Replies to post #451847 on Tornado Alley (PROG)

[fuagf]

Absolutely brilliant. And i was reminded something about the Rude Pundit which must have been read before: "But what do I know. I've only been a professor for roughly 30 years at public universities. Or maybe I might have more fucking insight than a greedy, attention-hungry dilettante with delusions of intellect."

I couldn't escape from the name Jordan Peterson

I’m a marine biologist, and despite my deeply held affection for all marine invertebrates, I confess I was a little puzzled by Peterson’s fixation on lobsters. It’s not that he gets the science wrong, exactly, just that his choice is a little too convenient. The facts he identifies do arguably square with his own “stand up straight with your shoulders back” advice. But in asking us to consider the lobster, he’s cherry-picking one model of social behavior when there’s a whole ocean full of equally relevant examples. https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=170500865

while reading Rude Pundit's 2nd paragraph

"And then everyone on the right will celebrate that fake intellectual and his (and it's almost always "his") popularity will soar to the point that even those not swimming in the political effluvia we are all damned to drown in will come to believe what the fake intellectual is saying. Then the fake shit the fake intellectual says will become seen as a valid point of view instead of utter garbage foisted on us by a bulldozer shoving bullshit from one place to another without burying it. For years, for instance, we have had to hear from the bare handful of "scientists" who claim climate change isn't "real" when the overwhelming, peer-reviewed, and incredibly well-researched truth is...well, fuck, just watch the Weather Channel for ten minutes."

So there you have a marine biologist correcting YouTube celebrity Peterson, and a university professor correcting Rufo. Sweet.

Then. of course, he settled on the one who knows it all who doesn't. The political hack guy who was one of the chief architects of conservatives hypocritical (free speech), divisive (black history) Machiavellian, terribly destructive culture war. Christopher Rufo, good choice Mr. Professor. See:

Florida Gov. DeSantis signs bill to limit discussion of race
[...]
“It’s just illustrating Gov. DeSantis’ pattern of Black attack policies led by Republican legislators. He has taken a culture war to a classic Republican battleground, which is the public schools. It’s going to hurt our children’s futures,”' said Democratic Rep. Angie Nixon, who is Black. “CRT is not taught in K-12 education here in our public schools.”

[Insert: conix, Political correctness. "Woke". Critical Race Theory. Now Kendi.
[...]How a Conservative Activist Invented the Conflict Over Critical Race Theory
Thanks. You saved me chasing those videos. I never heard of that Rufo dude before, yet
seems he's a key - even the KEY - player in the present political outrage around CRT.
P - To Christopher Rufo, a term for a school of legal scholarship looked like the perfect weapon.
[...]
...Rufo summarized his findings in an article for the Web site of City Journal, the magazine of the center-right Manhattan Institute: “Under the banner of ‘antiracism,’ Seattle’s Office of Civil Rights is now explicitly endorsing principles of segregationism, group-based guilt, and race essentialism—ugly concepts that should have been left behind a century ago.”
https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=166080529]

DeSantis’ focus on culture war issues involving race, gender and the coronavirus have made him one of the most popular Republican politicians in the country and a likely 2024 presidential candidate.

Critical race theory centers on the idea that racism is systemic in U.S. institutions and that they function to maintain the dominance of white people in society. There is little evidence that critical race theory itself is being taught to K-12 public school students, though some ideas central to it have been incorporated into teaching materials.

[A UN article on that wording: Systemic Racism vs. Institutional Racism
(Taken from the Out of Africa Monologue Series)
https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/Documents/Issues/Racism/smd.shahid.pdf]

[ Insert: Sept. 2, 2023 - Umm, dead link. Is ok, a FireFoxy (chuckle) Google search got us to it again
Systemic Racism vs. Institutional Racism
(Taken from the Out of Africa Monologue Series)
https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/Documents/Issues/Racism/smd.shahid.pdf ]

Black lawmakers in Florida have said they believe the legislation will have a chilling effect on how African American history is taught because teachers will fear lawsuits if students’ parents object to how they present subjects like slavery, segregation, lynchings and the continued presence of racism in the U.S.
https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=172063848

What they are doing to New College of Florida looks a travesty:

"The New College trustees appointed by future Senate candidate DeSantis were more or less tasked with destroying a small liberal arts college just to show they could, as a warning to every other institution. They fired the president and cut the office of diversity, equity, and inclusion. They got rid of gender-neutral signs on bathrooms. They put Bible verses on coffee cups at the school cafeteria. They shut the Pride dorm and eliminated a learning community for African studies. They have voted to eliminate gender studies as a department and major. They changed commencement, where students used to dress festively and extravagantly, forcing graduates to wear caps and gowns, and made Dr. Scott Atlas, a crackpot adviser to President Trump, the speaker. The students held an alternate graduation as a protest at the Sarasota Museum of Art.

