Well stated! The venomous reaction to changes that WILL happen at NCF reveals a complete breakdown at NCF in vision and worse - like a family with the elephant of alcoholism in the room - a total denial of facts!
Here are the facts : 1. No college worldwide can exist with only 1/2 the number of students necessary to sustain its existence. None.
2. When faculty react both loudly and circuitously denouncing present students who welcome the changes, the depth of dishonor becomes visible: NCF has fallen far from the honor of advertising itself as “an honors college”open to all. It now has an agenda, one of intolerance. The only game here: Gender! Can a faculty that “ pretends” to be open minded because it pushes the popular far left agenda of queer theory EVER perceive that it has turned freedom on its head in fact wormed its way into power at NCF making it an intolerant college powered by the tyranny of the few?
I’m sorry, but no matter the nature of the few - even if your mythic system of beliefs considers this few to suffer disrespect - you still cannot take over a public state college and direct its entire program to one type of student, nor hire only faculty who will place that type above all others. If your desire is to create a queer theory college please raise funds and open a private college but to take over an entire system to fit one theory of human sexuality? No. Students or faculty involved in such a narrow emphasis must remove themselves to their own private institutions. Public education is a sacred right of all not an agenda-filled privately dominated singular issue anomaly. However there is already a singling out here: honors.
Honors IS special. It means you learn quickly and can achieve more in-depth than most students. NCF, therefore, must capture into its student body youth with the gifts to lead the way forward. Honors students have special privileges at all colleges: the gift of NCF - the promise here in the future is boundless. All students here should be from honors classes statewide. The advanced classes in all fields taught here could Bless our nation and our world magnificently. Just give newly chosen trustees the time - under this transitional President - to locate a President and faculty capable of answering the call to such meritocracy as already exists all across Florida in honors graduate. Get the word out: NCF is a place for the gifted that exists for accelerating learning. It’s a public college in our state, the pride of the potential of the gifted: a functioning undergraduate honors college with a worthy reputation.
Does this mean Nobel Prize worthy? Yes! Youth who begin here in time can reach the apex in complex fields that require the best minds achieve their highest reach! It means exactly that. 🌻🌻🌻
"destructive tenets of wokeism" - a word salad with no evidentiary foundation.
"The offices of DEI have been closed" - there was no "DEI" office. There was a single staff member, within a larger office, assigned *any* specific DEI tasks.
"..mutable and immutable characteristics" (of students) - I'm curious what types of characteristics you consider to fall into each of those two categories. Care to expound?
"Gender Studies courses pushing dogmatic, toxic ideologies that serve only to divide and sow discord, distrust, and hostility have no place at an institution dedicated to rigorous academic scholarship and the free, open exchange of ideas" - I agree with this statement.
Now, I challenge you to publicly identify any courses at New College that are actually doing this, with concrete evidence, and not just based on your opinion.
I was going to suggest viewing the lectures that were originally on this page--but, unsurprisingly, they have recently been removed.
Would have been an interesting point of discussion at least! Especially since this is the only full time gender studies teacher on campus (most of these subjects are treated as interdisciplinary and so different professors will teach courses that *qualify* as gender studies in addition to their main area of expertise).
Unfortunately, he has also scrubbed his entire CV from the internet. I have screenshots of it somewhere I believe. Nevertheless, the attempt to hide it doesn’t bode well for anyone seeking an open and honest conversation on these topics.
If you’ll notice in fact, the teaching playlist says “updated today”--which would seem to imply that the lectures there were removed as recently as today (probably upon seeing this Substack post). Now why is that? If the lectures are perfectly innocuous, why hide them?
Thank you for attempting to share that - it would have been interesting to be able to view what I'm assuming were some sample lectures!
On the one hand, I agree with you that scrubbing everything related to your job from the internet during a tumultuous time like this can certainly be seen as shady and concerning.
