Revealed: Florida liberal arts college in rightwing hiring spree after takeover

[groundloop]

Source: The Guardian




New College of Florida, which has been the subject of a rightwing takeover that has reversed its previous reputation as a liberal arts school, has hired ideologically aligned rightwing faculty and staff for a range of positions, in a process that an internal open letter said “often replaced faculty expertise with administrative fiat”.

New College of Florida (NCF) was targeted by the state’s governor, Ron DeSantis, who made transforming the liberal institution into a conservative one a centerpiece of his ill-fated presidential campaign that sought to take on liberal causes. Its board of trustees is now dominated by DeSantis allies, triggering campus turmoil and the exodus of some staff.

Some in the Republican party see the effort to transform New College as a model in a wider battle to take on American higher education, which the rightwing sees as dominated by left-leaning institutions and leaders. With Donald Trump returning to power after winning the presidential election last week, many rightwing activists could seek to replicate what has happened to New College across the US.

The Guardian has identified several faculty members who have a history of connections with rightwing media, far-right thinktanks and the so-called “New Right”. The hires are of a piece with the hard-right drift at the college since DeSantis appointed new members to the governing board of trustees including the culture warrior Christopher Rufo, which in turn appointed a new administration led by Richard Corcoran, a longtime Republican activist and former political candidate in Florida.

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/nov/11/new-college-of-florida-rightwing-takeover

[Timeflyer]

1. This is Florida under DeSatan--hostile takeover of an outstanding liberal arts college to satisfy

the billionaire "Christian" conservatives that own him, and create Hillsdale College South. Comes move-in ready, with prime waterfront property and compliant supermajority state legislature to make all their power-hungry dreams come true.

[badhair77]

2. They never build anything of their own, they just rip down and

replace with their own ideology. Domination and destruction is important to them.

[Easterncedar]

3. It was a beautiful place once

Full of brilliant and creative and exceptional student and teachers, a high academic rating and genius grants way out of proportion to its size.

Now squalor and ruin and hate run rampant where love and joy lived.

It is a heartbreak on heartbreak.

[Prairie Gates]

4. New College of Florida is simply a proof of concept at this point

The question is whether they can perform this operation at scale in the large state univerisities and then, through the funding mechanisms of the federal government, in the private universities.

Universities are at an inflection point, as they face the dreaded "demographic cliff" (there will be 10-15% fewer students for all universities based on lower birthrates 2008-2020). That means universities will become more dependent on loans and federal monies just as the Trumpies get their hands on the spigot. Expect massive changes in higher education of the next four years, as the MAGAs use their funding power to force their agenda on universities.

There will be no resisting it, especially with the current composition of the faculty/ professoriate. If a mid-size school relies on $65-120 million in loan approavals and other funds from the federal government, and a Stephen Miller direct report is in chanrge of those funds, the school will have to do what is requested, or shut down. Faculty will gripe but fold, since there are no other jobs to jump to. Administrators will hold listening sessions where they hear the faculty gripe endlessly and perform some kind of "resistance," and in the end they will sign the agreement with the feds, take the money, and shut down the programs they are being asked to shut down, and fire the faculty they are being asked to fire.

This will all happen over the next 2-3 years.

[IbogaProject]

5. And the over paid administrators will hang on

While they cut Tenured faculty. I spoke with a distinguished Anthropology professor who holds tenure at a prominent State University branch, she says even midlevel administrators make double her salary. It was already getting worse 86-90 when I went during the Reagan-Bush years.