All these things, big and small, are just the start. They hired a new baseball coach and recruited athletes for a tiny school that doesn't even have a field, literally dumbing down the college to do it. They kicked seniors out of the best dorms to make rooms for athletes. Some students were forced to live in a hotel by the airport with a shitty shuttle schedule because it's an hour's walk from campus. They are, they promise, just getting started in tearing down a well-ranked college and remaking it in their image. A third of the faculty just fuckin' quit, leaving a ton of classes canceled, but leaving a ton of spots for the "right" kind of faculty to be hired.

Rufo himself hasn't been coy about his goal. He wants to turn public universities into MAGA-humping boot camps for future fascists of America. And he's upset that New College had more women than men, saying it was a "social justice ghetto." By bringing in male athletes, Rufo says he wants to balance things sex-wise because it's good for the culture of the college. If your head just exploded as you screamed, "That's what affirmative action says, too, and you fuckers got that shitcanned!" well, you're joining me in that cry of frustration."
https://rudepundit.blogspot.com/

Faux intellectuals as Christopher Rufo and Peterson are a blight on American democracy.

[fuagf]

New College of Florida trustees vote to abolish DEI programs, even as students protest against conservative overhaul of school

By Sabrina Clay and Nicquel Terry Ellis, CNN
Updated 2:20 PM EST, Wed March 1, 2023

VIDEO - See college president's frosty reception after appointment from DeSantis-backed board members 03:10 - Source: CNN

All links

CNN — The New College of Florida’s reshaped board of trustees voted Tuesday to abolish diversity, equity and inclusion programs at the school after a heated public comment session – events that follow Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ decision to move the college in a conservative direction.

The vote will eliminate the college’s Office of Outreach and Inclusive Excellence which, according to its website, provides a number of services including improving retention for students and staff of all identities, supporting cultural events, helping secure job opportunities for students, and addressing campus police-community relations issues. The office has four full-time staff members, three of whom will be reassigned to other jobs on campus, trustees say.

Students and others expressed strenuous opposition to the new direction before the vote at the Sarasota institution, both at the meeting .. https://www.ncf.edu/events/?filters%5Bcategory%5D=public-notice#filter_results .. and at a rally.

A new partisan era of American education
https://edition.cnn.com/2023/01/25/politics/desantis-florida-education-what-matters/index.html

“Shame on you!” a crowd including students, parents and alumni chanted toward the trustees as the public comment portion of the meeting closed before the board’s vote.

In January, DeSantis replaced six of the 13 members on the college’s board of trustees with conservative allies, including Christopher Rufo, who has fueled the fight against critical race theory and pushed to end diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, known as DEI .. https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/15/us/texas-education-fight-diversity-equity-inclusion/index.html . The new board forced out the college’s president and appointed DeSantis ally Richard Corcoran .. https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/15/us/desantis-new-college-inclusion-reaj/index.html .. as interim president.

Tuesday’s vote also came after DeSantis said last month that he intends to defund all DEI programs at state colleges and universities in Florida. These policies and programs are created to promote representation for people who have historically faced discrimination because of their race, ethnicity, disability, gender, religion or sexual orientation.

Dozens of parents, students and alumni spoke out against Florida’s conservative takeover of New College at Tuesday’s meeting.

Several speakers approached the microphone during the public comment session, most expressing outrage at DeSantis’ decision to handpick trustees who agree with his vision.

The college had offered an environment where members of the LGBTQ community can freely express themselves, students say. Student Sam Sharf said during public comments that the new leadership was launching a “hostile takeover” of the school and has neglected students’ concerns.

“Regardless of your attempts to suppress our educational freedom we will continue to learn the subjects that you want to ban,” Sharf said. “We reject the social inequalities that your ideology defends.”

At the meeting, Rufo said race shouldn’t be a consideration for the school. “It treats people differently on the basis of their skin color,” Rufo said.

The meeting came after hundreds of people rallied on campus Tuesday, holding signs with phrases such as “protect diversity, equity and inclusion” and “stand up for students.”


Students from New College of Florida stage a rally on Tuesday. Octavio Jones/Reuters

The school community has been up in arms for weeks, with many students saying they fear the college will no longer be a safe place for the LGBTQ community or other marginalized groups. Several protests have been held on campus since the leadership changes happened, including a walkout by students ..

Here’s why students at New College of Florida walkout out today. We reject Desantis hostile attacks on our school and education in Florida. #standforfreedom #standforfreedomfl pic.twitter.com/ocGPSONUiW

— NCF Students for Educational Freedom (@NCFEduFreedom) February 24, 2023

.. last week.

“A lot of us are hurting right now,” said third-year student Chai Leffler, who is studying Chinese and urban studies at the college.

Leffler said New College of Florida has always been a school that has encouraged “free academic thought.” Lawmakers, he said, are trying to strip away that freedom by telling students what they can and can’t study.

“I don’t think politicians should really be the ones making that decision,” Leffler told CNN. “And I really don’t think that’s an unpopular opinion.”

