if media elites saw new college as a serious option for their children then the destruction of the new college would be a national scandal - ThreadSky

jamellebouie.net • 344 days ago

if media elites saw new college as a serious option for their children then the destruction of the new college would be a national scandal

Reposted from Jake Wright

So New College of Florida looks like it needs to hire adjuncts in literally ALL OF THE HUMANITIES. In other words, Rufo’s “Fire all the WOKE faculty at New College and seamlessly replace them with Based Classical Education rock stars” plan is going swimmingly.

Or not.

Comments

ponedaddy1990.bsky.social•343 days ago

No way am I teaching in the SE US. No way!

lesincompetants.bsky.social•343 days ago

Wait—they don’t actually GRADE students?! This new citadel of the right is one of those safe space schools they mock where students aren’t even graded?!
Hahahahaha somehow that fact had escaped me during all this.

shoeless99.bsky.social•343 days ago

They do not. I worked with a New College alum who was applying to grad school, & he was enraged to find out that the grad school translated his New College transcript into their GPA matrix as a C average.

lesincompetants.bsky.social•343 days ago

Oooof. Now I got nothing against believing students are more than their test scores, but Rufo and his ilk clearly do, so the fact that their students are graded on a scale of Alligators to Manatees really tickles me.

thesquarest.bsky.social•343 days ago

That system is a holdover from the before times. NCF was a progressive (pedagogically, not necessarily ideologically) honors college. It attracted weird but smart kids, and was very small. Their alumni network is smaller and less powerful than other state universities, and so it was an easy target.

rhetoricpj.bsky.social•343 days ago

real bangers today man

mitildide.bsky.social•343 days ago

Wait, is it in this campus that they recently announced a probe into the mysterious conspiracy that made it so that nobody would enroll to a bullshit "national history" program, or am I mistaken?

lantro.bsky.social•343 days ago

You and I both know they don’t care. They just want a foothold to destroy what they see as a “woke space.”

bcnjake.bsky.social•344 days ago

As the OP and someone who teaches at a small campus in my state’s university system, I just want to say that NCF was a shining beacon of what such a campus could be. Now it’s a smoking crater and I’m so angry about the damage it did, is doing, and will continue to do to students as a result.

euphoria5l.bsky.social•343 days ago

One of America's greatest assets has been its massive public university systems, where most Americans get their (genuinely very good) educations, and the total disregard for these transformative institutions in the overall education discourse is insulting

betsybel.bsky.social•343 days ago

Rufo and his new crop of admins still making enhanced salaries and not caring about school’s reputation. They eventually will axe all humanities except a few classes taught by adjuncts so grads can get accreditation. You’ll still get your degree with that C-

jamellebouie.net•344 days ago

as it stands, no one obsessed with campus speech actually cares about the education of regular-ass kids out in the provinces

dondechert.bsky.social•344 days ago

Or their education prospects. Granted NYT did do a story on Valpo's attempts to avert tailspin by selling from its art museum, but did it cover the idiocy of Gordon Gee and his ilk?

majeff.bsky.social•344 days ago

Thank god we haven't seen an NYT tongue bath of E. Grifter Gee.

dondechert.bsky.social•344 days ago

I was hoping for a crucifixition.

spiderseverywhere.bsky.social•344 days ago

I'd go so far as to say that in their worldview increasing the quality disparity between the colleges they send their kids and where the plebs have to go is putting things right in the world

burrata.bsky.social•344 days ago

SUNY and CUNY are both in dire straits, in numerous ways, though without the white-hot situation at New College. These are huge systems, massive engines of economic mobility for working-class kids in a BLUE STATE and the problems are effectively invisible.

tlatoani.bsky.social•344 days ago

Same reason that the dismantling of flagship universities in R-states merits a single article. Harvard gets dozens of front-page articles, Alabama, one.

profmisterlizzie.bsky.social•343 days ago

To be fair, the WaPo has covered FL higher ed stuff pretty extensively.

unicorntickles.bsky.social•343 days ago

I went to USF and had friends that went to New College. It breaks my heart and fills me with so much rage when I think of what Rufo is doing to such an important system…

majeff.bsky.social•344 days ago

And those of us working in community colleges...we're beneath even acknowledging.

genxjamerican.com•343 days ago

Community college gave my mom (and many others) a nursing career. A couple of friends of mine teach computer science and math at a community college in our area. Easily the best value for your dollar in higher education.

