Jeffrey YostSep 3, 2023

The far right's war on higher ed. & esp. the liberal arts is an attack on democracy. Unless stopped, it will play out on many US campuses.

“This is a test case for a conservative overhaul of higher education – and it isn’t going to stay isolated to New College or Florida.”

-Gender St. faculty, New College, resigned Prof. Clarkson.

#newcollege #desantis #fl #florida #HighEducation #universities #farright #rightwing @politicalscience @histodons @sociology @anthropol
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/sep/03/new-college-florida-desantis-teachers

‘Where learning goes to die’: DeSantis’s rightwing takeover of a liberal arts college

Small liberal arts college is being steadily eroded by a DeSantis-aligned board, in ominous sign for higher studies in a country torn by culture wars

The Guardian
Show threadLilly ISep 3, 2023
@JustCodeCulture @politicalscience @histodons @sociology @anthropol I noticed that they have a faculty union. I wonder if having a union helped at all or mostly other kinds of organizing would have been needed in this case.
Show threadDave VannessSep 3, 2023
@gleemie @JustCodeCulture @politicalscience @histodons @sociology @anthropol (Setting aside the fact that other organizing was almost certainly done,) what other kinds of organizing do you think would have been successful in stopping a Governor (running for president on an anti-woke agenda), who has flagrantly used autocratic tactics at every turn and in every policy that serves his political agenda, from doing what he did? I'd be very interested to know so we can do it next time.
Show threadDr. MikailaSep 3, 2023
@djvanness there's no way to know whether anything would have been successful, but one observation many commentators make is that faculty often pay very little attention to the local. Working to elect better state legislators & build coalitions is much more likely to work in these cases than attending to national politics & courts.
Show threadDave Vanness
@mmlarthur definitely agree. When Scott Walker attacked the University of Wisconsin in 2015, I worked very hard to marshall faculty to stand in opposition. Ultimately, we were only partially successful, but we made sure Walker paid a political price. Fortunately, a beneficial side effect of our effort was helping to politically activate our state superintendent of public education (a member of the Board of Regents) Tony Evers, who eventually defeated Walker. I don't think New College could...
Sep 3, 2023 at 6:54pmWeb
Show threadDave VannessSep 3, 2023
@mmlarthur have done the same thing. They are much too small, a much easier target for DeSantis. And the level of autocracy in Wisconsin, though terrible, was a far cry from what DeSantis is exercising in Florida. Every state is different. Though there are common tactics to use, the same strategy won't work everywhere. All that being said, yes raising faculty awareness is a big part of the process.