DeSantis’ office insists that the New College of Florida has seen declining enrollment and focuses too heavily on DEI, critical race theory and gender ideology.

Tuesday’s meeting followed the introduction of a bill in the Florida House that mirrors DeSantis’ ideas for an overhaul of higher education.

The bill, filed by a Republican lawmaker last week, would put board of trustee members in charge of faculty hiring; defund diversity, equity and inclusion programs; eliminate majors or minors related to critical race theory or gender studies; and authorize boards of trustees to review tenure of faculty.

The bill was praised by Rufo, who said on Twitter that it restores the “principle of colorblind equality in higher ed.” Rufo is a senior fellow and director of the initiative on critical race theory at the conservative Manhattan Institute.

Florida students return to schools reshaped by Gov. DeSantis' anti-'woke' education agenda
https://edition.cnn.com/2022/08/13/politics/desantis-florida-schools-anti-woke-education-agenda/index.html

“This would be the most ambitious reform to higher education in a half-century,” Rufo tweeted. “Gov. DeSantis is channeling the sentiment of the voters, who have demanded that taxpayer dollars stop subsidizing left-wing racialist ideology and partisan political activism. Democracy returns.”

Some students and advocates say they believe DeSantis has proposed sweeping changes to Florida’s colleges and universities for political gain because he is expected to run for president in 2024.

But they fear the lasting impacts could be Florida colleges struggling to retain students and recruit faculty.

People pursuing graduate degrees might opt for schools in other states that support academic freedom, Irene Mulvey, president of the American Association of University Professors, told CNN earlier this month.

“The consequences for students are enormous,” Mulvey said. “They are denied the opportunity to learn and grow, students are denied the opportunity to hear important perspectives. That’s the real tragedy.”

CNN’s Leyla Santiago and Denise Royal contributed to this report.

https://edition.cnn.com/2023/02/28/us/new-college-florida-board-meeting-reaj/index.html

[fuagf]

Update: Chaos at New College of Florida

"Rare weekend when both The Cap AND the Rude Pundit chime in.
They're Killing New College Because They Can"

With the start of the semester two weeks away, students are grappling with absent professors, canceled classes and severe housing woes.

By Johanna Alonso

August 16, 2023


This fall will mark the first new academic year since Ron DeSantis's takeover of New College.
Already, the dearth of faculty has begun to make it difficult for students to plan their semester.
Photo illustration by Justin Morrison/Inside Higher Ed | Thomas Simonetti for The Washington
Post / Getty Images | Rawpixel | Screenshot of New College course catalogue

All links

When a committee of the New College of Florida Board of Trustees met in July, a whopping 36 faculty members had already left .. https://www.insidehighered.com/news/quick-takes/2023/07/19/third-faculty-has-left-new-college-florida .. since Florida Governor Ron DeSantis initiated a conservative restructuring of the institution in January. That number has subsequently grown to more than 40, Amy Reid, the sole faculty member on the board, told Inside Higher Ed.

Now, as students prepare for the fall semester, the impact of the faculty exodus is becoming apparent: many classes won’t be offered at New College this term.

The course catalogue was already sparse when students first began looking at classes last spring. Dani Delaney, the mother of one former New College student who is transferring to Hampshire College in Massachusetts—which guaranteed admission .. https://www.hampshire.edu/admissions/apply-hampshire/transfer-students/new-college .. to all New College students in good standing—said her son could only find two classes that counted toward his “area of concentration” (which is what New College calls majors). When he contacted the institution about the lack of relevant courses, she said, he was told the course catalogue was “in flux” and to “choose something else.”

Most Popular [1/3]
Academic experts offer advice on ChatGPT
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2023/01/12/academic-experts-offer-advice-chatgpt

“These are young adults who are not looking to fill up a semester with high school electives. It’s not like, ‘Oh, chorus is closed, let me just go take that art class,’” she said. “There are classes [students] need to take to continue to propel [their] studies forward … that was just an absolute stunning thing to have a college tell us, just pick something else. No.”

This fall will mark the first new academic year since DeSantis began his overhaul of the liberal arts college, the smallest public institution in Florida, by appointing six new conservative trustees. Many students were nervous about returning to NCF under the new leadership, which in short order fired former president Patricia Okker, axed the diversity, equity and inclusion office and denied five faculty members tenure. But as the fall semester inches closer, it is becoming increasingly apparent just how much dysfunction New College’s students will have to contend with this year.

The shrinking course catalogue isn’t their only worry. With just under two weeks until the academic year starts, students are also reckoning with last-minute class cancellations, poorly communicated housing changes and concerns about their ability to complete their mandatory senior capstone projects.

Inside Higher Ed sent New College 21 questions for this story; they responded only to one, about fall enrollment numbers, discussed later in this article.

Unexplained Cancellations

Throughout the summer, New College removed classes from the course catalogue, with some canceled as recently as last week, according to faculty and parents. Some students only found out via an email from the registrar’s office.

