This timeline is put together by the Novo Collegeian Alliance in order to raise awareness of the events surrounding New College of Florida since 2023.
“I’m so excited to be part of this incredible community, and to help New College grow and thrive,” Okker said. “I’m optimistic about what is next for New College, and I look forward to leading such an impactful, inspiring institution to an even greater future in the world of higher education.”
Right-wing pundit Chris Rufo is stoking fears about “critical race theory” and “gender ideology” across America. Who’s paying his bills? Wall Street billionaires, intent on provoking culture war to divert Americans’ attention from grotesque wealth inequality.
We are now over the walls and ready to transform higher education from within. Under the leadership of Gov. DeSantis, our all-star board will demonstrate that the public universities, which have been corrupted by woke nihilism, can be recaptured, restructured, and reformed. In the coming weeks, I’ll be visiting New College of Florida with our landing team. In the meantime, I’d love to connect with any faculty, staff, and students who are excited about the coming transformation.
NYT op-ed by Michelle Goldberg: "The fight over the future of New College is about more than just the fate of this small school in Sarasota. For DeSantis, it’s part of a broader quest to crush any hint of progressivism in public education, a quest he’d likely take national if he ever became president. For Rufo, a reconstructed New College would serve as a model for conservatives to copy all over the country. “If we can take this high-risk, high-reward gambit and turn it into a victory, we're going to see conservative state legislators starting to reconquer public institutions all over the United States,” he said. Should he prevail, it will set the stage for an even broader assault on the academic freedom of every instructor whose worldview is at odds with the Republican Party."
Governor Ron DeSantis Appoints six conservatively-aligned members to the NCF Board of Trustees
Save New College is the community-based movement started by students, alumni, parents, and professors to communicate about the takeover that coalesced on January 9, 2023. It is supported by organizations like NCF Freedom, the Novo Collegian Alliance, Defy and others.
Trustee Christopher Rufo on Twitter quoting a trans student who was interviewed by the Daily Beast, mocking their fear and trepidation at the sudden takeover of the board with a "tears of joy" emoji "'I got really sad and then just, like, laid down,' she told the Daily Beast." [crying and laughing emoji]
New trustees Christopher Rufo and Jason "Eddie" Speir meet with faculty and staff of New College of Florida. This meeting was almost canceled due to death threats. A packed, often contentious crowd of 200 people attended. "We have a mandate from Gov. DeSantis," Rufo said before the meeting.
TheDailyBeast: "Students say they won’t let a mastermind of the right-wing “critical race theory” and “grooming” panics change their school without a fight."
"We are organizing a 'hostile takeover of a liberal college' and seeking to implement a 'counterrevolutionary response to the "long march through the institutions."' This is a fair summary of events in the New York Times."
New College President Pat Okker ousted. Richard Corcoran named as interim President, with New College Chief of Staff Brad Thiessen to serve as acting interim. Conservative outlets announce Corcoran as replacement before the meeting takes place.
From the NCF student newspaper, The Catalyst: Inside the “hostile takeover”: an autopsy of the Jan. 31 Board of Trustees meeting (Sophia Brown)
Local columnist warns of Speir's financial entanglements with Ronald E. Heineman, using sports to generate (or launder) cash. Note: Inspiration Academy has "baseball academy" within the school reputedly aimed at high school players willing to repeat their senior year to try to get recruited by any college.
FL Board of Trustees approves contract for Richard Corcoran as interim president of NCF.
By Patricia Mazzei: "Gov. Ron DeSantis’s plan to transform New College of Florida into a beacon of conservatism has left students and faculty members at the tight-knit, progressive school reeling."
This not-for-profit 501(c)(3) organization was created by Sarasota-based long-term supporters of New College of Florida (NCF). The mission of NCF Freedom is to fully protect and promote the future of New College of Florida as a unique public liberal arts college that honors academic freedom, educational innovation, collaborative student-guided learning, and its foundational values of open discourse within a just, diverse, equitable, and inclusive community.
The Save New College movement crystalizes with several organizations and initiatives being announced and coalescing at the Alumni Reunion.
Approval of updated interim president Richard Corcoran's contract.
NCF Catalyst collected and transcribed moving, heartfelt letters from students to Dr. Patricia Okker.
The Daily Beast: "Robert Allen—a New College grad with longtime ties to the GOP—has been working behind the scenes to help reshape the liberal arts college into an ultra-conservative institution."
Office of Outreach and Inclusive Excellence at New College of Florida eliminated. Section 5.2.2.1 of the Faculty Handbook eliminates the request for “a statement regarding the candidate’s contribution to, or approach to achieving diversity.”
"We will be shutting down low-performing, ideologically-captured academic departments and hiring new faculty. The student body will be recomposed over time: some current students will self-select out, others will graduate; we'll recruit new students who are mission-aligned."
Office of Outreach and Inclusive Excellence at New College of Florida eliminated. Section 5.2.2.1 of the Faculty Handbook eliminates the request for “a statement regarding the candidate’s contribution to, or approach to achieving diversity.”
Office of Outreach and Inclusive Excellence at New College of Florida eliminated. Section 5.2.2.1 of the Faculty Handbook eliminates the request for “a statement regarding the candidate’s contribution to, or approach to achieving diversity.”
“In fact, on that Friday, Mar. 3, I got a phone call at 3:15 asking if I could come in [for a meeting with Corcoran] at 3:30,” Rosario-Hernandez continued. “That meeting was very, very short. And in that meeting I was presented with, you know, ‘We no longer need your services.’ And I was fired that day.”
