Straws in the Wind - Part 214

From the NY Times: ...In early 2023, Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, executed what many viewed as a conservative takeover of New College, a struggling state school. With fewer than 1,000 students, the liberal arts college had long been a draw for nonconformists, where grades were verboten and students designed their own classes and majors. It was “a little Club Med” for people who were “all ideologically the same,” said Richard Corcoran, the school’s new president.

Under a new board and president, and as required by a new state law, the school has installed a curriculum emphasizing the traditional Western canon, with “The Odyssey” serving as a foundational text. It has created new teams for sports like baseball, basketball and beach volleyball and recruited athletes to fill out their rosters. It has hired dozens of new professors, some with conservative backgrounds and a few who are known for their vocal opposition to liberal orthodoxies, like Spencer Klavan, a lecturer at the college last year, and host of the Young Heretics podcast, about classical education.

In September, it announced that a statue of Charlie Kirk, the assassinated conservative activist, would be placed on campus. And the college was among the first to say it would sign the Trump administration’s Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education, which links preferential access to federal funding to a willingness to adhere to federal policies and demands, and which better known schools have scorned. The school has also shed D.E.I. initiatives and gender studies.

About 20 faculty members and 200 students decamped within the first six months of the makeover, according to the college. Today, the campus culture reflects the new influx of many conservative-leaning professors and students, who are sharing classes with the old guard who tend to be more liberal. The conservative tilt is unusual  for colleges with a liberal arts curriculum.

The changes are not about imposing one point of view on education, Mr. Corcoran said, but about creating a place that values debate. But as the college continues to move toward the ideological right, ...longtime [faculty] are reserving judgment...

Full story at https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/28/us/new-college-ron-desantis-florida-conservative.html.

Straws in the Wind - Part 148

From Inside Higher Ed: A student and law professor are the latest to face punishment from academic institutions for their public remarks about Charlie Kirk, the right-wing activist who was assassinated last month. Earlier this month, the University of Arkansas at Little Rock fired Felicia Branch, who was hired as a law professor there over the summer, Reuters reported. Branch was first suspended in September after posting on Facebook that people should not be criticized for celebrating that “an evil person is no longer on this earth causing immense suffering.” The post sparked outrage from some state lawmakers, and after an investigation, the university fired her in a letter dated Oct. 13. 

“I cannot see a pathway where you could remain in your position at the Bowen Law School without compromising the trust and confidence of your students and colleagues,” Christina Drale, UA Little Rock’s chancellor, wrote in the letter.

Then, [last] week, the Oxford Union Society, a prestigious debating society in London, ousted its incoming president after he posted, “Charlie Kirk got shot loool,” on Instagram, the BBC reported. George Abaraonye, who is a student at University College, had debated Kirk about toxic masculinity at an event in May. After the debating society voted no confidence in Abaraonye’s leadership following his comments about Kirk, Abaraonye disputed the validity of the vote. Since Kirk’s death, numerous higher education employees have been fired for their comments about Kirk. Some have sued for wrongful termination, and at least one has been reinstated.

Source: https://www.insidehighered.com/news/quick-takes/2025/10/23/more-higher-ed-ousters-over-charlie-kirk-comments.

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From Inside Higher Ed: While seven of the nine universities originally invited to join the Trump administration’s “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education” have formally rejected the agreement, Valley Forge Military College wants to sign on to the proposal, as first reported by Fox News. President Donald Trump extended the invitation to all colleges after initial rejections from institutions that objected to provisions in the compact that would limit academic freedom.

The compact would require universities to suppress criticism of conservatives on campus, cap international enrollment at 15 percent, freeze tuition, overhaul admissions and hiring practices, and make various other changes in return for preferential treatment on federal research funding.

...It is unclear how Valley Forge, which does not have a research focus, would benefit. The college is also much smaller than the first invitees, enrolling 86 students in fall 2023, according to federal data. Valley Forge is now the third institution to publicly express interest in signing the compact since the invitation was expanded, following Grand Canyon University and New College of Florida.

Full story at https://www.insidehighered.com/news/quick-takes/2025/10/31/valley-forge-military-college-wants-sign-compact.