New College of Florida--other schools will be targeted

[Timeflyer]

Regarding the takeover of New College of Florida by DeSantis--because I grew up in Sarasota and care about education, and still care about this place I often hate but still consider home, I’ve attended two rallies and the most recent Board of Trustees meeting, 2/28/23. I only stayed at the Board meeting to hear the public comments. The pain and anguish expressed by students, parents, teachers and community members was searing.

Many New College students thought they’d found a place where they could flourish academically and explore their identities fully without the adolescent societal pressures of high school. Now they can’t sleep, not because of the normal pressures of coursework, but because they’re being crushed by the weight of government authoritarianism. Parents are traveling back and forth to the school, and some parents are living in hotels near the campus, so they can support their child while trying to stop the wreckage of a school they thought would be the place their student would find acceptance and success.

The destruction of New College is taking place taking place both with blitzkrieg speed and by a death of a thousand cuts. Almost overnight handpicked political sycophants of DeSantis are appointed to the Board of Trustees, and the President is kicked out and a high-dollar replacement inserted. Meanwhile public meetings are held, to maintain a pretense of transparency, to discuss the pre-arranged dismantling of aspects of the college.

The students of New College of Florida are getting an education they never expected or wanted, in the power of authoritarianism and the influence of dark money, cronyism, and the use of religion as a disguise for the lust for power and money.

[Ocelot II]

1. How many of those kids will be looking for other colleges?

Im sure there are many great schools around the country that would be happy to have them. Of course transferring is a PITA, and especially difficult for students who are from FL, but it seems to me that the only lesson DeSantis and his minions understand is a financial one. When students leave and enrollment plummets they might get the picture. It's really sad to see a good school ruined by partisan ideologues, though.

[Timeflyer]

3. Some will probably transfer, esp. first year students,

and the admissions office is getting many, many cancellations. It would be kinder (not a DeSantis feature) to just let the current students all finish up, and have a closure date 2 1/2 years in future. They want to end the school as it is--too woke for Christofascists, and such a prime piece of FL real estate. I think this is all preordained by DeSadist and his Hillsdale donor types. He didn't care about COVID deaths, he sure doesn't care about real-live kids--civilian casualties in his war on woke.

[Easterncedar]

5. It is lovely real estate

How much of Corcoran’s $700,000 salary is going to find its way back around to DeSantis, I wonder?

And then there’s Rufo, with his Harvard Extension degree, going after New College for its open admissions.

Corrupt hypocrites.

[MayReasonRule]

4. One ideology is based in facts. One ideology is based in delusion. They are not the same.

While there is political disagreement, it's the nature of the disagreement that is the entirety of the problem.

This is Machiavellian delusion versus Reality's reason.

Y'all Qaeda's Nat-C Fascist GOP versus Democratic Democracy.

This is a struggle between depraved evil and reasoned good.


May reason rule.

[MayReasonRule]

2. A Stinking Crock of Shit...

...is of greater benefit to humanity than the underwear skid marks that are DeSantis.

May Darwin bless the rest of humanity at his earliest possible convenience.

[lpbk2713]

6. When enrollments go down statewide we wil never know.

DeSantis will handle that info like he does Covid. Either we will be given erroneous info or none at all.