A national association representing the professional standards of professors in higher education issued a rebuke of New College in Florida, the unconventional university that Republican Florida Governor and failed… well… everything Ron DeSantis transformed into a conservative quasi-academic stronghold, WTSP-10 in St. Petersburg reports.
The American Association of University Professors made New College just the 12th college it has sanctioned since 1995. AAUP cited the rapid exit of professional staff without warning or severance during DeSantis’s purge as one issue, along with falling credibility of the school’s leaders when it comes to supporting ongoing research and other academic work.
“Following the ouster of then-president Patricia Okker, the board of trustees and administration eliminated the college’s Office of Outreach and Inclusive Excellence and its gender studies program. They also attacked tenure and imposed new admission standards and athletic programs absent meaningful faculty involvement. All these actions violate long-standing AAUP-supported principles of shared governance,” the group said in its announcement, with serves as a warning to professors looking for positions about unfavorable environments in academia.