trump years look like a walk in the park.
posted by photoslob at 8:18 AM on January 10, 2023
I read this NYT opinion and came across " tenured professors are covered by a collective bargaining agreement, which makes it hard to fire them unless there’s cause. "
I'm pretty sure they'll come up with cause these days :/
posted by jenfullmoon at 9:59 AM on January 10, 2023
I'm pretty sure they'll come up with cause these days :/
posted by jenfullmoon at 9:59 AM on January 10, 2023
Anyone who calls the South a lost cause is not a friend of democracy. Giving up as a strategy doesn't fucking work. When do we stop giving up? How many toeholds does facism need to get into a government before it too becomes a lost cause? 'Cause giving up will just embolden them further and let them expand their reach even more.
posted by Aleyn at 9:59 AM on January 10, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by Aleyn at 9:59 AM on January 10, 2023 [2 favorites]
I went to USF, and attended classes in Sarasota, Tampa and St. Pete (lots of commuting). New College used to be "New College of USF" before it was renamed "New College of Florida." So though I'm not really a New College alumnus I am familiar with the vibe there, or at least the way it was in the early 90s, and this news makes me sad and angry. Like pretty much everything related to DeSantis.
posted by Foosnark at 10:07 AM on January 10, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by Foosnark at 10:07 AM on January 10, 2023 [1 favorite]
Floridian here. I can confirm that Florida State politics prominently features a Republican legislature that routinely ignores the law. Voter have passed Constitutional Amendments aimed at ending gerrymandering, legalizing medpot, and restoring voting rights to felons, and the Leg tried to gut all of them. The public pressure for medpot was just too much and so that happened, but the rest? Ex-felons were getting arrested for voting in the most recent election, and the districts still massively favor Rs. Lawsuits to enforce the Constitution go nowhere, because after 20 years of R governors the State Supreme Court is a Klavern.
Florida, in other words, would be a good State for a D President to send the 101st Airborne to, in response to violations of Article IV Section 4 of the US Constitution, to arrest the malefactors posing as the State Government and replace them with responsible officers who can restore a representative form of government.
posted by Aardvark Cheeselog at 10:42 AM on January 10, 2023 [6 favorites]
Florida, in other words, would be a good State for a D President to send the 101st Airborne to, in response to violations of Article IV Section 4 of the US Constitution, to arrest the malefactors posing as the State Government and replace them with responsible officers who can restore a representative form of government.
posted by Aardvark Cheeselog at 10:42 AM on January 10, 2023 [6 favorites]
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It must end.
posted by aiq at 3:38 PM on January 9, 2023 [13 favorites]