On the other, please forgive me if this comes across in any way but earnest, because I honestly and truly mean no disrespect (I'm the same Mike alum from Twitter who has engaged in discussion with you before), but I'm making a quick assumption here: I'm probably a bit older than you and well into my own career adventures. In and of itself, that means nothing and doesn't have any intrinsic value. However, it likely gives me a different perspective than you might have. If my current employer were undergoing massive changes like NCF is, and my specific area of work/focus were publicly noticed as on the potential proverbial chopping block, and I knew that any "evidence" (speeches, presentations, written works, blog posts, etc etc) might likely be used only against me by the powers that be...I **might** do something similar. I'd hope, of course, that my work could stand on its own and would in a good-faith system/process actually bolster my case and situation, especially when I knew they would be considered by those in power -- *if* they actually had any in-depth understanding of what those works were "about" (or at least had an unbiased approach to assessing them or any works). From all evidence so far, an unbiased approach is not what's happening here. The new administration came in with a pubicly stated agenda and has worked effectively to enact it. Whether that's the right or wrong approach remains to be seen and determined, but it's not come across as an impartial one moving towards evidence/data-based outcomes through a scientific process.
All that context being said, in more simplisitic terms: if I were,for example: worried that I'd be fired (something that has already happened to at least one NCF employee), and I had a spouse or kids or a mortgage, or even just rent and bills to pay, and - especially knowing that most NCF faculty don't make huge salaries, and therefore likely don't have tons of savings - I'd probably do whatever I could to ensure my own survivial as best I could, or just to prolong the inevitable?
If you truly were open to collegial discourse you’d acknowledge that a Gender Studies program can operate perfectly well (as it does at thousands of public and private schools across this country) in concert with other programs and ideas. Instead you choose to operate like a gestapo agent, collecting and cherry-picking ‘evidence’ to target and intimidate. That’s fucked up.
And if *you* were interested in open and collegial discourse you’d acknowledge that a professor hiding all of his information from the public is dubious at best and not an ideal means of defending the very thing you’re arguing should be taken seriously.
You are recoiling against the very thing you are now defending, promoting, and -- through your creepy documentation practices -- carrying out: intimidation and bullying against employees and against the majority of the student body. I feel for you, really. Given your conservative stance, I suspect you are not and were not of the most popular sort at NCF. At a school that is smaller than most high-schools in this country, it's probably really difficult for someone like you to get on. And now, finally, a moment for you to practice what was practiced against you. If the shoe fits, Jesse.
You write: "Gender Studies courses pushing dogmatic, toxic ideologies that serve only to divide and sow discord, distrust, and hostility have no place at an institution dedicated to rigorous academic scholarship and the free, open exchange of ideas."
Are you saying *every* gender studies class at New College does this? Or if not, which specific courses do this? I'd love to have specific examples against which to evaluate the claim.
"Gender Studies, recognized as an interdisciplinary academic program at New College since 1995, draws on curricula across the campus (and beyond) to introduce students to the complex focal problem of “gender” and to support student and faculty research in this dynamic field."
Outside the insular bubble of academic elites and woke journalism, most Americans find that gender is not a problem to be fixed. When parents send their kids off to college and find that they come back unable to view the world through a rational lens but only in terms of oppressed and oppressor, you can understand why they say colleges are indoctrinating students.
So Conor, I will not continue providing you with information for you to pick and choose which points you want to make as you did in your previous article. Not until you have convinced me that the very premise of gender studies (as articulated here at New College of Florida and all other universities that I have seen) is valid. I don't believe it is, and I don't think Florida's best and brightest minds should be cajoled into tilting at windmills.
My article on New College was 6,000 words or so. I would have loved to include another 4,000 words, and earlier drafts did in fact include more material, but there are limits on how much people will read in one magazine article, and I am not sure how I or any other writer could do otherwise than to pick and choose what points to make in any single piece.
I tried to do so fairly, but I am open to any criticism you have of the piece. Indeed, I would encourage you to offer it. And as I noted in our last interaction, I don't want my coverage of New College, which I expect to continue, to focus exclusively on Chris Rufo and his arguments, but it made sense to start there, since he has been so much more outspoken and done so much more to shape the public understanding of the college than any of the other new trustees.
On gender studies, I confess that I don't find the quote you provided from the web site to be responsive to my question. Perhaps I can help you see where I am coming from this way: if someone characterized the curriculum at the school that you run, do you think it would be responsible of me, as a journalist looking into the matter, to presume I understood the nature of that curriculum from a phrase cherry-picked from your school's web site? Or should I try to delve into the actual content being taught to students? The phrase "the complex focal problem" sounds like academic jargon to me, and while I don't love that hard to penetrate academic jargon appears on the web site, neither do I imagine that it tells me much about the class offerings or the syllabuses or the content of gender studies instruction.
