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www.wphm.net

cross-posted from: https://midwest.social/post/15832268

The New College of Florida is under fire after what appears to be hundreds of books that have been wiped from its collection and discarded on the street.

The right-wing war on knowledge continues to be a five-alarm fire for American (and world) Democracy and getting worse by the day…

  • worldwidewave@lemmy.world
    521·
    3 months ago

    “We basically tried to communicate to officials that there were educational nonprofits and shelters that were immediately willing to bring trucks and save all of the books … and officials refused,” said Zander Moricz, executive director at SEE.

    Moricz continued, “​​There were Bibles, there were stories of Black authors, of Latin authors, female stories, there were LGBTQ+ and queer stories, or trans stories, all thrown into a dumpster. It sends the message that New College of Florida wants to send stories of gender and diversity to the dump, and it was so heartbreaking and also very frustrating.”

    Cruelty’s the point.

      • kent_ehEnglish
        7·
        3 months ago

        Bibles

        Huh. Didn’t expect that.

        Have you read the thing? It’s got all sorts of killing, rape, torture, slavery, sex and violence.

        If DeSantis wants to ban “dangerous” books, it deserves to be on the pile.

  • SeaJ@lemm.ee
    14·
    3 months ago

    Wow. Reading up on the school on Wikipedia, DeSantis turned it into a dumpster fire.

    In early 2023, Governor Ron DeSantis overhauled the college’s board of trustees, appointing six new members including Christopher Rufo, Matthew Spalding, Charles R. Kesler, Mark Bauerlein, Debra Jenks, and Eddie Speir. Of those, the first four are well-known conservative activists who appear to live outside Florida.

    Turnover has been terrible:

    By mid-July 2023, over a third of the existing faculty had left the college, many choosing to resign or take a leave of absence as a direct result of the conservative takeover.

    And of course the president is way overpaid:

    In October 2023, when formally announced as New College’s new president, Corcoran’s total annual compensation of over $1 million drew scrutiny from media and experts in academic and executive compensation, significantly in excess of expected pay for the president of a public university with a small student body population.

    That is about how much the president of the University of Washington makes which has 52k students. There are a whopping 689 students at the New College. Tuition is $7000/yr. A massive chunk of a student’s tuition ($1450) goes to paying one conservative fuck head.

    They asked for $400 million to transform the school into a conservative shithole. Really fiscally responsible.

  • yesman@lemmy.world
    22·
    3 months ago

    There’s just no enthusiasm on the conservative side anymore. Back in the day, they’d have danced around a bonfire tossing these books in a pagan ritual of bliss. Now they just toss them in the bin. Pathetic.