Christopher Rufo

• 
• SOURCE: Chronicle of Higher Education
  6/12/2023
  

  New College Visiting Prof. Out of Job—Rufo's Public Remarks Suggest Politics the Motive

  Erik Wallenberg wrote a critical commentary about the ideological reordering of their campus. His contract renewal was then declined. Trustee Christopher Rufo's tweets seem to affirm that the nonrenewal was ideologically motivated. Wallenberg speaks out. 

• 
• SOURCE: Tampa Bay Times
  5/22/2023
  

  New College Faculty Vote to Censure College's New Trustees

  The censure motion, which was supported by 80% of the faculty, called the new majority of the Board of Trustees negligent in its fiduciary duty to the college because of noncompliance with transparency laws, failure to disclose financial conflicts of interest, and disregard for procedure in reviewing tenure applications. 

• 
• SOURCE: Daily Beast
  5/17/2023
  

  Florida Just Banned Everything I Teach

  by William Horne

  Black historians during the Jim Crow era observed that the history taught in schools justified slavery, segregation, and lynching. A professor thinks that's where Ron DeSantis's vision of history is headed. Some politicians may think curriculum is a winning issue, but students and society will lose. 

• 
• SOURCE: Inside Higher Ed
  5/11/2023
  

  Florida Senate Rejects DeSantis Pick for New College Trustee Board

  Eddie Speir, whose prior experience in education was running a private K-12 religious school, was rejected by the Florida Senate after having participated in board meetings at the New College of Florida as an interim Trustee. What distinguishes Speir from Governor Ron DeSantis's other appointees? 

• 
• SOURCE: New York Times
  4/29/2023
  

  Inside the New New College

  by Michelle Goldberg

  Hopes that the incoming regime at the New College of Florida would tread lightly on the school's unique culture were dashed by administrative moves to recruit student athletes, establish fraternities and sororities, and deny tenure to the faculty members who sought it this year. 

• 
• SOURCE: Politico
  3/24/2023
  

  Culture Warrior Chris Rufo is DeSantis's Most Important Ally

  The closeness of the Florida governor's alliance with the fomer documentarian turned anti-CRT crusader shows DeSantis's commitment to claiming a position on the right of the culture wars. Who is setting the agenda? 

• 
• SOURCE: New York Times
  3/14/2023
  

  At Florida's Besieged New College, Apprehension and Resolve

  Students fear disruption of an academic community that many find supportive, inspiring, and open—and gravely misunderstood by the Governor and his allies. 

• 
• SOURCE: Substack
  1/23/2023
  

  Banished Podcast: Sunshine State's Descent Into Darkness

  by Amna Khalid and Jeffrey Aaron Snyder

  Two historian podcasters evaluate the effort to politicize the history curriculum in Florida's K-12 schools and public colleges. 

• 
• SOURCE: Chronicle of Higher Education
  1/11/2023
  

  The Right's Chaos Politics Meet Institutional Inertia in the Fight for Florida's New College

  by Brian Rosenberg

  "The reference to Hillsdale and not to a 'great books' college like St. John’s in Annapolis totally gives away the game: This is not about teaching the Western canon but about scoring political points and creating not a traditional college but a conservative Republican college."

• 
• SOURCE: Chronicle of Higher Education
  1/11/2023
  

  DeSantis's New College Coup Will Fail

  by Adam Laats

  Transforming colleges along ideological lines is much more difficult than amassing political power or appointing allies to governing boards. Conservatives are able to operate successful and ideologically friendly institutions when they accept that they will be occupy a niche, not change the ecosystem. 

• 
• 1/15/2023
  

  50 Years Ago, "Anti-Woke" Crusaders Came for My Grandfather

  by Max Jacobs

  In 1972, "Search for Freedom" was rejected for adoption in Texas classrooms after conservative activists launched a national media campaign to attack it as unamerican and corrupting. The author's grandfather wrote the book. 

• 
• SOURCE: The New Yorker
  10/31/2022
  

  Is Moms For Liberty Out to Protect Kids or Scare Parents?

  Williamson County in suburban Nashville shows how the astroturf Mom's group erupted on the scene to challenge a popular and well-regarded social studies curriculum for elementary schools on the grounds that its civil rights lessons were "divisive." 

• 
• SOURCE: The Forum
  7/18/2022
  

  Stuck on the Rufo Road

  by Jennifer Berkshire

  As conservative activists mount a multi-front campaign to discredit and defund public education, too many leading Democrats seem unaware that the popularity of public education means they have a winning issue right in front of their faces, says an education historian and policy analyst. 

• 
• SOURCE: New York Magazine
  7/11/2021
  

  CRT: How to Manufacture a Moral Panic

  "When an educator exposes the racism that lurks within this nation, they often find themselves at the mercy of an onslaught from the right."