You wrote, "Gender Studies courses pushing dogmatic, toxic ideologies that serve only to divide and sow discord, distrust, and hostility."
Pressing for specific examples to back up that claim seems like a very reasonable thing to ask of a trustee at a college, and when you respond with a quote pasted from the website and a general retort about academic elites and woke journalism––am I supposed to be "woke" in this formulation?––it makes me think that you don't have specific examples, and are just assuming that the gender studies curriculum corresponds to what you would imagine it to be.
If you think gender studies is invalid, and thus haven't bothered looking into the details at New College, that's your prerogative, but then just tell us that and don't make specific claims about what is being taught. On the other hand, if you made the specific claims because you actually found evidence of dogmatism or toxic ideology why not just share the details?
Fair enough. I'll try to get back to you on this in a similar timeframe as our first interaction. I've got priority on other things right now. I was planning to respond shortly after 4/26.
This would potentially be easier to do if the full-time Gender Studies professor at the college weren’t busy scrubbing all of his materials from the web.
Do you honestly think Trustee Speir, or any of the trustees, likely watched any of those before, anyway? Do you honestly think they evaluated any of the courses or programs at NCF before making their decisions regarding them?
Oh Stephen… from assistant headmaster at IMG Academy to culture war pundit? So disappointing. I recall how passionate you were when you instilled upon IMG faculty Bloom’s Taxonomy and the importance of critical thinking. I did not know; however, you could sink so low as to denigrate the higher order thinking, academic rigor, historical context, and cultural relevance/insight acquired through gender studies. Perhaps you feel empowered to further tread on marginalized and vulnerable populations, but you are on the wrong side of history on this one. I am sorry to see you on your chosen side of the culture wars.
Caui! Well, knock me over with a feather! So good to hear from you! How are the babies - obviously not babies any more, probably getting ready for middle school soon, yes? Anyway, re. your reply, of course I fully reject your hypotheses and would be happy to discuss with you if you wanted to get together; I also would explain why the changes at NCF are absolutely necessary if you wish to see the college saved, not dissolved due to dwindling enrollment, severe financial distress, and several other reasons. BTW, are you showing your work anywhere these days? Would love to see what you're up to. All my best, S.
Stephen, my old friend, these are scary times we live in, so I prefer you leave the kids out of this. But since you ask, you’re right they are not babies anymore and regretfully they are not thriving in this environment. They are now at a prime reading age when they should be exposed to literature from many voices, but they are not allowed books in their classroom library set. They also live in terror of the next mass shooting. Unfortunately, the book ban and the Second Amendment Sanctuary City initiative did little to alleviate these anxieties. Strange and scary times indeed. I am interested in your thoughts on how to save NCF, however, only if it’s original like installing a Chick-Fil-a, a fraternity and sorority row, and maybe even getting a baseball team! You will probably get the high caliber students you are looking for, and if not, you can always bribe them at ten grand a pop! I am happy to discuss further offline, but I will not bless this propaganda machine further. Good to hear from you though, old buddy. I hope they are paying you handsomely. Your writing skills are decent, but I didn’t know your values were for sale. My best to you as well, Caui
Caui! Whoa, that's a full hot order there. And am I detecting some sarcasm in your response? You always had a terrific wit and sense of humor, that's one of the reasons I always liked you so much. Offline sounds great, how shall I reach out to you? Do you have a web page that I can message you on? Just let me know, it would be great to catch up. All my best, S!
I think it's pretty obvious after last week of what happens when a school just sticks to one ideology, you get disgusting behavior towards someone because they choose to think differently. Colleges used to say speak your mind. Now when you do you become an enemy. Sad and disgusting.
I think it's pretty obvious after last week of what happens when a school just sticks to one ideology, you get disgusting behavior towards someone because they choose to think differently. Colleges used to say speak your mind. Now when you do you become an enemy. Sad and disgusting.
Well stated! The venomous reaction to changes that WILL happen at NCF reveals a complete breakdown at NCF in vision and worse - like a family with the elephant of alcoholism in the room - a total denial of facts!
Here are the facts : 1. No college worldwide can exist with only 1/2 the number of students necessary to sustain its existence. None.