genxjamerican.com•343 days ago

And this is before you get to the vocational education they do in many other fields, continuing education, and certifications. Particularly as states have cut their subsidies to state universities, community colleges are a cost-effective path to a 4-year degree.

energetic-nova.bsky.social•342 days ago

Universities tend to work against community college and lobbies against making it free…

harryfinch.bsky.social•343 days ago

I went to one, so here's to you, dude. It set me on the right path and I am forever grateful.

majeff.bsky.social•343 days ago

we do good work in those shadows 😀

scarymrolmecman.bsky.social•343 days ago

It's so tragic. Both Rufo types and NYT editors think that the kind of liberal arts education that New College provides is a luxury that regular, public school kids don't deserve.

kwcollins.bsky.social•343 days ago

You may be interested in @mcopelov.bsky.social’s series of tweets / posts about how the GOP in WI has embarked on a campaign of demolishing the state higher ed system there

profmisterlizzie.bsky.social•343 days ago

I thank you for caring about the students and faculty in FL but I’m a little put out by the “no one…actually cares” considering the amount of activism, the law suits, the education sessions and on-the-ground resistance coming from those of us who live and teach in the state.

jamellebouie.net•343 days ago

This is a strange reply. I am talking about a very specific group of people here and if you aren’t included in that group then I am not sure why you would feel “put out.”

profmisterlizzie.bsky.social•343 days ago

It seemed to me that you were being dismissive of how much FL faculty, commentators, and groups like ACLU and PENAmerica have been shouting about these issues for 2 + years. Leaves me feeling that our efforts are invisible to those who claim to care about about what is happening in our state.

johnbrownstan.bsky.social•343 days ago

He literally referred to "media elites". Are any of those people in that category?

nlbray.bsky.social•343 days ago

Actually, the words that @mrlizzie.bsky.social removed (for some reason) referred to people "obsessed with campus speech".

profmisterlizzie.bsky.social•343 days ago

I mean….professors and Editorial boards within FL, are these not “media elites?” But perhaps by definition if you are in FL you are not a “media elite”

hankhoffmanct.bsky.social•343 days ago

I think he might be referring to FIRE as well as highly paid pundits like Jonathan Chait, Bret Stephens, & others.

koeselitz.bsky.social•343 days ago

I guess those people could maybe be characterized as people “obsessed with campus speech,” but - there’s a huge group of pundits and writers like Jonathan Chait et al who have spent years screaming that “free speech on campus” was in danger from evil Marxist professors. I think that’s who he meant…

socio-steve.bsky.social•343 days ago

No one obsessed *with campus speech* in the sense of the Rufos of the world who claim left-wingers are suppressing free speech on campus. Is that you?

condopotato.bsky.social•343 days ago

☝️

ljevans.bsky.social•343 days ago

Spoiler: they don't even care about elite liberal arts schools that aren't Harvard, Yale, or Princeton. Note that the rest of the Ivies, the Little Ivies, the Seven Sisters, HCBUs, etc., never seem to come up in these Very Serious Discussions.....

baxtermack.bsky.social•343 days ago

I think we can say that they don't care about any education.

bornmiserable.bsky.social•343 days ago

cannot wait for some white dude who watches Dragonball Z to be all “like, I’m your new Chinese language professor”

neonnomad.bsky.social•344 days ago

Psst - they don’t really believe in “campus speech” either - unless it’s their speech.

sebrier.bsky.social•344 days ago

I went to USF in Tampa and later lived/worked in Sarasota. New College back then was not affiliated with USF, though USF rented space for remote classrooms. New College was full of elite arts and liberal arts students. Even after joining the USF ecosystem, NC remained elite liberal arts.

eschatonblog.com•344 days ago

of course seeing them as "regular-ass kids" happens because these people mostly see the University of Michigan (for example) as remedial education

chathamharrison.bsky.social•344 days ago

A fine credential for an arriviste, but really, dear, you can do better. Let me call cousin Andrew

jennvg.bsky.social•344 days ago

As a cradle to undergrad public educated kid, I had quite the revelation going for my MFA and encountering many trust fund ivey kids. I recall thinking, "damn that was a lot of money down the toilet."

alonlevy.bsky.social•343 days ago

In the Anglo Jewish press, people very aware of Berkeley, at least. Then there's Canada, which doesn't have US/UK-style elite unis; the Canadian unis that the Jewish press (largely the same in the US and Canada) complain about anti-Semitism at, like McGill and Concordia, aren't especially elite.

