Some are true believers in the “new” New College. Some severely doubt that effort and attempt to resist it. And some find themselves in the middle, appreciating certain aspects of the transformation, like the increase in state dollars and that enrollment is trending upward, but worrying about others, like the killing off of the gender-studies program.
What emerged from my reporting is a portrait of a campus in flux. That portrait, I think, is all the more relevant considering the Trump administration’s efforts to bring higher ed to heel during his first 100 days in office.
While the board shakeup at New College might seem quaint by comparison, the ideas that animated it are the same ones en vogue in the White House: chiefly, that colleges across the country have too long been captured by Democrats and leftists at the expense of academic achievement, and drastic measures must be taken to right the ship.
My article is an examination of how that criticism has manifested on one tiny campus on Florida’s western coast.
As I continue to cover politics in academe, here are a few questions that I’m thinking about:
