U.S. Education Department launches investigation into New College of Florida board, admin

The U.S. Department of Education has launched an investigation into New College of Florida’s trustees and administration following a civil rights complaint filed on Aug. 22, according to a letter sent Friday from the agency to college Interim President Richard Corcoran.

The DOE’s Office of Civil Rights said it plans to investigate the college on the basis of disability discrimination and determine whether it "excluded qualified persons with disabilities from participation in, denied them the benefits of, or otherwise subjected them to discrimination in its programs, activities, aids, benefits, or services.."

It also plans to investigate whether New College failed to ensure that its communications with individuals with disabilities were as effective as its communications with others.

The government said it may request documents and interviews with individuals at New College with knowledge of the facts of the case and may also visit New College itself if necessary, the letter said.

The civil rights complaint outlined an ongoing trend of discrimination against "protected groups" such as LGBTQ+ students, and the creation of a hostile environment toward those students. It requested that the federal departments launch a formal investigation into the college's leadership and compel action to remedy damages the complaint claims leaders have caused.

New College has been undergoing a conservative transformation since January when Gov. Ron DeSantis appointed a new majority to its Board of Trustees tasked with shaping the small liberal arts school into the "Hillsdale College of the South." Hillsdale College is a private, conservative Christian liberal arts school in Michigan.

The trustees swiftly dissolved the college's diversity department, abolished the gender studies program, fired an LGBTQ+ librarian and denied tenure to five faculty members set to receive it.

Amid the changes, more than a third of faculty have left New College causing course cancellations and staffing vacancies for the fall semester.

New College did not respond to requests for comment about the complaint. The DOE was not immediately available for comment, and its open investigations web page was not updated to reflect the investigation into New College as of Friday evening.

Jennifer Granick, a New College alumnae and lawyer, helped compile evidence and interviews in preparation for the nearly 40-page complaint.

Following the confirmation of an investigation, Granick said it was a first step in ensuring all students have equal access to an education at New College.

"The ultimate goal is for (marginalized) students... (to) be welcomed and to be able to get a good education because they are not being subjected to ridicule or exclusion or policies which disproportionately burden them and interfere with their ability to get an education," Granick said.

Christopher Rufo, a conservative activist, vocal opponent of diversity policy and trustee appointed by Gov. Ron DeSantis, was named several times in the complaint for allegedly creating a hostile environment for students. He took to social media to attack the DOE for its investigation.

“It’s time to abolish the Department of Education,” Rufo wrote on Twitter, now called X.

On his substack, he wrote that President Joe Biden was weaponizing the DOE against conservatives.

“We are ready for the fight,” Rufo wrote. “When Governor DeSantis appointed the new board of trustees, he told us: `If the media isn’t attacking you, you’re not doing your job.’ The same could be said of the Biden Administration.”

Claims against New College in the complaint

Rufo's past posts to Twitter, now called X, are cited as exhibits in which he quotes New College students from news articles with laughing emojis, and posts about pressing misdemeanor battery charges against Libby Harrity, who was a student at the time but now attends Hampshire College.

Harrity allegedly spat on Rufo’s shoe at a protest on May 15, and Rufo later dropped the charges when Harrity withdrew from New College to attend Hampshire.

The complaint claims that Harrity was "forced" to withdraw because of the charges filed by Rufo and that her leaving New College was "exactly what (Rufo) wanted, pushing out an LGBTQ+ student leader who was not aligned with the “little Hillsdale” mission."

Rufo also tweeted that identifying as non-binary was "an entirely fake identity," and that nobody was non-binary, adding that it was "weapons-grade pseudoscience." Non-binary identity falls under the LGBTQ+ umbrella and means someone doesn't identify entirely with being a male or female. New College of Florida previously had a large LGBTQ+ population and has historically been seen as a safe space for the groups.

The removal of gender-neutral bathroom signage was also cited in the complaint. The college removed bathroom signs across campus that read "all gender restroom" or "gender neutral restroom" in favor of more traditional bathroom signage. Students re-wrote the gender-neutral language on the signs, but the college erased the writing, the complaint said.

The signage removal contributed to the creation of a hostile environment for non-binary New College students, the complaint claims.

The filing also claims the Board of Trustees abolished the college's diversity program with no plan to support minority students. With the abolishment of the Office of Outreach and Inclusive Excellence, Muslim students were left without access to food during Ramadan last spring, when Muslims fast from sunrise to sunset. The outreach office's funding historically provided meals for Muslim students, since meal plan hours ended before they were allowed to eat.

The actions requested in the complaint include the federal departments ordering New College to implement mandatory training for staff, administration, and the Board of Trustees on supporting LGBTQ+ and minority students.

The complaint also asks that federal departments order the college's leadership to rescind discriminatory policies and directives, and provide safe and equivalent housing for students who wish to live on campus. It asserted that the college discriminated against current students in housing assignments.

New College has been in the midst of a housing crisis as it closed its I.M. Pei dorms ahead of the fall semester. The Pei dorms, which typically house freshmen, were assigned to upperclassmen, and the newer, apartment-style dorms were assigned to incoming student-athletes as part of a record freshman class. The upperclassmen were assigned to Pei dorms despite a mold report finding that the buildings were virtually uninhabitable due to systemic mold issues in the buildings.

The college later shuttered the Pei dorms completely and sent hundreds of students off campus to hotels.

Follow Herald-Tribune Education Reporter Steven Walker on Twitter at @swalker_7. He can be reached at sbwalker@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: New College of Florida subject of federal discrimination investigation