alonlevy.bsky.social•343 days ago

(I guess there are people who think McGill is a Canadian Ivy? It absolutely is not and I say this having been competitive as a tenure-track candidate there, which I absolutely was not at Michigan, let alone actual Ivies.)

energetic-nova.bsky.social•342 days ago

Pacific Northwest has no ivies and they admit 80% of applicants or more at most. (One or two exceptions but they are 50% acceptance or more )

Oregon kinda peak at being 0% elite.

alonlevy.bsky.social•342 days ago

How selective are U Oregon and U Washington for undergrad admissions? They are both very good research unis - they're not Berkeley and they're not even Michigan but knowing who they're hiring in math, I don't think they're far below Michigan - I know a couple who took positions there over Cornell.

willgreenwald.bsky.social•344 days ago

Even the people who run Florida explicitly don't care about what happens to Florida.

jasonkosnoski.bsky.social•344 days ago

That's right, our African-Am stud department was killed because of "low-enrollment" (when you don't replace people who have retired, and never offer classes, why would anyone enroll in that major). Neoliberalism kills more humanities and so sci program for poor students than Rufo has or ever will

whetmoser.com•343 days ago

new college specifically seems like a place they would be terrified of their children going, so they think it has it coming

ypsidoodle.bsky.social•343 days ago

What stands out to me is what they are NOT hiring for: Am. History, Govt., Politics.

Presumably they've already got those filled with people who will teach what they're supposed to.

fjerome.bsky.social•343 days ago

The media elite’s self justification is based on the idea that this type of education is less valuable

baj.bsky.social•343 days ago

The "Fuck it, we'll let those dummies in liberal coastal states fund their namby pamby colleges and then we'll lure the kids back with all our Good Jobs from No Regulation. Just like Wisconsin and Kansas!" Strategy.

4kellysmith.bsky.social•344 days ago

Other than favorable taxation regs and occasionally nice weather, media elites have found nothing in Florida adequately important enough. Not to become a national scandal anyway.

elgrb.bsky.social•343 days ago

“Welcome to Hillsdale South”

susandathome.bsky.social•343 days ago

Is there any better proof of Florida’s imminent demise?

profmisterlizzie.bsky.social•343 days ago

I mean….it’s a scandal among those of us who care about higher ed and who are in Florida. I guess by dint of living in Florida we don’t qualify as “media elites?”

ljevans.bsky.social•344 days ago

A good chunk of the students have fled to Hampshire College in Massachusetts or other schools because they are so angry about what happened.

DeSantis basically destroyed that college.

raymondgibson.bsky.social•343 days ago

He’s wrecked education for an entire generation in this state, and no amount of books I’m giving away will offset it.

orzufancylad.bsky.social•344 days ago

They won't find replacements and will eventually just turn the school into a MBA program. And the people of Florida won't make a peep.

mgraalum.bsky.social•343 days ago

Most will never know it happened

asheeshksi.bsky.social•343 days ago

Exactly. Public higher education is under attack everywhere, both from right-wing culture warriors (i.e. Florida) and austerity Democrats (i.e. Connecticut) who want to turn public higher ed into a job preparation program by defunding the humanities. Nobody in the media writes about this.

sonomastatecrier.bsky.social•35 days ago

Right. In California it is the Democrats who are devastatingly defunding higher education:
https://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/news/sonoma-state-rohnert-park-california-university-cuts/

mgraalum.bsky.social•343 days ago

*Except in Minnesota

booktweeting.bsky.social•343 days ago

> turn public higher ed into a job preparation program by defunding the humanities

despite the actual data showing that humanities education, on the whole, prepares students well for the job market!

asheeshksi.bsky.social•343 days ago

It's not actually "jobs" that they care about, it's "STEM jobs." Those are the only valid "jobs" because they return huge profits to the companies that the lawmakers effectively work for.

jdvdub.bsky.social•343 days ago

And it’s not STEM, it’s TE. They are cutting Math, Nursing, Physics, Geology.

