Senate committee recommends DeSantis-picked New College trustees appointees

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (FLV) – A second Senate committee recommended the confirmation of the New College Board of Trustees on Monday.

The Senate Ethics and Election Committee voted to recommend the group of trustees by a vote of 6-3. The Education Postsecondary Committee previously voted to recommend the trustees on April 5. The full Senate will now vote on the recommendations.

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

A separate vote was taken for the recommendation of trustee Christopher Rufo, who led the charge to abolish Diversity, Equity and Inclusion “bureaucracies” at New College in February.

The governor’s office previously described Rufo 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,” Rufo said previously.

In January, Gov. Ron DeSantis appointed new leadership at New College to overhaul the institution’s “equity” ideology for a merit-based approach.

The governor announced six new appointments to New College of Florida’s Board of Trustees. Appointments include Christopher Rufo, Matthew Spalding, Charles R. Kesler, Mark Bauerlein, Debra Jenks and Jason “Eddie” Speir.

Ryan Anderson was appointed by the Florida Board of Governors in late January.

Speir was the only board member present at Monday’s committee meeting. He said he was “thrown into a whirlwind” at New College and has dealt with hit pieces, and even a death threat.

“There’s been different truths that I have shared, that are causing a lot of concern. But, what I’ve done is followed up that those truths, and those statements by showing up on campus, and engaging in debate,” Speir said.

Speir said since the first board meeting he’s had many debates and many productive discussions with faculty, staff, and students.

“I find myself there every day, I find myself in love with the university – New College of Florida, it’s been a fantastic school, and I love the people that are there, and I am excited to be here – being at your invitation and sharing my experiences,” Speir said.

Sen. Bobby Powell, D-West Palm Beach, asked Speir to share some of the “truths” he mentioned that may have caused concern.

“I have to start with a truth that Jesus Christ is the way, the truth, and the life – everything else comes from there, articulated in the Bible,” Speir said.

“Now, there’s a lot of room for interpretation from there, but the truth specifically, in relation to a hit piece, would be a tweet that I sent out, describing gender – trans, as a mental disorder,” Speir said.

“When I sent that out, and was not shy about sending that out, and then immediately went on campus, to face the wrath, and I found the students to be engaging in conversation, albeit heated, but we’ve worked past that,” he said.

Speir said there are a lot of challenges yet to go, but the respectful engagement, and his personal experience, has been very positive.

In March, Speir documented and shared some of the conversations he had on his Substack account online.

During debate, Sen. Tina Polsky, D-Boca Raton, who voted against recommending the trustees, said she emailed the trustees ahead of the meeting to ask them to appear for questions, and thanked Speir for attending.

“You are the only one who has appeared in the prior committee, and here, so I appreciate you having the guts to do that. Mr. Bauerlein did reply to my questions, so I appreciate that as well. However, all of them, including Mr. Rufo, have been chosen, so that they can do the hostile takeover of New College,” Polsky said.

Polsky apologized to students, parents, alumni and faculty for what they “have to go through.”

“Because, clearly this is a dictatorial, authoritarian measure, meant to change a school, because it was very liberal and accommodated trans kids and active students and activist students and ‘woke students,’ whatever that means,” Polsky said.

“To me, it means people who care about others, and that we think that’s bad somehow to care about others or care about our history, is truly insane to me, especially on a college campus,” she said.

Polsky said to vote for these appointees is to vote for “ruining a school because of political aspirations of this governor.”

New College hit national headlines after DeSantis appointed a majority of the board of trustees, where they made sweeping changes, such as voting to abolish diversity, equity and inclusion bureaucracies at a board meeting.

The board passed a motion to eliminate the Office of Outreach and Inclusive Excellence, and authorize the interim president to make necessary or appropriate personnel decisions.

The appointees also ousted the college’s president, Dr. Patricia Okker, and selected Corcoran as the interim president on Feb. 21.

Previously, DeSantis said he expects to see “positive results very quickly” after the college received additional funding for recruitment.

“New College of Florida has become the first university in the nation to abolish its DEI bureaucracy, ban coercive ‘diversity’ statements and programming, and prohibit identity-based preferences in hiring, admissions, and other procedures,” trustee Rufo previously said, who proposed abolishing the bureaucracies in early February.

On March 31, New College announced another big move – launching an intercollegiate athletics department and naming Jimenez as its athletic director and head baseball coach.

Jimenez was tasked with bringing in coaches and student-athletes for the fall – a process which is already underway.

Critics, including some current students, parents and staff, have spoken out about the changes to the college, both in person at the board of trustees meetings and online.

Opposers of the changes have another rally planned for April 26 at the next board of trustees meeting to “show support for faculty tenure, the Gender Studies program, and academic freedom at New College!”

On April 16, Speir posted his proposed agenda items for the next board meeting on Substack, which includes removing the Gender Studies program, Gender Studies courses, among other measures.