New College's critics are running out of arguments. Why won't they admit it?
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Critics of change at New College of Florida have asserted that the trustees appointed by Gov. Ron DeSantis seek “to limit what students can learn, research, share and think.” As someone intimately involved from its inception in the project to keep New College from being absorbed into another unit of Florida’s state university system, I can absolutely affirm that is not true.
And no one is conducting "an attack on academic freedom," which was suggested in a recent guest column by Esther Barazzone, a New College graduate who is the former president of Chatham University.
No, what Gov. DeSantis has called for is a change in emphasis to bring balance between student and faculty autonomy on the one hand – and, on the other, an expected foundation of knowledge based on a classical, shared core curriculum.
A change in emphasis
Those who question the need for a change in emphasis – despite the college’s historic declining standards and sustained drop in applications – only need to look at what the New College faculty has been emphasizing. New College's website currently reflects, before the full implementation of changes, that of about 100 faculty members:
Five teach history.
Five teach mathematics.
Four teach economics.
39 are affiliated with teaching gender studies.
Yes, 39.
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Could this imbalance have something to do with the fact that – according to a January 2023 report in Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender News – New College has 10 times the national average population of LGBTQ+ students and was for years rated a top-10 LGBTQ college by The Princeton Review?Doesn’t this imbalance suggest that it's not an “assault on academic freedom” to consider a change in emphasis? And that maybe the trustees, rather than the faculty alone, should have a voice in deciding what the college’s academic emphasis should be?
New College has a mandate from the state of Florida and its citizens to be the “honors college” of the state university system. But for more than a decade, past administrations and the faculty have not honored that mandate. Whether from a lack of resources, will or belief, they have allowed and seemingly embraced New College’s steady drift away from being Florida’s “honors college” to becoming Florida’s “progressive college.”
Faculty lacks balance
Consider the fact that the college employs the following faculty members:
A professor of French who also runs the gender studies program, which sponsors “Feminist Fridays” on campus and a Twitter account that supports abortion as “life-saving care.”
A full-time transgender studies professor whose “academic” publications suggest that airport safety screening is essentially transphobic because it assumes the two biological sexes are stable markers of identity without proper regard for prosthetic penises, among other things (I am not joking).
A creative writing professor who refers to herself on her website as a “beach witch” and promotes tarot card readings with her dog.
These pedagogical aberrations should in no way be taken as an indictment of every New College faculty member, or even the vast majority. Still, it is reasonable to suggest there has been an extraordinary lack of ideological balance within the New College of Florida faculty.
And here's just one example: When I suggested to the former president of New College that she introduce me to a faculty member or two who might sponsor a campus conservative club – in an effort to provide a support network for conservative students – she was unable to identify a single conservative professor.
Let that sink in. Not one. Not a single one.
The attacks on Interim President Richard Corcoran and the trustees entirely miss the fact that they embrace both New College foundational proposition – that each student is “responsible for their own education” – and its acclaimed independent study and tutorial system, which distinguishes it from virtually every other college in America. At its best, New College is an undergraduate college that runs as a graduate school. Indeed, that is the magic of New College.
Accountability needed at New College
In a democracy, freedom requires accountability. When those who have operated with freedom have failed, they must be called to account. That’s what Gov. DeSantis has done, and calling New College of Florida to account is precisely the responsibility of the trustees.
As for the recent issue of tenure applications that were deferred – not denied – Barazzone and other likeminded critics have totally ignored the fact that the new trustees recruited for New College's academic turnaround project had insufficient time, as a collective, to review the applications.
Good God Almighty, are they still unable to comprehend the implications of the major transition that took place? The bottom line is that New College was kept alive at the last minute by the governor and the Florida Legislature – the very same parties now ironically detested by virtually every single critic of change.
In alarmist tones, the critics of change at New College warn us that deferring the tenure applications “will harm New College’s hiring for years.” On reflection, however, that might actually not be a bad thing.
Why? Because that huge, unwritten “NOT WELCOME” sign – the one that potential conservative faculty members interested in teaching positions at New College had grown accustomed to reading between the lines of advertised positions – is being torn down. The reality is that what may hurt us with some faculty applicants will help us with others who, in the past, would not have even applied for fear of being automatically rejected by an institution widely perceived to be far left.
With a faculty and administration committed to excellence instead of ideology, Novum Collegium can again be a reality. And when that happens, the credit should go to Corcoran, the Board of Trustees, the Florida Legislature and Gov. DeSantis for their commitment to making New College the best liberal arts college in America.
Robert Allen Jr. is a 1978 graduate of New College and a former board trustee. He currently serves on the college's Presidential Search Committee and is the chairman of the Palm Beach Freedom Institute.
This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: New College's critics continue to offer more complaints than ideas
