New College of Florida’s revamped board of trustees removed the school’s president, Patricia Okker, on Tuesday, signaling a broader leadership restructuring at the small, politically left-wing school that Governor Ron DeSantis is attempting to refashion as a classical liberal arts college.
The board chose former Florida House speaker and state education commissioner Richard Corcoran to replace Okker as New College’s president, according to Politico. The decision to replace Okker with Corcoran came during the board’s first meeting since DeSantis appointed six new members last month, with the intention of changing the school’s direction.
“Some have said these recent appointments amount to a partisan takeover of the college. This is not correct,” Matthew Spalding, a dean at Hillsdale College in Michigan and a recently-appointed New College trustee said, according to Politico. “It’s not a takeover–it’s a renewal.”
During Tuesday’s board meeting, Okker acknowledged that recent changes ushered in by DeSantis had made fulfilling the duties of her office difficult. “The reality is, and it’s a hard reality and it’s a sad reality, but the vision that we created together is not the vision I have been given as a mandate here,” Okker said.
Christopher Rufo, one of the new trustees appointed by DeSantis, challenged that sentiment.
“New leadership is the expectation and I think it makes sense,” Rufo said during the meeting, according to Politico. “I don’t think it’s a condemnation of Dr. Okker, scholarship or skills or character.”
DeSantis appointed the six new trustees as part of a broader campaign to refashion New College along the lines of Hillsdale College, a private and conservative school in southern Michigan. DeSantis has defended the move as a last-ditch effort to save New College from being “completely captured by a political ideology that puts trendy, truth-relative concepts above learning.”
Many New Colleges students and faculty have pushed back on the changes. Diego Villada, a professor of theatre and performance studies, told New College’s board that many “students came here to feel safe and access the education that is their right as Floridians.”
“The impulse to make this a place where race, intersectionality, and DEI are banned indicates to them that you want everyone to be the same – to be like you,” he said.
Last week, Rufo and fellow new trustee Eddie Speir held town hall meetings to discuss their vision for the school with students and staff. Addressing the gathering, Rufo said a “stifling orthodoxy” had taken hold on campus.
“My goal is not to say let’s replace the left-wing orthodoxy with a right-wing orthodoxy,” Rufo said.
“My goal is to say, let’s expand the bounds of public debate. Let’s have more people able to participate. Let’s have a wider variety of opinions that can be debated, and discussed and articulated, without fear of intimidation, without fear of bullying, without fear of threats of violence.”