"New College students refuse to be manipulated by Desantis’ 'buzzwords', politicized agenda"
TWEET: Trustee Rufo: History professor's work "pure left-wing Mad Libs"
Substack: "I’ve been observing this both in my own experience, in my recent reporting on DEI in public universities, and in my role as a trustee of New College of Florida. And I've noticed that what we are seeing, in a sense, is the emergence of the university as a “therapeutic institution.” The culture is not oriented towards the production of knowledge or towards merit, which are competitive and hierarchical, but towards a system based on personal identity and a therapeutic model, so that the university becomes a place for personal exploration, a place to heal from trauma and dysregulation, a place that provides a therapeutic environment rather than a competitive and knowledge-seeking environment."
By Jack Stripling: Yoleidy Rosario-Hernandez: "People should be paying attention to what’s happening at New College of Florida because they could be next. Their institutions can be next, their state can be next. This is a very authoritarian and scary time where we're seeing a lot of people’s rights being removed and revoked and there’s an abuse of power. And so we need to be alert. We need to be aware of what’s happening so that we can hold our political appointees accountable for their actions."
By Charlie McCann: "Conservatives have seized control of New College of Florida. Students are debating whether they should defy or work with them"
The organization that would eventually become a 501(c)(3) organization is formed and helps fund the first alt-graduation event in 2023.
Appraisal for NCF and airport land, conducted March 15 and returned to Bill Galvano April 24th by Fredrick J. (Rick) Piccolo AAE President, Chief Executive Officer of the Sarasota Bradenton International Airport. Link goes to PDF of report.
Speir's baseball coach, Mariano Jiménez, got hired for an intercollegiate team at NCF. The hiring marks a milestone for the college, introducing intercollegiate athletics outside of existing intramural sports at the public honors school with a reputation for its academics. Jimenez was the president of baseball operations and athletic director at Inspiration Academy, a faith-based school in Bradenton founded by DeSantis-appointed trustee Eddie Speir. Jimenez also coached for IMG Academy and Palm Beach Atlantic University. Jiménez's public comments ignore the existence of New College's intramural athletes: state-level powerlifters, swimmers, and a sailing team that beat his alma mater, PBAU, several times.
Sydney Gruters, who has been a top aide for two Sarasota congressmen for more than a decade, has been named executive director and vice president of advancement for the New College of Florida Foundation.
Trustee Matthew Spalding coordinated with individuals behind the scenes in January to move towards hiring Richard Corcoran as interim president and Bill Galvano as general counsel, including texting with Corcoran himself.
Academic Freedom, Civil Liberties, and Emerging Technology with New College Alum Jennifer Granick
By Conor Friedersdorf: "New College has problems, some typical of left-leaning colleges. Some of the criticisms and proposals put forth by the new trustees are reasonable. But Rufo’s indictment, which has been embraced by the populist right, is mostly wrong. New College was never captured by a large and fearsome DEI bureaucracy. In fact, the academic program cultivates a fierce and idiosyncratic independence. And when it hired its first dean of diversity, equity, and inclusion in 2022, it wasn't surrendering to the woke left. It was responding to an explicit mandate from a DeSantis appointee."
"In an email last week directed to “friends with college-age students,” John Stemberger, president of the Florida Family Policy Council, a nonprofit conservative group, plugged the scholarships."
"The National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) is a separate entity from the NCAA that focuses on smaller schools. || The school aims to join the Sun Conference, which has 10 members across Florida and Georgia. The conference’s schools include Southeastern University in Lakeland, Ave Maria University in Ave Maria and Warner University in Lake Wales."
VIDEO: Gavin Newsom visits New College "ground zero for what the GOP are trying to do to education"
The Catalyst: "With the recent firing of former President Patricia Okker and the second of two interim presidents currently in place, New College is in the market for a candidate worthy of filling the role full-time."
Interim Director of Applied Data Science Aaron Hillegass resigns, rescinds $600,000 donation.
Corcoran placed a memo in faculty tenure packets urging BoT to delay/deny tenure
Eddie Speir's Substack: My Proposed Agenda Items for 4/26 BoT Meeting: Note Item 4: "4. Declare Wokeness as a Religion and define guidance for Curriculum Review Committee. "
Corcoran gives Admitted Students Day speech stating that sports are key to creating a 180-degree transformation of student life.
Dr. Eric Schickler is a Professor of Political Science at the University of California, Berkeley where he is currently working on a book about polarization in American politics. He joins host and fellow New College alum, Mike Palmer, in a discussion about what’s happening at New College, what it says about the current state of higher education and politics in America, and what we can do about it.
Florida's Voice quotes new AD about "servant mindset" and how he expects sports to gel the community, bring record enrollment. "The process of bringing New College into the Sun Conference was assisted by President of Warner University, Dr. David Hoag, and President of St. Thomas University, Dave Armstrong. | The 10 schools in the Sun Conference include: Ave Maria University, College of Coastal Georgia, Florida Memorial University, Keiser University, St. Thomas University, The Savannah College of Art and Design, Southeastern University, Thomas University, Warner University and Webber International University."
Alums and profs speak at committee hearing, but Eddie Speir damaged his prospects by answering questions about his belief that wokeness was a religion, and that he had a duty to spread his Christian truth to students.
"The search committee to hire New College’s next president has been announced, but it does not include a representative of the student government. It has been the norm for student government representatives to serve on Florida college presidential search committees. Student government reps served on recent presidential search committees at Florida State University, the University of Florida and the University of Central Florida. Debra Jenks, the chair of the New College trustees board, did appoint a student to the search committee but that individual is not involved in student government. He is an intern for Sarasota Republican state Sen. Joe Gruters."
Catalyst article: "“It’s lasted for almost 20 years, and probably will stick forever, as an homage to the nerdy, nonconformist nature of New College,” the Null Set webpage once said. This webpage has since been removed from the official New College website. It is unclear when it was taken down.
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