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Monday, July 31st, 2023

‘I’m not wanted’: Florida universities hit by brain drain as academics flee

Author:     Joseph Contreras
Source:     The Guardian (U.K.)
Publication Date:     Sun 30 Jul 2023 | 06.00 EDT
 Link: ‘I’m not wanted’: Florida universities hit by brain drain as academics flee
Stephan:  

One of the trends that made America the world leader in the post-WWII era was the result of shared intention by both parties to improve public primary and secondary education, and to help colleges and universities. Many of the technologies that have shaped our world arose from this and gave us our status in the world. Now we have a party, the Republicans, actively working to dismantle public education, and at the university level, we have this.

Ron DeSantis has rolled back the rights of Florida’s LGBTQ+ community. Credit: The Washington Post / Getty

With the start of the 2023-24 academic year only six weeks away, senior officials at New College of Florida (NCF) made a startling announcement in mid-July: 36 of the small honors college’s approximately 100 full-time teaching positions were vacant. The provost, Bradley Thiessen, described the number of faculty openings as “ridiculously high”, and the disclosure was the latest evidence of a brain drain afflicting colleges and universities throughout the Sunshine state.

Governor Ron DeSantis opened 2023 with the appointment of six political allies to the college’s 13-member board of trustees who vowed to drastically alter the supposedly “woke”-friendly learning environment on its Sarasota campus. At its first meeting in late January, the revamped panel voted to fire the college president, Patricia Okker, without cause and appoint a former Republican state legislator and education commissioner in her place.

Over the ensuing weeks, board members have dismissed the college’s head librarian and director of diversity programs and denied tenure to five professors who had been recommended […]

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