asherelbein.bsky.social•344 days ago

As someone who attended the New College at the University of Alabama, a related program, watching this happen with almost zero interest or pushback has been incredibly grim

jasondtx.bsky.social•343 days ago

My brother went to New College and can barely speak about what's happening there now :(

kentuckyshan.bsky.social•343 days ago

Same, same…

wesinjapan.bsky.social•343 days ago

Ay! Me too. roll tide

silkscreenfiend.bsky.social•342 days ago

Making sure the new Russian department doesn't say anything unkind about Putin.

dallas-taylor.bsky.social•343 days ago

It should have been, too. I had mixed feelings about my own time there but it was a legit great school for smart weirdos.

jenebbeler.bsky.social•344 days ago

Odd that they want both Classics and then Greek and Latin. Tgere are increasingly more jobs but in these Classical Christian schools/institutes. Teaching Greek/Latin grammar isn’t really ideological (except the pronouns and noun genders). But contributing to this project is a problem (to me).

ranamar.bsky.social•343 days ago

I mean, it's ideological if the people making hiring decisions here are saying we need a modern Sulla to save this republic, which at least some of them have.
It would be a problem for their ideology if you point out that he didn't exactly succeed at his goal.

jenebbeler.bsky.social•343 days ago

Oh, totally. If you are a Roman historian, it’s going to be hard to steer clear of the ideological demands. But if you are teaching first year Latin and Greek, you aren’t engaging in ideology. Translating Homer? Then it gets more complicated.

jenebbeler.bsky.social•344 days ago

*though these jobs are one semester adjunct positions, presumably so that the admin can keep instructors on a tight leash.

555tee.bsky.social•343 days ago

Exactly - they are now “at will,” and can be let go for any reason or no reason at all.

Teaching at a college level there now has as much job security at “chief fry guy” at McDonalds.

kgoldschmitt.bsky.social•343 days ago

Meanwhile my institution (Wellesley College) receives disproportionate attention.

It’s so blatantly about elitism rather than education.

kgoldschmitt.bsky.social•343 days ago

Apparently the Theater program is doing ok because the athletes are participating.

clbergpowers.bsky.social•344 days ago

Also as someone who has been stuck in the contingent space, this is actually a very common post. Not just at schools that have been decimated by DeSantis. I frequently (daily) get linked in emails to apply for the "adjunct pool" with a list of over a dozen departments. Including at Ivies.

rmbodenheimer.bsky.social•343 days ago

I too was very familiar with these pools when I was looking for academic jobs but it does seem like a large number of departments to be advertising for!

clbergpowers.bsky.social•343 days ago

It absolutely is and i've been struck by how common it is. How many universities just have ongoing recruitment for adjunct pools. I've only been full time in academia for 4 years. Prior I taught adjunct while running a nonprofit. Mostly was people reaching out to fill a gap. Now it's the plan.

betsybel.bsky.social•343 days ago

I’m in Texas. Too far a commute for the pay. 🤕

etamny.bsky.social•343 days ago

It’s still so shocking

heidi8.bsky.social•343 days ago

SO much fun for Florida parents who did Florida Prepaid with a plan for their kid to go to New College. And when I say "fun" I mean "that joyous feeling of being scammed". DD loves where she is, but the New College option was destroyed by the governor & his acolytes.

mick719.bsky.social•343 days ago

It’s crap. It’s nothing but a grooming academy.

listeninghabit.bsky.social•344 days ago

The alumni network is heated, but that hasn’t translated into traction with anyone else.

henryhill1.bsky.social•343 days ago

I remember when bob jones univ was the deplorable college in the south. Now look.

daveworthington.bsky.social•343 days ago

Well, it’s still deplorable but probably won’t be able to stay open much longer

garrt.bsky.social•343 days ago

I've pitched to NYT (I wrote three arts features for your paper in 2023) to write about this situation w/r/t music programs (at New College and other schools across the country), but I can't get the editor's attention! I doubt you can help me do that, but I would cover this as the scandal it is

picardib.bsky.social•343 days ago

As an alum, it’s enraging. Ah yes, the radical school putting ideology over scholarship that produced…the former head of the NY Fed Reserve, a Fields medal recipient, and the founder/director of the Belize Zoo, etc.

picardib.bsky.social•343 days ago

Also the founders of Erowid which might ring a bell for anyone who dabbled in college

nukedukem.bsky.social•343 days ago

They gonna have a hard time. Everything is getting banned in Florida. Teachers are afraid to speak in Florida now on any topic at all for fear of being arrested. Doctors don't wanna be in Florida either. Stay strong Floridians. Vote your leaders out.

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