2. When faculty react both loudly and circuitously denouncing present students who welcome the changes, the depth of dishonor becomes visible: NCF has fallen far from the honor of advertising itself as “an honors college”open to all. It now has an agenda, one of intolerance. The only game here: Gender! Can a faculty that “ pretends” to be open minded because it pushes the popular far left agenda of queer theory EVER perceive that it has turned freedom on its head in fact wormed its way into power at NCF making it an intolerant college powered by the tyranny of the few?
I’m sorry, but no matter the nature of the few - even if your mythic system of beliefs considers this few to suffer disrespect - you still cannot take over a public state college and direct its entire program to one type of student, nor hire only faculty who will place that type above all others. If your desire is to create a queer theory college please raise funds and open a private college but to take over an entire system to fit one theory of human sexuality? No. Students or faculty involved in such a narrow emphasis must remove themselves to their own private institutions. Public education is a sacred right of all not an agenda-filled privately dominated singular issue anomaly. However there is already a singling out here: honors.
Honors IS special. It means you learn quickly and can achieve more in-depth than most students. NCF, therefore, must capture into its student body youth with the gifts to lead the way forward. Honors students have special privileges at all colleges: the gift of NCF - the promise here in the future is boundless. All students here should be from honors classes statewide. The advanced classes in all fields taught here could Bless our nation and our world magnificently. Just give newly chosen trustees the time - under this transitional President - to locate a President and faculty capable of answering the call to such meritocracy as already exists all across Florida in honors graduate. Get the word out: NCF is a place for the gifted that exists for accelerating learning. It’s a public college in our state, the pride of the potential of the gifted: a functioning undergraduate honors college with a worthy reputation.
Does this mean Nobel Prize worthy? Yes! Youth who begin here in time can reach the apex in complex fields that require the best minds achieve their highest reach! It means exactly that. 🌻🌻🌻
"destructive tenets of wokeism" - a word salad with no evidentiary foundation.
"The offices of DEI have been closed" - there was no "DEI" office. There was a single staff member, within a larger office, assigned *any* specific DEI tasks.
"..mutable and immutable characteristics" (of students) - I'm curious what types of characteristics you consider to fall into each of those two categories. Care to expound?
"Gender Studies courses pushing dogmatic, toxic ideologies that serve only to divide and sow discord, distrust, and hostility have no place at an institution dedicated to rigorous academic scholarship and the free, open exchange of ideas" - I agree with this statement.
Now, I challenge you to publicly identify any courses at New College that are actually doing this, with concrete evidence, and not just based on your opinion.
https://youtube.com/@shrff14
I was going to suggest viewing the lectures that were originally on this page--but, unsurprisingly, they have recently been removed.
Would have been an interesting point of discussion at least! Especially since this is the only full time gender studies teacher on campus (most of these subjects are treated as interdisciplinary and so different professors will teach courses that *qualify* as gender studies in addition to their main area of expertise).
Unfortunately, he has also scrubbed his entire CV from the internet. I have screenshots of it somewhere I believe. Nevertheless, the attempt to hide it doesn’t bode well for anyone seeking an open and honest conversation on these topics.
If you’ll notice in fact, the teaching playlist says “updated today”--which would seem to imply that the lectures there were removed as recently as today (probably upon seeing this Substack post). Now why is that? If the lectures are perfectly innocuous, why hide them?
Thank you for attempting to share that - it would have been interesting to be able to view what I'm assuming were some sample lectures!
On the one hand, I agree with you that scrubbing everything related to your job from the internet during a tumultuous time like this can certainly be seen as shady and concerning.
On the other, please forgive me if this comes across in any way but earnest, because I honestly and truly mean no disrespect (I'm the same Mike alum from Twitter who has engaged in discussion with you before), but I'm making a quick assumption here: I'm probably a bit older than you and well into my own career adventures. In and of itself, that means nothing and doesn't have any intrinsic value. However, it likely gives me a different perspective than you might have. If my current employer were undergoing massive changes like NCF is, and my specific area of work/focus were publicly noticed as on the potential proverbial chopping block, and I knew that any "evidence" (speeches, presentations, written works, blog posts, etc etc) might likely be used only against me by the powers that be...I **might** do something similar. I'd hope, of course, that my work could stand on its own and would in a good-faith system/process actually bolster my case and situation, especially when I knew they would be considered by those in power -- *if* they actually had any in-depth understanding of what those works were "about" (or at least had an unbiased approach to assessing them or any works). From all evidence so far, an unbiased approach is not what's happening here. The new administration came in with a pubicly stated agenda and has worked effectively to enact it. Whether that's the right or wrong approach remains to be seen and determined, but it's not come across as an impartial one moving towards evidence/data-based outcomes through a scientific process.