“Just wanted to let you know that BIOL 3120 has been cancelled. But we are adding new courses daily so please keep checking back,” one email read, according to a parent of a New College student who shared the message on X, formerly known as Twitter.

And students who haven’t had their course selections approved by their adviser receive no notice at all when a class they intend to take is removed from the catalogue. Shelby Nagle, a general studies major who uses she/her and they/them pronouns, planned to take a course entitled Philosophy of Mind until they noticed one day it was no longer listed on their online schedule.

“There’s not an open line of communication as to why this is happening,” they said. “Students are just finding that their courses are no longer there.”

'Trouble Staying on Track'

Elizabeth Leininger, a biology and neuroscience professor who left New College this summer and will begin a new position at St. Mary’s College of Maryland in the fall, said some of the canceled classes have been electives—including neurobiology, which she used to teach. But she knows of at least one canceled course that is mandatory for a major: introduction to animal wellbeing, which is required for the relatively new animal wellbeing & conservation major.

And as more electives get canceled, it becomes harder for students to meet the requirements for their area of concentration.

“For neuroscience, there’s only one elective beyond the introductory level right now, which is not healthy,” Leininger said, noting that the number of faculty in NCF’s neuroscience program has declined from three to one. “The number of choices students have this year is drastically reduced … if one of those classes conflicts with another class they have to take that is completely required, they’re going to have trouble staying on track for their major.”
One person in the foreground, a woman with green ombre hair giving a thumbs up, surrounded by three people in the background.


Elizabeth Leininger, pictured here at last year's alternative graduation in protest of New College's
new conservative leadership, said New College will not offer neurobiology
this fall. Courtesy of danielperales.com

Leininger said she received permission from her new institution to teach New College’s neurobiology course over Zoom—a plan the NCF administration at first seemed to embrace. In an email to Leininger that she shared with Inside Higher Ed, Bradley Thiessen, the college’s interim provost, said he would “advocate” for her to teach the course if she was willing and able to do so.

[Insert: There you have one example of the lazy public school teachers conservative trolls here have
vilified. Elizabeth Leininger looks dedication to students personified. And she isn't by far the only one.]

But about two months later, she got word from NCF that she would not be allowed to teach the class, for reasons that were not explained. She suspects it may have something to do with her outspoken opposition to the direction DeSantis and the board are taking the institution, which has included speaking to the media about her decision to leave and reposting criticisms of the administration on X.

[One more example of conservative freedom of speech hypocrisy.]

According to Leininger, the neurobiology course was listed in the course catalogue with her as the professor earlier in the summer but has since been removed. At least 11 students had already registered for the course, which is an elective for multiple majors, when it was unlisted, she said.

New College officials did not respond to a question regarding whether the university is planning to do anything to help students whose courses have been canceled. The college is currently trying to recruit more faculty. Chris Rufo, the conservative activist-turned-New College trustee appointed by DeSantis, posted on X on Friday that the college is hiring a “large cohort of new tenure-track faculty” in 14 departments, directing prospective candidates to contact him at his personal email account.

[From the Rude Pundit's
All these things, big and small, are just the start. They hired a new baseball coach and recruited athletes for a tiny school that doesn't even have a field, literally dumbing down the college to do it. They kicked seniors out of the best dorms to make rooms for athletes. Some students were forced to live in a hotel by the airport with a shitty shuttle schedule because it's an hour's walk from campus. They are, they promise, just getting started in tearing down a well-ranked college and remaking it in their image. A third of the faculty just fuckin' quit, leaving a ton of classes canceled, but leaving a ton of spots for the "right" kind of faculty to be hired.]

Reid, a professor of French and the director of the gender studies program, said that New College’s faculty and division chairs have been working to hire replacements for their colleagues who have left—on top of taking on increased teaching and advising loads themselves. But the university’s new political identity has made it difficult to do so.

“The division chairs have made a heroic effort this summer to fill in the gaps in our academic programs,” she said. “Sadly, their efforts are being hampered by an ideological litmus test imposed by the administration.”

In fact, the gender studies program that Reid leads is the latest target of New College’s leaders. Trustees voted at an Aug. 10 meeting .. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HgmY9v4hsQU .. to move toward eliminating the major beginning with the fall 2024 freshman class, with Rufo, who proposed the motion, celebrating the vote on X as a reversal of an “encroachment of queer theory and gender pseudoscience into academic life.” While Rufo noted that some gender studies-related courses will continue to be offered through other departments, students will no longer be able to make gender studies an area of concentration if the program is eliminated.

The rampant departure of faculty across disciplines may also make it difficult for students to complete another part of their studies: the senior capstone, a project that all graduating students present to a committee at the end of their final year.

Leininger said she spent as much as 20 hours each year sitting on students’ thesis committees, and wondered who would take on that extra work now.

