The New College of Florida Board of Trustees removed President Okker. Photo courtesy of the LA Times.
On Tuesday, Jan. 31, the Board of Trustees at New College in Florida voted to fire President Patricia Okker and replaced her with former Florida GOP house speaker Richard Corcoran. Governor Ron DeSantis had earlier replaced some of the board members with his own people.
DeSantis has been on a rampage with his new laws, claiming in his election win speech that “Florida is where woke comes to die.” He is following through on his promise to “fight the woke in the schools” by engaging in a hostile takeover of a small liberal arts college in Sarasota.
Camilla Mortensen, Editor-in-Chief at the Eugene Weekly and journalism instructor at LCC, attended New College from 1990-1994. New College promised an Ivy League education at a state college price. She says that New College is “where I really learned to be independent as a thinker, and to take a stand for my beliefs. That’s the irony of Gov. Ron DeSantis’ attacks on the school. He thinks it creates a liberal ideology and is using it as part of his attack on ‘wokeness,’ which he thinks is a bad thing. What New College creates are thinkers and dreamers, and its commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion — DEI — is part of what builds better scholars and community members.”
DEI is on the Governor’s chopping block all across the state. Mortensen continued, “DeSantis, widely seen as a future presidential candidate, wants Florida to outlaw DEI, and New College is his example.” Mortensen credits New College for leading her to LCC. “My last year there, I worked in the admissions office and one thing I discovered, both among my friends at school and among the prospective students I talked to, was that community college students, by far, were the most successful and prepared students. I resolved that, down the road, I wanted to teach at the sort of school that brought amazing people to a place like New College.”
Beyond stopping “wokeism” at New College, DeSantis has ordered the removal of books from classrooms, the cancellation of certain curriculum in AP African American classes, created an election fraud police task force to go after people who he claimed had voted illegally, and spent taxpayer money to perform the cruel publicity stunt of sending asylum seekers to Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts
Mortensen closed with her thoughts on what this means for the country. “If DeSantis succeeds at New College, then more attacks on public schools and public education will follow, and if he succeeds in his attacks on DEI and on teaching African American history, then we are taking huge and horrifying steps back as a country.”
Daphne Gabrieli, a writing instructor at LCC, is also an alumni of New College. “Governor Ron DeSantis is complicit in a takeover of my former school. The board fired the president of the college and replaced her with a former state House speaker, one of DeSantis’s Republican allies. They’re threatening to fire any faculty who’s not a fit.” Gabrieli described New College as a “haven” for smart, progressive, LGBTQIA+ students, etc. She compared DeSantis’ takeover to a police state.
Gabrieli described her experience at New College as a place that promoted a “free and thoughtful exchange of ideas.” She said she read everything from “ancient Sanskrit texts to Margaret Atwood to Erich Fromm.” Incidentally, The Handmaid’s Tale novel by Margaret Atwood, is being challenged in Florida.
Gabrieli closed with her thoughts on what he wants to do to New College. “Now that DeSantis is doing his book ban and anti-CRT stuff, he wants to fire anyone who’s woke. He wants to turn it into a conservative haven, instead. De-fund diversity programs; hire teachers who are right-wing. At a hippie school with no grades. . . . Good luck.”
Governor DeSantis isn’t the only conservative attacking the idea of “woke education.” Moms For Liberty is an organization “dedicated to the survival of America by unifying, educating and empowering parents to defend their parental rights at all levels of government.” Moms For Liberty is behind most of the book challenges across the country, including in Florida.
Moms For Liberty has an Oregon chapter located in Deschutes County. The Torch reached out for comments on book bans, but they have not responded. The Torch will continue to monitor these attacks on education throughout the country and any attempts here in Oregon.
