Welcome back to the nonprofits everyone. And you know, something weird is going on into college down in Florida, and I don't want to talk too much about it because John Rona Bush has all the skinny and he's going to fill us in on it. What do you got for us, John.
Well, Today we have a story of censorship and criminal neglect by a college and the recently stacked board that now runs that college, now taking a once secular school dedicated to education and turning it into a Christian nationalist hate factory. So New College as it's called, did what they were told to do and wokeism in colleges that have state funding. So they were the first test case
of this. In this case, the new board eliminated the Office of Diversity and Equity and gender Studies program, so they took all the resource books and materials and threw them in a dumpster. Claimed they were following the law. They only back pedaled on these already completed acts when the press pointed out that that law doesn't say what they claimed it does. Lies Always when the spokesperson from this sort of event knows they have been caught and cornered,
they lie. And then when they give them another excuse, they lie again, and when that's debunked, they'll lie again. So it smells very familiar to me. The very idea of academic freedom has been discarded by this board of directors intentionally. The student body and activists, when they became aware of the intentional destruction of educational materials, managed to save some of the resources before they were carded off to be destroyed. The students, of course, had a different
idea of what this was. The story is from Sarasota Herald Tribune by Stephen Walker on August fifteenth, twenty twenty four.
Thanks John, I know you had looked into this story a little bit. Can you for listen on how these books got to where they got to.
You're you're muted muted?
Uh? Yeah, Basically, John covered it pretty thoroughly. The New College of Florida scraps, the Gender University Center and Fox a bunch of books off campus without giving the students uh the opportunity to buy or collect any of them, which is strange because typically when the library does this process, they're calling weading, which is taking out books that are out of date and replacing them with books that are up You know, the updated versions of those books. That's
what they're saying. They were doing with the you know this, this dumbster full of books. It just happened to all be GDC Gender Diversity, Gender and Diversity Center books because there just.
I don't want to cut you off, but wasn't there something about a donation box.
Yeah, So what ended up happening was they got moved from this dumpster into a donation box behind the building, which is located, not to worry, several feet away from the dumpster that they were originally in. So it's clearly a separate, you know container.
I think that was I have a feeling it was kind of planned, and I wonder if they, if they really did put these books into the donation box, how many people who did not agree with this program came along and went, oh, I can keep this book as I'm walking by. As long as it takes me to walk by the dumpster, I'm going to keep this book.
Right.
That was a concern for me, Infidel. What were your concerns about this?
Yeah, Well, other than the obvious that pretty much any time you're on the side of book banning, you're probably not on the right side, and that I like both of you, I definitely think this is something that was planned. They were going to go ahead and dump these books, get these out of there, follow the rules, get get get this taken care of and they didn't expect the blowback that they received from it, you know. And you know, and I kept thinking that previously they've told the students,
but they didn't this time. So that right there tells me something. And I do find it interesting that Shannon Hausinger, she's the New College of Florida's dean of the library for the for the college that you know, they they have taken over. This used to be a more liberal college and now it's getting you know, pretty much desanticized. And so her job was to get this taken care of it. And I think that now that this blowback's occurred,
she's been placed on leave. And the truth is is that the only reason I think that she's on leave is because they needed to blame it on somebody. So blame it on the new dean of the library. Move on, because it's so I have been there since February, and you know, they're trying to imply it that these books were happen because of a failure to community of communication. But we had people like Christopher Rufo bragging that we abolished a gender studies program. Now we're throwing out the trash.
And he also bragged the first public university in America to begin rolling back the encroachment of gender ideology and queer theory on its academic offerings. This is a very concerted and deliberate attempt, and to view it as anything else other than censorship, I think at best is being naive. But no, this is just more of the same. Let's pretend that the others, whoever they are this week, doesn't exist. And now it's you know, gender studies. We've got to
pretend that doesn't exist. Let's get them in the trash. As Zach de Larroca said, from raising against a machine, they don't got to burn the books, they just remove them. So that's exactly what they're doing here, just get them out. Yeah.
