DeSantis details more changes to Florida universities, New College during Bradenton visit

Gov. Ron DeSantis announced plans Tuesday to reshape Florida’s public universities by further prohibiting diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives while adding general education core course requirements that are “rooted in the values of liberty and western tradition.”

In a morning press conference at the State College of Florida in Bradenton, DeSantis laid out several legislative proposals that he expects to sign into law during the 2023 session.

“The dominant view is the use of higher education is to impose ideological conformity, to try to promote political activism,” DeSantis said. “That’s not what we believe is appropriate in the state of Florida. Instead, we need our higher education systems to focus on promoting academic excellence, the pursuit of truth and to give students the foundation so that they can think for themselves.”

According to the documentation provided by the governor’s office, the proposal requires university-level general education courses to not “promote ideological indoctrination,” gives university leaders the ability to call a post-tenure review at any time and prohibits the use of diversity, equity and inclusion in hiring decisions.

DeSantis said the plan is meant to build on last year’s legislation, which gave universities the ability to review tenured faculty every five years and banned certain instructional material from schools.

After adding conservative leaders to New College’s board of trustees, DeSantis said he plans to invest tens of millions of dollars into the Sarasota liberal arts college.

This year’s budget recommendation will include $15 million toward faculty and student recruitment at the school, along with $10 million recurring annually.

Similar investments will be made across the state, said DeSantis, who will also direct the Florida Legislature to direct $100 million for faculty recruitment at state universities.

In a wide-ranging speech that promoted the success of higher education in Florida, DeSantis also suggested that “bureaucrats” at public universities have misused taxpayer funds on training and educational resources that he doesn’t support.

“We are also going to eliminate all DEI and (Critical Race Theory) bureaucracies in the state of Florida — no funding. That will wither on the vine. I think that’s really important because it serves as an ideological filter, a political filter.”

“I can tell you those bureaucracies are not what the voters, the taxpayers, the people of the state want,” he added.

“His rants against ‘political ideology’ + ‘indoctrination’ are accusations in a mirror,” said former state Rep. Carlos Guillermo Smith, D-Orlando. “He wants total political censorship + control.’”

One of New College’s new board trustees, Christopher Rufo, joined DeSantis at Tuesday’s press conference. The conservative activist who has made national headlines for his stance against CRT voiced full support for DeSantis’ proposal.

“We have a chance to reestablish the authority of the public and also just to remind people that the purpose of a university is not to push political activism, it’s to train good students, good citizens in pursuit of knowledge, in pursuit of the truth, the good and the beautiful,” Rufo said.

DeSantis also announced that each of Florida’s 28 state colleges, including SCF, signed a joint letter agreeing to end funding for all CRT and DEI programs by Wednesday.

“Our institutions will not fund or support any institutional practice, policy or academic requirement that compels belief in critical race theory or related concepts such as intersectionality, or the idea that systems of oppression should be the primary lens through which teaching and learning are analyzed and/or improved upon,” Florida College System Presidents wrote in a Jan. 18 joint letter.

Three Florida universities are also set to earn a boost in funding to develop “world-class civic institutes,” the governor’s office said.

The Hamilton Center at the University of Florida is expected to become the Hamilton College by 2024, complete with its own student housing and facilities, DeSantis said.

The Adam Smith Center at Florida International University and the Florida Institute of Politics at Florida State University will also be expanded to create curricula and coursework for Florida schools that educate “the next generation on the values of liberty and constitutionalism,” according to the governor’s office.

“This is just an important mission because I think the more we’re centering higher education on the integrity of the academics, excellence, pursuit of truth, teaching kids to think for themselves and not trying to impose orthodoxy, you are going to see people flooding into these institutions,” said DeSantis.