SARASOTA, Fla. – The New College of Florida is set to eliminate its gender students degree program following its board of trustees meeting on Thursday.
Toward the end of the meeting, Christopher Rufo — who was one of several appointees to the board by Gov. Ron DeSantis — put the motion forward to the board.
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“There’s one program in particular that in my view is not compatible with our mission, which is to revive a classical liberal arts education,” Rufo said. “This was the mission of the founders of New College. They said, direct quote, ‘Classical liberal arts education is our mission today.’ And I think the gender studies program is wildly contradictory to that mission.”
Rufo suggested terminating the program beginning with the 2024 enrollees, which saw support from other board members. He claimed that the program represents “ideological activism.”
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Rufo explained that while the program would be scrapped, the topic of gender studies could still be taught as part of other academic concentrations.
However, Amy Reid, the director of the gender studies program, read a prepared statement against the proposal.
“We stand with gender studies. Women’s and gender studies has been central to the American liberal arts for 50 years,” she said. “Established at New College as a joint-disciplinary AOC (area of concentration) in 1995, our gender studies program has grown because of the participation and the support of faculty in all three divisions. We recognize the value of the GSP (gender studies program).”
Reid added that the program has between two to eight students per year on average.
Board Member Matthew Spalding spoke out against the program, saying that it is the “clear outlier” among the other degree programs offered at the college.
“It strikes me that if you look at the list of AOCs, there’s one outlier, and it’s gender studies,” Spalding said. “And the removal of that as an AOC is fully in accord with the mission of the college. That is outside that focus. It is not within the liberal arts, and it’s more of an ideological movement than an academic discipline.”
Spalding added that the affiliated faculty are all in “regular disciplines” and that they would be able to continue teaching their courses.
“Any substantial topics that are raised in gender topics can be covered in those ordinary academic disciplines, like history and psychology and biology,” he said.
Trustee Mark Bauerlein echoed the support, though he admitted that he wasn’t against gender studies as a topic of study.
“My support is not to be construed against gender studies because there have been many brilliant books, work and teaching done in the area of gender studies,” he said. “But as a matter of disciplinary structure, I don’t think that it’s wise to create a separate, independent disciplinary entity.”
Ultimately, the board affirmed the motion by a super-majority vote of 7-3 to eliminate the Bachelor of Arts in Gender Studies degree program.
The program is set to end starting with the 2024 enrollee class, the college told News 6.
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