New College of Florida President voted out in tense meeting

SARASOTA, Fla. (FLV) – A tense Board of Trustees meeting at New College of Florida ended with the ousting of the college’s president.

Gov. Ron DeSantis-appointees led the charge, aiming to enact new changes.

Dr. Patricia Okker gave an emotional speech after being voted out. Okker assumed her post as New College of Florida’s sixth president in July 2021.

The board has selected former Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran to step in as the interim president. It was also reported that the board selected DeSantis’ appointee Debra Jenks as the new chair.

New College of Florida is a top-ranked public liberal arts college that has around 700 students.

Newly-appointed member Christopher Rufo proposed abolishing Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion “bureaucracies,” ending mandatory diversity training, curtailing political coercion, and ending identity-based preferences.

The board passed a motion to have staff to prepare a draft policy based on the principles outlined in Rufo’s packet. The draft policy, a description of changes, and the legal and regulatory implications will be presented at the next meeting in February.

Many spoke out against frustrations against the board at the beginning of the meeting.

“I’d like to start with trustee Rufo. How dare you come to this school and speak to the students, faculty parents in public on the premise of liberating the students from being cultural hostages when you are the hostage taker? How dare you?” one speaker said to Rufo.

Rufo previously announced his goal is to abolish “diversity, equity, and inclusion” and replace it with “equality, merit, and colorblindness.”

Rufo is a Senior Fellow for the Manhattan institute, writer, and filmmaker.

The governor’s office described him as one who “led the fight against Critical Race Theory” in American institutions. Rufo has worked with conservative lawmakers to craft legislation, including the “Stop WOKE Act” in Florida.

“We are restoring public authority over the public universities. Governor DeSantis has provided us with a vision and a mandate for change. We will do everything in our power to make New College the best publicly-governed classical liberal arts institution in America,” he said.

DeSantis previously appointed new leadership at New College of Florida to overhaul the institution’s “equity” ideology for a merit-based approach.

“As Governor DeSantis stated in his second inaugural speech: ‘We must ensure that our institutions of higher learning are focused on academic excellence and the pursuit of truth.’ Starting today, the ship is turning around. 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,” Bryan Griffin, press secretary for DeSantis, said in a statement.

In response to Rufo’s appointment, Democrat Rep. Anna Eskamani said the governor appointed a “political propagandist.”

“DeSantis is destroying higher education in Florida for his own political gain. It’s disgusting, bad for our workforce development & everyone — faculty, admin, alumni, students — need to fight back,” Eskamani previously said.

The Daily Caller first reported the governor announced six new appointments to New College of Florida’s board of trustees.

Appointments included Rufo, Matthew Spalding, Charles R. Kesler, Mark Bauerlein, Debra Jenks, and Jason “Eddie” Speir.

The board did not approve the Ratification of the New College of Florida United Faculty of Florida Collective Bargaining Agreement, and instead voted to defer the item to the next meeting.