All that context being said, in more simplisitic terms: if I were,for example: worried that I'd be fired (something that has already happened to at least one NCF employee), and I had a spouse or kids or a mortgage, or even just rent and bills to pay, and - especially knowing that most NCF faculty don't make huge salaries, and therefore likely don't have tons of savings - I'd probably do whatever I could to ensure my own survivial as best I could, or just to prolong the inevitable?
Creepy Jesse H taking screenshots for his evidence bank. What else are you documenting?
If you truly were open to collegial discourse you’d acknowledge that a Gender Studies program can operate perfectly well (as it does at thousands of public and private schools across this country) in concert with other programs and ideas. Instead you choose to operate like a gestapo agent, collecting and cherry-picking ‘evidence’ to target and intimidate. That’s fucked up.
And if *you* were interested in open and collegial discourse you’d acknowledge that a professor hiding all of his information from the public is dubious at best and not an ideal means of defending the very thing you’re arguing should be taken seriously.
But you’re more interested in Nazi comparisons.
You are recoiling against the very thing you are now defending, promoting, and -- through your creepy documentation practices -- carrying out: intimidation and bullying against employees and against the majority of the student body. I feel for you, really. Given your conservative stance, I suspect you are not and were not of the most popular sort at NCF. At a school that is smaller than most high-schools in this country, it's probably really difficult for someone like you to get on. And now, finally, a moment for you to practice what was practiced against you. If the shoe fits, Jesse.
While I genuinely appreciate your attempts at armchair psychology, you fail to address the point I made above.
And the shoe is the wrong size anyway. But thanks!
☺️ Wouldn’t you like to know!
You write: "Gender Studies courses pushing dogmatic, toxic ideologies that serve only to divide and sow discord, distrust, and hostility have no place at an institution dedicated to rigorous academic scholarship and the free, open exchange of ideas."
Are you saying *every* gender studies class at New College does this? Or if not, which specific courses do this? I'd love to have specific examples against which to evaluate the claim.
"Gender Studies, recognized as an interdisciplinary academic program at New College since 1995, draws on curricula across the campus (and beyond) to introduce students to the complex focal problem of “gender” and to support student and faculty research in this dynamic field."
With this first sentence from the website, you have lost well over half of Florida's taxpayers. https://www.ncf.edu/programs/gender-studies/
Outside the insular bubble of academic elites and woke journalism, most Americans find that gender is not a problem to be fixed. When parents send their kids off to college and find that they come back unable to view the world through a rational lens but only in terms of oppressed and oppressor, you can understand why they say colleges are indoctrinating students.
So Conor, I will not continue providing you with information for you to pick and choose which points you want to make as you did in your previous article. Not until you have convinced me that the very premise of gender studies (as articulated here at New College of Florida and all other universities that I have seen) is valid. I don't believe it is, and I don't think Florida's best and brightest minds should be cajoled into tilting at windmills.
Eddie,
My article on New College was 6,000 words or so. I would have loved to include another 4,000 words, and earlier drafts did in fact include more material, but there are limits on how much people will read in one magazine article, and I am not sure how I or any other writer could do otherwise than to pick and choose what points to make in any single piece.
I tried to do so fairly, but I am open to any criticism you have of the piece. Indeed, I would encourage you to offer it. And as I noted in our last interaction, I don't want my coverage of New College, which I expect to continue, to focus exclusively on Chris Rufo and his arguments, but it made sense to start there, since he has been so much more outspoken and done so much more to shape the public understanding of the college than any of the other new trustees.
