Florida’s Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis has targeted a tiny, public liberal arts college on the shores of Sarasota Bay, as a staging ground for his war on “woke.” The governor and his allies say the New College of Florida, known as a progressive school with a prominent LGBTQ+ community, is indoctrinating students with leftist ideology and should be remade into a more conservative institution. A top-down restructuring is under way at New College, where DeSantis’ allies are carrying out what students and faculty call a “hostile takeover” and a political attack on their academic freedom.
