EDITORS' CORNER
OPINION
Turns out, the conservative take-over of New College of Florida isn’t all that bad for progressives on campus. And some reluctantly admit it.
Despite all the hand wringing about Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis’s changes starting in 2023, some now say the public institution is a place of academic freedom and respect for those of varying viewpoints.
It comes from a series of interviews with faculty and students published recently in the New York Times.
One of them, Professor April Flakne, has been teaching philosophy at New College for 25 years.
She does “[wonder] whether in the future, there will be room for people like her at the college,” and “can’t help but feel that her fate at New College may depend more than ever on politics, especially now that the Trump administration has applied the full force of the federal government against the higher education establishment,” according to the article.
But Flakne’s worries haven’t come true as of yet, despite being three years in. She admitted that the college’s new conservative leadership has allowed her to keep teaching what she wants to.
She told the NYT:
And somewhat to her surprise, Dr. Flakne noted, no one has stopped her from continuing to teach about Simone de Beauvoir, even with the elimination of gender studies.
“I teach what I want to teach, because I feel able to justify it on intellectual grounds,” she said.
“I will take the consequences if there were some.”
Another faculty member shared more:
David Mikics, a newly hired English professor and writer for Tablet, the Jewish-oriented news and ideas magazine, says the ideological rift at New College has been exaggerated.
“Some of my colleagues list their pronouns, others don’t,” he said. “It hasn’t been my experience that there’s a sort of war between one side and another side. I don’t even know what the sides would be to tell you the truth.”
This is true for students, too.
Callie Flemming, a senior who identifies as transgender, “still feels safe at New College.” Flemming thought about transferring schools due to the political shift, but “decided not to — and is now glad about that decision.”
“Most of the community that I like about New College, it’s still here,” Flemming told the New York Times.
Another student, Liv Fenstermaker “does not see ideological divisions on campus” either. She told the newspaper that “everybody minds their own business, does their own thing.”
Notably, the public institution is attracting more students, too. In 2025, enrollment surpassed “900 for the first time in the college’s history,” Faculty Chair David Allen Harvey wrote at the Sarasota Herald-Tribune in October.
As to the “why,” many young adults are reportedly hungering for knowledge and truth. They want the opportunity to speak freely and explore the vast realm of human thought and belief — without fear of being ostracized or canceled.
Absent from the NYT article is what New College of Florida, in all likelihood, used to be under leftist control: a place where conservative ideas were silenced and progressive ones were taught as the only way to think.
Its new conservative leaders are offering the opposite: academic freedom and respect. Those are essential values that help make up a good education, and, as New College’s growing numbers suggest, it’s what students are seeking. Let’s hope other colleges take note.
MORE: New College’s only full-time gender studies professor quits
