New College of Florida Was Progressive. Then Gov. DeSantis Overhauled It.

[Zorro]

At the state school, gender studies is out. ‘The Odyssey’ is required reading. A Charlie Kirk statue is coming. Has one ideological bubble replaced another?

April Flakne strides into the classroom to teach a course on “The Odyssey,” a new requirement at New College of Florida.

She has taught philosophy at the small state college for 25 years, but this class is different — seven weeks on one classic book, required of all students. Normally, her focus is on philosophers like Hannah Arendt and Simone de Beauvoir, and their theories of totalitarianism, revolution and feminism.

This class on Homer is a turnabout from all that, and marks a signature accomplishment for conservatives who want to redirect higher education.

In early 2023, Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, executed what many viewed as a conservative takeover of New College, a struggling state school. With fewer than 1,000 students, the liberal arts college had long been a draw for nonconformists, where grades were verboten and students designed their own classes and majors.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/28/us/new-college-ron-desantis-florida-conservative.html?unlocked_article_code=1.AFA.u7mp.cjGpH533xtxR&smid=url-share

[J_William_Ryan]

1. DeSantis destroyed it.

That’s what Republicans do, they destroy things.

[cachukis]

2. My niece graduated in 2015. None of her

classmates will return. It was a special place to create your own curriculum and area of study.
Sadness has descended on a lot of Florida education.

[Easterncedar]

3. They want the real estate, I believe

They killed the school. They destroyed its scholastic reputation, wrecked the buildings, dumped books, fired brown, gay and trans employees, denied tenure to qualified professors and literally put down astroturf in place of green space. They made senior students live in hotels to create dorms for jocks recruited for sports programs that had not existed at the school.

They paid Corcoran and his cronies wildly inflated salaries. Just wait. When there’s nothing left to steal, they will close the school and develop the real estate. It was a beautiful campus.

[Timeflyer]

4. The new New College has sports teams: mascot, the all-devouring Burmese Python.

Now DeSantis wants to basically turn over the University of South Florida Sarasota Campus to new New College.