Nagle, who transferred to New College from the University of Florida last year and is now entering their final year, is concerned about who will sponsor their thesis research, which seeks to explore intergenerational trauma in Polish families after World War II.

“I made all these connections with professors, started to keep tabs on who could have sponsored my thesis or who could sit on that committee for me,” they said. “Every one of them left.”

Housing Woes

In addition to making abrupt curricular changes, the college is altering housing assignments with what parents and students say is not enough warning or communication.

Students first heard in June that there was a chance their housing contracts, which were finalized in April, could change, according to a Tampa Bay Times article .. https://www.tampabay.com/news/education/2023/07/18/new-college-wrestles-with-decaying-dorms-new-students-get-best-rooms/ .. from July. Apartments typically reserved for juniors and seniors would now house the more than 100 new student athletes New College had admitted for the fall.

The remaining students are being squeezed into the other dorms on campus—except for a number of rooms that are offline due to mold and other structural problems—or being asked to live in a nearby hotel, the Home2 Suites by Hilton Sarasota Bradenton Airport, if they cannot secure their own off-campus housing. The college has rented out the entire Home2 Suites for the semester, totaling 133 beds, according to the contract .. https://www.ncf.edu/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/BOT-Meeting-Materials-August-10-2023-1.pdf .. between the institution and the hotel.

Administrators and trustees have described the lack of on-campus housing as a natural result of enrollment growth.

“This is an imperfect solution … but having said that, I take this as a sign that we’re moving along and building and as we go, we’re going to have to solve these kinds of problems,” Matthew Spalding, a New College trustee and a dean at Hillsdale College, said at the Aug. 10 Board of Trustees meeting.

The incoming freshman class, which is the largest in New College’s history, will include at least 341 students; 155, or just under half, are athletes, according to university spokesperson Nathan March.


Richard Corcoran (right), then education commissioner for the
state of Florida, speaks beside Ron DeSantis in 2021. Paul
Hennessy/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

Administrators worked to boost enrollment after years of “stagnation,” USA Today reported last month .. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2023/07/27/new-college-of-florida-enrollment-up/70477277007/ , with Interim President Richard Corcoran pushing for a freshman class of at least 300 students and offering financial rewards to admissions officers who met the goal. The recruitment strategy centered on developing an athletic program, which March said will include baseball, softball, men’s and women’s basketball, and men’s and women’s soccer teams.

According to the USA Today article, the baseball team had 70 players as of July, compared to 37 on the University of Florida’s Division I team.

Transit, Dining and Social Concerns

Students placed in the Home2 Suites hotel worry about how they will commute to and from New College, about a mile away. For those without vehicles, the journey consists of a 15-minute walk largely along a stretch of busy highway. Parents and faculty have also complained that high levels of crime make the area unsafe, especially at night. While a shuttle is available, it is infrequent—running hourly until 11 p.m.—and can only carry a handful of passengers.

“They don't seem to be able to plan ahead very well at all,” said Hannah Galantino-Homer, whose son was assigned to live in the Home2 Suites, although he had already decided to transfer out of New College by the time he got the news a few weeks ago. “Like, you don’t think people need to be on campus after [11]?”

Reid echoed the sentiment at the Aug. 10 meeting, noting that the campus’s library is open until 1 a.m. daily.

Communication about the changes has been sporadic and confusing, students say. They received numerous emails asking them to confirm within a short timeframe where they planned to live in the fall. A July 11 email that Nagle shared with Inside Higher Ed gave them four days to confirm whether they had secured off-campus housing; another email, delivered Aug. 2 and shared by Delaney, informed students that the on-campus housing was full and asked them to confirm by Aug. 7 if they wanted to live in the Home2 Suites.

“If you do not send a message by this date we will assume that you will be seeking off campus housing accommodations for the fall semester,” the email read.

The details of New College’s contract with the hotel, made public just ahead of the Aug. 10 board meeting, listed a number of policies for students that are significantly more stringent than the college’s. While the college allows .. https://www.ncf.edu/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/6-3004.pdf .. students over 21 to drink alcohol in their dorms and in certain outdoor areas, for instance, residents of the Home2 Suites are not permitted to drink, regardless of their age.

Students will not be able to order room service and the hotel will “not supply any food and beverage service” except for coffee, according to the contract. But the hotel also bans cooking appliances like hot pots and toaster ovens, and while this is consistent with New College’s residential policies, on-campus students will have easier access to the college’s dining hall and deli.

The hotel also has a “No Party Policy” and limits the number of guests in a room “at any given time” to two people, leaving students concerned about whether they will be able to socialize there.

[Two people!! So much for study groups. The officials could be seen as Ignoramuses Inc.]

At the Aug. 10 meeting, Chris Kinsley, NCF’s vice president of finance and administration, addressed some of the concerns, noting that students will be encouraged to use their meal plans—which are the same as if they were living on campus—and that the college might ask the Home2 Suites to run the shuttle more frequently. Corcoran noted that the college could purchase more vans to help with transit.

