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Right-Wing Takeover of New College in Florida Seeks to Benefit More Men
Right-Wing Takeover of New College in Florida Seeks to Benefit More Men
The school’s gender studies course was scrapped, test score requirements lowered, and more athletic scholarships doled out in order to usher in a new student body makeup.
Despite the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling that affirmative action based on race will no longer be allowed in college admissions, one Florida college controlled by conservatives appointed by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis is considering ways to attract more men to its student body.
Presidential hopeful DeSantis appointed to the board of trustees at New College Chris Rufo, a far-right extremist who advocates anti-LGBTQ+ views in his public statements.
The college has served as a haven for students from a variety of backgrounds throughout the years.
With a focus on eliminating diversity, equity, and inclusion measures and attacking the curriculum, a hard shift to the right has driven students to seek out other educational opportunities.
New College’s leadership recently made the decision to eliminate the gender studies program from the institution.
According to Rufo, the school would be “the first public university in America to begin rolling back the encroachment of gender ideology and queer theory on its academic offerings,” The New York Timesreports.
Additionally, the school is shifting its demographics towards a male-dominated environment.
A recent administration change has resulted in a new class of students with lower grades, SAT scores, and ACT scores than the last.
“Much of the drop in average scores can be attributed to incoming student-athletes who, despite scoring worse on average, have earned a disproportionate number of the school’s $10,000-per-year merit-based scholarships,” the Sarasota Herald-Tribunereported.
Women made up about 66 percent of New College’s scholars historically.
“This is a wildly out-of-balance student population, and it caused all sorts of cultural problems,” Rufo declared. The more significant number of women than men produced “what many have called a social justice ghetto,” he asserted. According to him, the new leadership will focus on “rebalancing the ratio of students” toward an equal gender balance.
