We have long been flagging how Ron DeSantis had a plan to reverse the institutional capture of Florida’s university system in a way that likely would survive court challenge, DeSantis Permitted To Gather Data On “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion” in Public Universities, Judge Rules (emphasis added)
… DeSantis has required Florida public higher education institutions to provide data on the funds and programming supporting DEI.The request for information did not require the institutions to do anything more than report information, though it seems obvious that DeSantis is likely to gut the DEI bureaucracies, which would seem a way to achieve part of what The Stop Woke Act was intended to do. Terminating administrative positions, or cutting funding, would not implicate — or at least not directly — the First Amendment concerns that applied to what faculty could teach.Is the federal court really going to micro-manage the Florida state higher education budgets and tell the state it cannot cut back on the number of Assistant and Associate Deans for DEI, and various underlings in the bureaucracy? Maybe, but that’s a big stretch, much more so than telling the state it cannot dictate what professors say in class. Cutting back or eliminating the DEI bureaucracy also would be more effective than telling professors what to teach, since the DEI campus machinery reaches all aspects of student life, not just coursework.
And then it came to pass when DeSantis proposed a higher education reform package last January:
The budgets for DEI are gone:
- Prohibiting higher education institutions from using any funding, regardless of source, to support DEI, CRT, and other discriminatory initiatives;
And the ideological litmus test of DEI hiring statements are gone:
- Prohibiting postsecondary institutions from using discriminatory political filters, including political loyalty oaths and DEI statements, in the hiring process;
This will wipe out the DEI bureaucracy.
Today DeSantis signed the law at New College, which DeSantis previously had Appointed Chris Rufo and Other Conservatives To Transform Lefty “New College” Into The Hillsdale of Florida:
This is amazing.I’ve lectured and written many times how higher education cannot be transformed from within, there has to be outside action. The bureaucracies, particulary as to DEI, are too entrenched and powerful, as are the ideologically one-sided faculty, senior administrators, and Trustees.Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is showing how transformation is possible. His “Stop Woke Act” may or may not survive judicial review (so far not), but he’s taking a more productive route that needs to be emulated in all red states: Take on the bureaucracy at every level….Today DeSantis announced a total “lol” move that legit made me laugh. He appointed Chris Rufo and two other conservatives to the Board of Trustees of New College of Florida, a small public lefty college modeled on northeastern liberal colleges. I looked into it when applying to college in the late 1970’s, at which point it was relatively new; I don’t even remember if I applied.
DeSantis tweeted about the signing from his official account:
In Florida, our higher education institutions will not be spending public dollars on “Diversity, Equity and Inclusion” or other initiatives that promote an ideological agenda. As practiced, DEI represents discrimination, exclusion and indoctrination — and this has no place in a public institution.We have seen examples of schools requiring students and professors to commit to DEI and CRT theories before they are admitted or hired at a university – a de facto political loyalty oath. DEI can no longer be used as a woke litmus test as a condition of entrance into higher education in Florida.
Here’s the entire press conference:
Some of the inmates were not happy:
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