The New York Times is unleashing a scathing attack on Florida Governor Ron DeSantis for spearheading a “conservative takeover” at New College of Florida, where the once-leftist haven is ditching woke gender studies in favor of timeless Western classics like Homer’s “The Odyssey”.
Critics in the Times whine about the loss of an “enlightened paradise for nonconformists,” where grades were optional and gender theory reigned supreme, now replaced by mandatory ancient epics that supposedly traumatize freshmen. This overhaul, slammed as right-wing overreach, has triggered liberal meltdown over the dismantling of DEI programs and the hiring of conservative faculty, all while enrollment skyrockets and dilapidated buildings get a much-needed facelift.
Under DeSantis’s watch, the Sarasota-based public liberal arts college—long plagued by leftist dogma and declining standards—has been reborn with a focus on merit, free speech, and classical learning, axing gender-neutral bathrooms and expanding athletics to attract a broader student body.
Faculty and students griping about the shift have bolted, but the reforms have drawn record applicants, boosted state funding, and even introduced intellectual-freedom surveys to combat indoctrination. The Times hyperventilates over these changes as a threat to academic freedom, ignoring how the school was teetering on collapse before DeSantis stepped in to restore rigor and reject “woke orthodoxy.”
DeSantis fired back on X, blasting conservatives for years of complaints about university leftist control without action, proudly touting the revamp as a blueprint for reclaiming higher education.