Florida College Moves to Abolish Gender Studies Program

Board members at New College of Florida, a public liberal arts college in Sarasota, are moving to end its gender studies major, local newspapers report.

The move is the latest in a series of conservative turns taken by the small, progressive college that has found itself at the center of Governor Ron DeSantis' "war on woke" after the governor accused the school of indoctrinating its 700 or so students with leftist ideologies. In January, the Republican governor appointed six new members to the school's 13-strong board of trustees to change the college's mission and revamp its curriculum.

One of these new conservative board members, Christopher Rufo, suggested on Thursday that the school cancel its gender studies major, calling it "wildly contradictory" to the board's mission to "revive a classical liberal arts agenda," the Tampa Bay Times reports.

He then called for the program, which has been available to students of the school for almost 30 years now, to be eliminated as a major, starting with students enrolling in 2024. The program was created in 1995 and became a major in 2014.

The decision to begin the process to end the college's gender studies program was approved by a majority of the school's board of trustees, with three board members voting against it.

Rufo announced the decision on X, formerly known as Twitter. "The New College of Florida board of trustees has directed the administration to abolish its Gender Studies program," he wrote. "We are the first public university in America to begin rolling back the encroachment of queer theory and gender pseudoscience into academic life."

Gender studies worldwide have increasingly become the target of certain conservative forces in recent years, with Hungary's right-wing government deciding to ban gender studies programs in all public universities in the country in 2018.

Responding to a request for comment, DeSantis spokesperson Jeremy Redfern shared this quote from the governor with Newsweek: "We believe the traditional mission of a university is to pursue truth, promote rigor in academic discourse, and prepare students to be citizens of this republic."

The Tampa Bay Times writes that it's not yet clear if a second vote will be needed to definitely eliminate the program, as the school's general counsel said the college would need to comply with state regulations and collective bargaining agreements before taking a final decision on the matter.

The proposal could also be opened to public comment, a move that is likely to generate tense reactions. Thursday's meeting—which also included a discussion on who will take on as the college's next president—reportedly got so heated that four members of the public had to be escorted out by police.

The New College of Florida told Newsweek in a statement: "During the New College of Florida Board of Trustees meeting, a motion was made–affirmed by a super majority vote–to eliminate the Bachelor of Arts in Gender Studies degree program. This will ensure alignment with a classical liberal arts education and will optimize degree program offerings."

The statement added that "the program will end beginning with the 2024 enrollee class."

Matthew Lepinski, who served on the college's board of trustees as faculty chair but quit in April and resigned from his tenured position as a professor of computer science, told Newsweek that what's happening at New College is a "test case" for what DeSantis and Republican allies were planning for other public institutions in Florida.

"I think because we're small, they felt that they could test things out on a very rapid timeline," he said. "I'm not optimistic about the future of New College and I worry about what this means for other colleges in Florida."

In May, after signing into law a bill restricting how race and gender can be taught in Florida's public higher education institutions, DeSantis said: "We think not only do we have the right to ensure that the universities are pursuing the proper mission, but we have responsibility to ensure that universities are pursuing the core mission. And for us, we believe in the traditional mission of a university to pursue truth, to be able to promote rigor in academic discourse, and to prepare students to be citizens of this republic. I know that may have fallen out of fashion in many parts of the country, but we don't think that the purpose of universities is to impose an ideological agenda."

Update 8/14/23, 9:14 a.m. ET: This article was updated with comment from the New College of Florida.

Update 8/11/23, 10 a.m. ET: This article was updated with comment from DeSantis through a spokesperson.