Reid told Inside Higher Ed that the Home2 Suites might not be big enough to solve the student housing crisis.

“Our interim dean of students is scrambling to solve problems with housing that resulted from the mold, the large incoming class and the decision to house all athletes in what had traditionally been upper class housing,” she told Inside Higher Ed. “The administration has made arrangements to house students in one hotel and they are now looking to secure additional rooms in a second hotel. I worry about our students who do not have clarity about where they will live or the transportation that will be provided on campus just one week out from the start of the semester.”

Kinsley noted at the Aug. 10 meeting that the Hilton Garden Inn, located on the same property as the Home2 Suites, had “held some rooms” for New College students if needed, though that was not reflected in the contract.

“We will have to come back to the board and ask for some additional dollars but the rooms are there to accommodate,” he said.

Dani Delaney’s son, a rising sophomore, decided he wouldn’t return to New College this semester in large part because he felt uneasy about the university’s decision to walk back the housing assignments students chose last spring.

He replied to multiple emails from the residential life department telling them he needed housing. Nevertheless, he received a notice on Aug. 9 telling him he had forfeited his spot in campus housing by failing to respond.

“I thought, ‘Oh my god, how many other people might have gotten that same email of, hey, basically, you’re on your own, kid,” Delaney said. “It just shows that they have not committed to what’s in the best interest of the student body. It’s so wrong, the way they’ve gone about it. The disorganization—I can’t wrap my brain around it. This is not how you run a college.”

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/students/academics/2023/08/16/chaos-reigns-new-college-florida-fall-semester-nears

[fuagf]

The Administrative Overhaul of New College of Florida

"Rare weekend when both The Cap AND the Rude Pundit chime in.
They're Killing New College Because They Can"

Talk about putting higher education under control of a political party.
It's not liberals who are brainwashing students.

This post placed to be read under/after the other replies.

Since February, Florida’s public liberal arts college has hired numerous employees
with little or no experience in higher education but deep ties to the Republican Party.

By Josh Moody


Florida governor Ron DeSantis (left) has tasked New College trustees with pushing NCF in a conservative direction under the leadership of interim president Richard Corcoran (right). Photo illustration by Justin Morrison/Inside Higher Ed | Getty Images

As the old adage goes, it’s not what you know but who you know that matters. And at New College of Florida, that cliché seems to be playing out in a number of recent hiring decisions.

An enrollment management director with no prior admissions experience. A dean of student affairs who has never worked in higher education. A general counsel imported from the State Senate. A head of donor relations who served as vice chair of the Republican Party of Sarasota. Those are just a few of the new hires made this year by the leaders of New College, which is in the midst of a dramatic makeover engineered by conservative trustees appointed in January .. https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2023/01/11/desantis-seeks-overhaul-small-liberal-arts-college .

Governor Ron DeSantis drove the selection of those new trustees, with four out of the six initial appointments coming from outside Florida. Their first order of business was to fire President Patricia Okker .. https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2023/02/01/desantis-puts-action-his-plan-end-woke-activism .. and install Richard Corcoran, a former GOP lawmaker and DeSantis ally, as interim president. Corcoran, who had never worked for a university before, was hired at the recommendation of new trustee Matthew Spalding.

Corcoran stepped in immediately, earning nearly double Okker’s salary .. https://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2023/02/14/college-pay-interim-president-400k-more-predecessor .. even as an interim. At the time, Spalding referred to him as a close friend. Spalding now leads the presidential search committee tasked with hiring the next president, and Corcoran has been named as one of three finalists.

More new hires have followed, many of whom lack higher ed experience but have close ties to Corcoran or the Republican Party. That has raised alarms among longtime NCF supporters.

Political Connections

New College has generated national headlines for eliminating its diversity, equity and inclusion office .. https://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2023/03/01/new-college-florida-trustees-ax-dei-office ; denying tenure to five professors .. https://www.insidehighered.com/news/governance/trustees-regents/2023/04/27/new-college-board-denies-tenure-5-professors .. despite approvals at every point of the process until the Board of Trustees; abruptly shuttering the gender studies program .. https://www.insidehighered.com/news/students/academics/2023/08/16/chaos-reigns-new-college-florida-fall-semester-nears ; and housing returning students in off-campus hotels .. https://www.insidehighered.com/news/students/academics/2023/08/16/chaos-reigns-new-college-florida-fall-semester-nears .. while giving newly recruited athletes space in campus facilities.

But the administrative overhaul of the college has not attracted the same attention.

Since February, 77 employees have left NCF—six involuntarily—according to figures provided by the college, while 87 new full-time and 31 part-time employees have been hired. A number of the new administrators come from outside the higher education sector.

“A lot of these hires don’t seem like they have any particular background in higher education,” said one former employee who requested anonymity to discuss hiring concerns freely.

