New College of Florida to erect statue of Charlie Kirk
New College of Florida plans to build a statue of Charlie Kirk, the right-wing activist killed in Utah last week, to display on its Sarasota campus, according to a Tuesday social media post from the school.
New College, Florida’s smallest public university, announced the statue with a post on X along with an AI-generated image of Kirk that shows the 31-year-old sitting at a table with a microphone in his hand.
“The statue, privately funded by community leaders, will stand on campus as a commitment by New College to defend and fight for free speech and civil discourse in American life,” the college wrote.
Kirk was shot to death while sitting and talking at an event at a Utah university.
Since 2023, New College has been transformed by Gov. Ron DeSantis, who appointed new, conservative leaders to run it and tapped Richard Corcoran, a former Republican lawmaker, as president. The tiny college on the shores of Sarasota Bay was seen as a staging ground for DeSantis’ war on “woke,” as the governor and his allies complained New College was too progressive and indoctrinated students with leftist ideology, and are now reshaping it in a conservative image.
https://www.tampabay.com/news/florida-politics/2025/09/16/charlie-kirk-new-college-statue/
DeSantis has ruined a once unique public university for purely partisan political reasons.
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