On gender studies, I confess that I don't find the quote you provided from the web site to be responsive to my question. Perhaps I can help you see where I am coming from this way: if someone characterized the curriculum at the school that you run, do you think it would be responsible of me, as a journalist looking into the matter, to presume I understood the nature of that curriculum from a phrase cherry-picked from your school's web site? Or should I try to delve into the actual content being taught to students? The phrase "the complex focal problem" sounds like academic jargon to me, and while I don't love that hard to penetrate academic jargon appears on the web site, neither do I imagine that it tells me much about the class offerings or the syllabuses or the content of gender studies instruction.
You wrote, "Gender Studies courses pushing dogmatic, toxic ideologies that serve only to divide and sow discord, distrust, and hostility."
Pressing for specific examples to back up that claim seems like a very reasonable thing to ask of a trustee at a college, and when you respond with a quote pasted from the website and a general retort about academic elites and woke journalism––am I supposed to be "woke" in this formulation?––it makes me think that you don't have specific examples, and are just assuming that the gender studies curriculum corresponds to what you would imagine it to be.
If you think gender studies is invalid, and thus haven't bothered looking into the details at New College, that's your prerogative, but then just tell us that and don't make specific claims about what is being taught. On the other hand, if you made the specific claims because you actually found evidence of dogmatism or toxic ideology why not just share the details?
Fair enough. I'll try to get back to you on this in a similar timeframe as our first interaction. I've got priority on other things right now. I was planning to respond shortly after 4/26.
This would potentially be easier to do if the full-time Gender Studies professor at the college weren’t busy scrubbing all of his materials from the web.
Do you honestly think Trustee Speir, or any of the trustees, likely watched any of those before, anyway? Do you honestly think they evaluated any of the courses or programs at NCF before making their decisions regarding them?
You will find no specific examples or evidence on this blog. Ever. Or, responses to requests for such.
Oh Stephen… from assistant headmaster at IMG Academy to culture war pundit? So disappointing. I recall how passionate you were when you instilled upon IMG faculty Bloom’s Taxonomy and the importance of critical thinking. I did not know; however, you could sink so low as to denigrate the higher order thinking, academic rigor, historical context, and cultural relevance/insight acquired through gender studies. Perhaps you feel empowered to further tread on marginalized and vulnerable populations, but you are on the wrong side of history on this one. I am sorry to see you on your chosen side of the culture wars.
Caui! Well, knock me over with a feather! So good to hear from you! How are the babies - obviously not babies any more, probably getting ready for middle school soon, yes? Anyway, re. your reply, of course I fully reject your hypotheses and would be happy to discuss with you if you wanted to get together; I also would explain why the changes at NCF are absolutely necessary if you wish to see the college saved, not dissolved due to dwindling enrollment, severe financial distress, and several other reasons. BTW, are you showing your work anywhere these days? Would love to see what you're up to. All my best, S.
Stephen, my old friend, these are scary times we live in, so I prefer you leave the kids out of this. But since you ask, you’re right they are not babies anymore and regretfully they are not thriving in this environment. They are now at a prime reading age when they should be exposed to literature from many voices, but they are not allowed books in their classroom library set. They also live in terror of the next mass shooting. Unfortunately, the book ban and the Second Amendment Sanctuary City initiative did little to alleviate these anxieties. Strange and scary times indeed. I am interested in your thoughts on how to save NCF, however, only if it’s original like installing a Chick-Fil-a, a fraternity and sorority row, and maybe even getting a baseball team! You will probably get the high caliber students you are looking for, and if not, you can always bribe them at ten grand a pop! I am happy to discuss further offline, but I will not bless this propaganda machine further. Good to hear from you though, old buddy. I hope they are paying you handsomely. Your writing skills are decent, but I didn’t know your values were for sale. My best to you as well, Caui
Caui! Whoa, that's a full hot order there. And am I detecting some sarcasm in your response? You always had a terrific wit and sense of humor, that's one of the reasons I always liked you so much. Offline sounds great, how shall I reach out to you? Do you have a web page that I can message you on? Just let me know, it would be great to catch up. All my best, S!
I think it's pretty obvious after last week of what happens when a school just sticks to one ideology, you get disgusting behavior towards someone because they choose to think differently. Colleges used to say speak your mind. Now when you do you become an enemy. Sad and disgusting.
I think it's pretty obvious after last week of what happens when a school just sticks to one ideology, you get disgusting behavior towards someone because they choose to think differently. Colleges used to say speak your mind. Now when you do you become an enemy. Sad and disgusting.