Thanks to Governor Ron DeSantis’s mandate in the 2022 election and the resulting ability to personally select those with power in the state’s education system, there has never been any question of thwarting his plan to transform New College of Florida from a progressive honors college with a uniquely creative learning environment into a hotbed of classical studies and Christian conservative thought (with a few subpar sports teams thrown in for good measure).
Neither major donor withdrawals, nor a massive student and faculty turnover, nor adversity from alumni and community members have put a pause in the march toward the eradication of everything NCF was and stood for. Because there was never any way to stop this blatant display of political heft, all that was left was to see how it would unfold. And every step of the way, that denouement has been deliberately confrontational, punitive, and devious.
The latest incendiary act was the recent removal of hundreds of books from the college’s Jane Bancroft Cook Library and student materials from the now-defunct Gender and Diversity Center, which were thrown in plain sight and without warning into a dumpster behind the library. The action, which evoked images of Nazi book burnings, seemed deliberately designed to deliver maximum visual and emotional impact.
NCF President Richard Corcoran later insisted that the removal was part of a “normal weeding process” and—contradicting an earlier false statement by an NCF spokesperson that state-purchased materials could not be transferred or sold to others—claimed that the materials had been offered to students before they were removed. (This has been refuted by several students and faculty members.)
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When he needed a scapegoat, he suspended the library’s administrative dean and condemned the media for their reporting. As has often been the case with changes implemented at the school over the past 18 months, the approach has been to strike without warning, issue denials or excuses, and then sweep away the debris from the littered battlefield.
This operating standard was already in place before the first meeting of the six new NCF directors DeSantis appointed in January 2023, when one of them, Christopher Rufo, spoke in militaristic terms about the board as a “landing team” and promised a “shock and awe” campaign that would “lay siege” on the college’s “woke” programming.
While the board assured students and faculty that it would “welcome all voices” and “encourage passionate debate,” the board quickly moved to fire the university’s president and made a closed-door decision to install Corcoran, replace the board’s attorney, and eliminate the school’s diversity, equity and inclusion program.
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This ‘cut and burn’ approach has continued since then.
Tenure was swiftly denied to five faculty members who had received approval from both the NCF faculty and the previous administration; the Gender Studies program was eliminated; student-created murals on campus buildings were painted over; and just before the start of classes last fall, seniors who had been assigned to the most hospitable dormitories on campus were forced to give up their spots to newly recruited student-athletes and live in nearby hotel rooms instead. At last spring’s graduation ceremony, five students were disciplined for protesting the conservative speaker at the college’s graduation ceremony. (So much for “passionate debate.”)
Recently – and despite months of requests from residents of the adjacent Uplands neighborhood for information and involvement in plans for campus changes – dozens of mature trees and plants were removed from an area on the bay to make way for recreational sports fields.
The neighborhood had donated the undeveloped land to the university in the 1960s with the stipulation that it be left in its natural state, including mangrove forests and drainage that helped protect the Uplands from storm surges and flooding.
In all cases, these actions were taken without prior warning to school officials or local residents, and were carried out in a manner that caused maximum resentment. No attempt was ever made to engage the wider community, seek feedback, consider alternatives, or be transparent about impending plans. And nothing but lip service or ridicule is given to anyone who tries to push back.
Meanwhile, like the worst kind of high school bully, Trustee Rufo has continued his hostile comments on social media, where he has described the recent book dump as “throwing the trash out.” (“Good job!” a spokesperson for De Santis affirmed, applauding the eradication of “propaganda.”) I don’t know what’s worse—Rufo’s teasing, childish digs or Corcoran’s pretense of being Mr. Nice Guy whenever he deigns to meet with concerned community members, all the while keeping his mouth shut about changes he knows full well will cause discontent.
The acquisition of New College would have been controversial anyway. Its alumni, donors and students have long been deeply committed to the atypical educational model it offered, and anything that threatened that freedom and the academic excellence it fostered would inevitably be a source of controversy.
But there was a way to solve New College’s financial problems — ostensibly the reason for the “makeover” in the first place — that would have been far less destructive to the student body, the community of Sarasota, and indeed the entire Florida State college system, which has now become a national headline for all the wrong reasons.
Yet a less controversial, more humane transformation never seems to have been a consideration for NCF. This is an arrogant government that prefers attack over cooperation, mandate over mediation, deception over transparency. Its methods are completely at odds with the Christian values it professes to uphold—but hey, why should being hypocritical matter?
No one can be surprised by this latest assault on decency – though it does make one wonder what will happen next. It has long been rumoured that the aim of the transformation of New College is to run it into the ground, leaving the state with a valuable piece of prime real estate on the bay. Whether or not that is the end goal, the means to achieve it need not be unnecessarily hostile acts that deliberately foment discord and division.
The results of the Aug. 20 primary elections — particularly the contentious school board and hospital board elections — made it clear that residents have had enough of the negative attention Sarasota is getting because of the city’s identity as a hotbed of national culture warfare.
We want our peacefully diverse community back – and that includes the quirky but nationally acclaimed small university that was once such a source of local pride.
Contact Carrie Seidman at carrie.seidman@gmail.com or 505-238-0392.
This article originally appeared in the Sarasota Herald-Tribune: New College of Florida’s book destruction is an assault on decency standards
