What’s New
A group of faculty members and students at New College of Florida has mounted a fresh challenge to the state law that this summer effectively banned diversity, equity, and inclusion programs at public colleges.
By limiting what topics can be taught in general-education courses, the law violates the plaintiffs’ free-speech rights and is discriminatory, says their complaint, filed on Monday in federal district court in Tallahassee, Fla.
NCF Freedom Inc., a nonprofit group that’s advocating against what’s been called a “hostile takeover” of the small liberal-arts college, is also a plaintiff.
The Details
The DEI ban, Senate Bill 266, was hailed as a signature achievement by Ron DeSantis, the state’s Republican governor and a presidential candidate, who signed it on New College’s campus in May.
The suit challenges the law on four fronts:
- “Content-based and viewpoint-based censorship of speech in violation of the First Amendment”
- “Vagueness”
- “Overbreadth”
- “Invidious discrimination in violation of the equal-protection clause of the 14th Amendment”
Three of the named plaintiffs are professors of art, sociology, and music, respectively, who say many of their classes would be banned outright under the new law. “It is doubtful that even the hard sciences escape the cudgel of SB 266,” the suit says.
The other three plaintiffs are undergraduates who say the classes they want to take this year will be drastically altered. One urban-studies major, for instance, said he “routinely addresses topics and issues prohibited by the anti-DEI law, including such practices as redlining,” according to the complaint.
A spokesperson for New College didn’t respond to a request for comment on Tuesday.
The Backdrop
The litigation represents another skirmish in a monthslong fight over New College’s identity. DeSantis has made revamping higher ed a touchstone of his presidential campaign, and he’s taken a particular interest in New College. He appointed six new conservative trustees to its board this year, with the goal of, as one DeSantis aide put it, creating a “Hillsdale of the South,” a reference to the Christian college in Michigan. Other GOP-led states have followed DeSantis’s lead on higher-ed reform, especially when it comes to pulling funds for DEI programs.
All the while, fears persist of a faculty brain drain in the state. More than a third of New College’s faculty had no plans to return this fall, the Tampa Bay Times reported in July. College administrators across the state seem to be eyeing the exits, too. Executive-search firms are taking notice.
Another lawsuit, filed in state court this month by the United Faculty of Florida, the state’s faculty union, took issue with a provision of the law that gives university presidents the final say in personnel disputes.
The Stakes
Gary S. Edinger, a Florida-based lawyer who represents the plaintiffs in the new lawsuit, told The Chronicle that even though the anti-DEI law applies to all public colleges in the state, New College is particularly vulnerable to its implications. Last week the college’s board started the process of dismantling its gender-studies program.
“The particular concepts and ideas that are being defunded lie at the very heart of liberal arts,” Edinger said. “The plaintiffs in this lawsuit are afraid that basically their majors are going to disappear.”
