Longtime reader Larry Franz calls my attention to this alarming (but not surprising) development:
Gov. Ron DeSantis began the process Friday of transforming Sarasota's New College of Florida into a more conservative institution, appointing six new board members, including conservative activist Christopher Rufo [see], a dean at conservative Hillsdale College and a senior fellow at The Claremont Institute, a right-wing think tank.
"It is our hope that New College of Florida will become Florida's classical college, more along the lines of a Hillsdale of the south," Florida Education Commissioner Manny Diaz said in a statement....
Rufo said in a series of Twitter posts Friday that public universities have "been corrupted by woke nihilism" and he is "ready to transform higher education from within." He said he plans to recruit new faculty to New College to "create an institution where academics can thrive, without self-censorship."
“My ambition is to help the new board majority transform New College into a classical liberal arts institution. We are recapturing higher education.” Rufo said.
New College is already a classic liberal arts institution ("classical" here is just code for "conservative" and nothing else). The only "hopeful" sign here is that Mr. Rufo (who has zero qualifications, of course, to sit on a college board) speaks of recruiting new faculty, rather than violating the contractual or academic freedom rights of existing faculty.
Any readers who have more details about what is afoot may shared them in the comments.