And at least a handful of the new hires have ties to the political world.

Kevin Hoeft, the new vice president of enrollment management, does not appear to have worked in admissions previously; rather, he came from the Florida Department of Education, where he served under Corcoran when the interim president was education commissioner. Hoeft also played a role in the state’s decision .. https://www.tampabay.com/news/education/2023/08/29/desantis-african-american-studies-reviewers-slavery-college-board/ .. to ban an Advanced Placement course in African American studies. Some NCF critics have also raised concerns .. https://ncffreedom.org/f/kevin-hoefts-troubling-ties .. about his wife’s involvement in Moms for Liberty, an activist group that has driven the removal of books from libraries and K-12 schools over content concerns.

[Insert: ""Assholes with Casseroles"" who turn everyone of the cultural issues they are able to into 'parental rights.'
Moms for Liberty has turned ‘parental rights’ into a rallying cry for conservative parents
https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=172328096]

Bruce Abramson, the new executive director of new students and graduate admissions at NCF, taught computer science at the University of Southern California from 1987 to 1993, according to his website .. https://bdabramson.com/experience.htm . Though not mentioned, he also taught as an adjunct .. https://mitpress.mit.edu/author/bruce-abramson-6051/ .. at Carnegie Mellon University. And Abramson is the founder of the American Restoration Institute, which has posted frequently .. https://medium.com/@derschreiber .. about “Islamists” and accused progressives of stoking Islamophobia. (Abramson did not respond to a request for comment.)

David Rancourt, the new dean of student affairs, has no higher education experience but was involved in Republican politics .. https://campaigning.polisci.ufl.edu/alumni/ .. both as a lobbyist and a former aide for various GOP officials. He has also served as Florida’s director of elections and as deputy secretary of state.

Sydney Gruters, the executive director of the New College of Florida Foundation, which raises money for the college, is another new hire from conservative circles .. https://floridapolitics.com/archives/597630-sydney-gruters-to-lead-new-college-foundation/ .. who does not appear to have any higher education experience. Gruters is a former GOP political aide and is married to State Senator Joe Gruters, a local Republican.

Also at the foundation: Alice Rothbauer, the newly hired executive director and vice president of advancement, who is a former regional field director for the Republican Party of Florida. Her LinkedIn .. https://www.linkedin.com/in/alice-rothbauer-b6bba949/ .. profile does not indicate any prior involvement in higher education but says she spent 25 years as an independent beauty director for Mary Kay Cosmetics.

Hiring Practices

Numerous other hires, particularly in the newly established athletics program at New College, also lack experience in higher education but have served in similar positions at the K-12 level. Athletic director Mariano Jimenez Jr. was hired from the same job at Inspiration Academy, a private school owned by Eddie Speir, a trustee DeSantis put forth but who failed to win confirmation by the Legislature .. https://www.insidehighered.com/news/quick-takes/2023/05/11/florida-senate-rejects-new-college-trustee-choice .

And a number of new hires—like Corcoran himself, who earned a law degree from Regent University—graduated from Christian colleges known for their conservative politics, such as Liberty and Bob Jones Universities. The practice of hiring from religious institutions was noted recently in a complaint filed against NCF .. https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/r0gmph02bjg3hj5xewq4i/New_College_Civil_Rights_Complaint.pdf?rlkey=9rp0fcyo1cdgq8ooh1t9uxwv4&dl=0 .. with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights.

“The athletics program has only hired coaches from Christian schools,” the complainant wrote, while also accusing NCF of disproportionately focusing athletics recruiting on Christian schools.

Critics have raised additional concerns .. https://ncffreedom.org/f/hired-and-fired-from-new-college-of-florida-since-jan-6 .. about whether jobs were filled without proper searches.

Indeed, just how some new hires came about remains a mystery. But public records shared by American Oversight .. https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/dep9zfd2ej2uoynleeoxc/FL-NCF-23-0399-A-Processed-CLEAN.pdf?rlkey=qrxmros0pb5w21rg34gs19ycg&dl=0 , a progressive nonprofit, shed some light on certain hiring decisions.

Abramson, the director of new students and graduate admissions, for example, had inquired about a potential role at NCF months before he joined the college in August. Robert Allen—a conservative New College graduate who some have claimed is the architect behind the DeSantis plan .. https://www.thedailybeast.com/robert-allen-the-superyacht-lawyer-claiming-he-kicked-off-ron-desantis-new-college-takeover .. to remake the small liberal arts institution—appears to have facilitated that hire, connecting Abramson with the college when he asked about a teaching role.

Initially, Abramson pitched a course titled Information Integrity & Propaganda Defense: Survival Skills for the Information Age. It is unclear why he was hired in admissions rather than as an instructor—an area where he actually had prior experience—but his emails to Allen indicate one possibility.

