Setting the Stage for College Transformation
A January 6 press release from Governor DeSantis’ office listed his appointees to the New College Board of Trustees as summarized below.
Christopher Rufo is a leader in the fight against CRT in American institutions, a Senior Fellow for the Manhattan Institute, a writer for City Journal, and a filmmaker. Rufo’s research and activism inspired a presidential order and legislation in 15 states, where he has worked closely with conservative governors and lawmakers to craft successful public policy. Rufo earned his bachelor’s degree from Georgetown University and a master’s degree from Harvard.
Matthew Spalding, Ph.D., is the Kirby Professor in Constitutional Government at Hillsdale College and the Dean of the Van Andel Graduate School of Government at Hillsdale’s Washington, D.C., campus. As vice president for Washington Operations, he also oversees the Allan P. Kirby Jr. Center for Constitutional Studies and Citizenship and Hillsdale’s academic and educational programs in the nation’s capital. He co-chaired President Trump’s 1776 Commission and co-authored The 1776 Report. Spalding earned his bachelor’s degree from Claremont McKenna College and his master’s and doctorate degrees from Claremont Graduate School.
Charles R. Kesler, A.B., A.M., and Ph.D., is the Dengler-Dykema Distinguished Professor of Government at Claremont McKenna College and editor of the Claremont Review of Books. An author himself, Kesler’s most recent work is titled The Crisis of the Two Constitutions. Kesler earned his bachelor’s degree, master’s degree, and doctorate degree in government from Harvard University.
Mark Bauerlein, Ph.D., has taught at Emory University since 1989, with a two-and-a-half-year break from 2003–2005 to serve as director, Office of Research and Analysis, at the National Endowment for the Arts. Apart from his scholarly work, Bauerlein is an accomplished author, having published the eye-opening books The Dumbest Generation and The Dumbest Generation Grows Up, the second of which Education Reporter reviewed in May 2022. Bauerlein earned his doctorate in English from UCLA.
Debra Jenks, is a Partner and Attorney at Jenks & Harvey, LLP. She is an arbitrator for the American Arbitration Association and currently serves on the Fourth District Court of Appeals Judicial Nominating Commission. Jenks earned her bachelor’s degree from New College of Florida and earned her juris doctor from Lewis and Clark Law School.
Jason “Eddie” Speir, is co-founder, chairman, and superintendent of the Inspiration Academy. He was previously the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of 3t Systems and Mortgage Cadence. Speir earned his bachelor’s degree from the University of Northern Colorado.
The nominees are subject to confirmation by the Florida Senate.
On January 6 of this year, a date that may eventually live in infamy for reasons other than the so-called January 6 “insurrection” of 2021, Governor Ron DeSantis appointed six conservatives to the 13-member board of trustees of the New College of Florida. DeSantis’ goal is to transform the 700-student, leftwing public liberal arts institution into “the Hillsdale of Florida.”
The governor’s office told Fox News Digital in a statement that the DeSantis appointees all have “a firsthand understanding of the Florida education system as a product of their work with us and the Florida Department of Education on other important initiatives.” The statement claims that New College has been “captured by a political ideology that puts trendy, truth-relative concepts above learning,” and that it “has reached a moment of critical mass, wherein low student enrollment and other financial stresses have emerged from its skewed focus and impractical course offerings.”
According to new appointee Christopher Rufo, the governor is taking an important step in the right direction to reclaim American institutions that have been usurped by Marxists. “Left-wing radicals have spent the past fifty years on a ‘long march through the institutions,’” he said. “We are going to reverse that process, starting now. Governor DeSantis has laid out a vision for recapturing the institutions and restoring them to American principles.”
Rufo is a formidable foe of CRT, and an argument can be made that he has done more than anyone else to shed light on the ugly reality of this destructive agenda. His work has been featured throughout the media, both in the U.S. and internationally, but some insist that, so far, its proponents appear to be winning. An interesting side note is that, according to an article published in the Miami Herald on January 18, Rufo “laid out a hypothetical blueprint for conservative capture of a public university, starting with an independent board of directors appointed by a state’s governor,” in an address he made at Hillsdale College last year.
The Herald further quoted Rufo as saying: “We have to get out of this idea that the public university system is a totally independent entity that practices academic freedom. These are public universities that should reflect and transmit the values of the public, and the representatives of the public; in other words, state legislators, have ultimate power to shape or reshape those institutions.”
Legal Insurrection’s William Jacobson agrees. “I’ve lectured and written many times how higher education cannot be transformed from within, there has to be outside action,” he wrote. “The bureaucracies, particularly as to DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion), are too entrenched and powerful, as are the ideologically one-sided faculty, senior administrators, and Trustees.”
He nonetheless believes there is hope. “Governor Ron DeSantis is showing how transformation is possible. His ‘Stop Woke Act’ may or may not survive judicial review (so far not), but he’s taking a more productive route that needs to be emulated in all red states: Take on the bureaucracy at every level.”
The Daily Caller quoted the governor’s press secretary, Bryan Griffin, as saying: “New College of Florida, under the governor’s new appointees, will be refocused on its founding mission of providing a world-class quality education with an exceptional focus on the classics.”
DeSantis’ Chief of Staff, James Uthmeier, added: “It is our hope that New College of Florida will become Florida’s classical college, more along the lines of a Hillsdale of the South.” Hillsdale Spokesperson Emily Stack Davis joked that while her university’s copyright is “secure” and “the college is quite at home in the great state of Michigan, the growth of the classical liberal arts is a wonderful thing, and the prospect of any liberal arts college returning to its founding mission is a source of hope for the nation.”
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