“It occurs to me that when speaking to Richard Corcoran and/or the trustees, it’s likely to be easier to bring people into administration than onto faculty,” he wrote in an email American Oversight shared with Inside Higher Ed. “If so, the ideal way to bring me in would be to head a new Office of New Initiatives. Whether such an appointment would use a VP, Director, Dean, or other title would depend upon by-laws and institutional structure, but it should be doable with minimal red tape. From such a position, I can certainly engage in teaching—and the job would obviously involve working with existing programs and faculty.”

(Allen has also pitched Bruce Gilley—perhaps best known for a paper defending the merits of colonialism .. https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2017/09/19/controversy-over-paper-favor-colonialism-sparks-calls-retraction .. and clashing with colleges over diversity issues .. https://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2022/08/18/professor-sues-u-oregon-employee-over-twitter-block —as a potential faculty member. Gilley did not respond to a request for comment from Inside Higher Ed.)

New College officials aren’t willing to discuss their hiring practices. Sent a detailed list of 13 questions, NCF spokesperson Nathan March provided only hiring numbers and a brief statement defending the college’s practices. March did not reply to a request for more information.

“New College of Florida aspires to hire the best professionals to fill the many positions on campus,” March wrote. “The individuals hired have proven excellence in their respective career fields, and have demonstrated the ability to transfer those knowledge, skills, and abilities to the needs of New College.”

March himself is also a new hire, one who does have previous experience in higher education.

Breaking Norms

Hiring employees from outside higher education isn’t altogether unusual for colleges and universities, experts told Inside Higher Ed. But usually those hires aren’t placed in role such as admissions or student affairs.

“There have always been roles on college campuses that are not as central to the core mission. They’re still central to operations, but not the teaching and learning mission,” said Adrianna Kezar, director of the Pullias Center for Higher Education at the University of Southern California. “Certainly, there have been hires that come from other sectors from time to time. But I do think higher ed has always favored hiring individuals who have had experience in higher education.”

And institutions often look to the corporate world when hiring senior officials—especially for the presidency—given that governing boards are often made up of businesspeople, she said.

Positions that are more removed from students—such as accounting and business services—are more common landing spots for new employees from outside higher education, Kezar said, noting that the skills they require are more transferable from the corporate world to higher education. But colleges don’t typically fill top admissions and student affairs positions with inexperienced hires.

Experts also suggested that a jump into postsecondary education can come with a steep learning curve.

Certain pillars of higher ed—particularly the notion of shared governance—can be difficult for those from outside academe to understand, explained Michelle Van Noy, director of the Education and Employment Research Center at the School of Management and Labor Relations at Rutgers University. Oftentimes, she noted, the corporate sector tends to have more top-down decision-making compared to the more layered bureaucracy of higher education.

Van Noy added that the notion of higher education as a public good means that colleges and
universities generally strive for a different set of outcomes than the profit-driven corporate world.

Critics of the New College takeover worry about the loss of institutional memory as NCF sheds longtime employees and brings in new hires with little or no connection to the campus. The anonymous former employee expressed concern about the college’s future.

“You increase the likelihood that you’re going to make mistakes,” the ex-employee said.

The source was particularly concerned about the recent vote to eliminate the gender studies program. The source questioned the legality of the process. An analysis from NCF Freedom .. https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/ycukex9ynhpak2wgk213l/Anatomy-of-an-Improper-Motion.pdf?rlkey=jm2rq1w26rot86e3nqpbm9nre&dl=0 , a group that has emerged to push back on the dramatic changes at New College, argued that the motion was improper given that the item was so vaguely labeled that the public could not comment on it.

The lawyer who allowed that motion to go forward, Bill Galvano, is a former Republican official who served in the Florida House of Representatives and later as president of the Florida Senate before joining NCF in February.

“These problems keep compounding because one weak link is aggravating the next,” the source said, questioning how familiar NCF’s out-of-state trustees are with Florida’s public records laws and how that affects their ability to perform the duties of their role.

Plans to hire Galvano at the same time as Corcoran prompted Democratic state representative Anna V. Eskamani to write on X (formerly Twitter .. https://twitter.com/AnnaForFlorida/status/1620565896057196544 ) in January, “New College is basically becoming the unemployment center for former Republican politicians.”

NCF’s hiring practices raise an important question: Is the college making a deliberate push to hire from outside academe, or is it simply unable to attract qualified candidates given its politically charged environment? While New College officials won’t say, recent media coverage suggests that Florida is experiencing a brain drain .. https://www.thenation.com/article/society/desantis-florida-education/ .. as the state—led by a governor who is running for president in a crowded field of Republican candidates—charges full force into the culture wars.

Politics and state policy definitely have an impact on recruiting pools, experts said.

“I think that a lot of things are shifting in the industry right now,” Van Noy said. “Certainly, some of the things that are happening at the state policy level are driving some shifts in terms of where people are seeking employment, with people coming and going based on the state context.”

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/governance/executive-leadership/2023/09/19/new-college-florida-looks-outside-academe-fill-jobs