I agree. I did do a bit of a deep dive into New College to find out a little bit more about him. I didn't know anything about him. I thought they were a private college at first, but it turns out that they started out as a Christian college in nineteen sixty but they were taken over by the state of Florida in sixty five, so they are no longer a private college. They are a public college in
twenty twenty three, is it? Desant disappointed? The six conservative members to the college board, and four of them don't even live in the state. One of them, I don't even think is qualified to be on a college board. He's just a conservative activist. I'm not sure why he's there at all. But these are the people that Fantis
put in charge to change this. I was reading I was reading the story and it mentioned that they were trying to pattern it after a private school in another state, and I jokingly said, what are they trying to make it Hillsdale College in Michigan. And as I started duping, doing a deep dive, I found out that that was exactly what they were doing. They were trying to make it like Hillsdale College in Michigan. So if you don't know who Hillsdale is, go look him up. It's pretty sad. Jonathan.
I know you had a lot more concerns about this, and I know you know a little bit about Sarasota in the community here there you want to fill us in on that.
Yeah. Yeah, Sarasota is a really it's a nice city, and it tends to to to be fairly liberal because it's an artist community. It's you know, it's an artist community. There's a lot of and cultural center basically, and it's a very, very kind of erudype place. It's not a place where there's a lot of necessarily visible pop poverty, at least not in the city itself. They have a lot of art stores things like that, when they have some fairly expensive sort of like their own rodeo drive.
So this is not the place you would think really to see conflicts about this sort of thing. And they said activists saved some of the books. Not a surprise to me, because I think when the city finds out what's going on, they'll probably have quite a few people not happy with the university. So and probably already do. Now this is a historic thing, and they have their share of the moms for liberty types who want to ban any book that says anything other than what they
wanted to say. You know, it's just that in this city like Tampa, which is kind of the blue spots on the Florida map, it's not easy for people to get through these things due to their particular boards on things. However, when you get the heavy hitters from Tallahassee moving in, it gets a little harder to maintain your individual city feel.
And so there are a lot of dishonest fear mongers and lying, dishonest fear mongers that get in the way with much of the what I consider a decent place, even though they do have a lot of WU but that doesn't scare me as much as this Christian nationalists. We're going to hit them where it hurts kind of stuff. This college is in Sarasota, like I said, a city with an artist commu community, so you can imagine that it's not quite as conservative as the rest of the state.
And so it was I think important to make a statement in Florida to get this college to be the first one they actually tried this experiment with, and right now it's winning. However, every one of these types of initiatives from Florida that I know of so far have failed in federal court. So we'll see what happens with this. And I really do hope and I think they probably already know about it, that the Freedom from Religion Foundation or some of the the ACLU and then you know,
do something about this. But they're very busy right now. We're nationwide, so you know.
What your legal action can they take here? Are they breaking the law at all? I don't know that they are. You know, I don't know that there is legal action to take.
Actually, I think runs a foul of some of the discrimination laws. I'd be it might be a stretch, but they're deliberately targeting a minority group, so that is a very that's breaking federal law.
Are they targeting the group though, or are they targeting a program that they say is no longer a valid program for the school? When they do it saying I don't know, I don't know that they're actually doing anything legally wrong. And I know these guys got a bunch of lawyers behind them, and I know these lawyers aren't always right, but in this case, I'm usually pretty good at calling these things, and I honestly don't see anything legal that they can sue over here. I really don't.
Well, there is there's a couple of federal laws that this is breaking. Whether it's not, it's not it's worth it to do that, but there is a question of academic freedom as well. But the people actually said they were doing this to get rid of students who were pushing LGBTQ plus ideology. I literally said it. They literally said, we're being bigoted here and we're going to do this because we want to. And this is not a private college.
A private college could get away with that. A state funded college will not if they if they want to push it, however, it might not be somebody who would be pushing that, who would be filing a lawsuit, may not be doing it, do it because they know it's going to be a slog right.
Yeah. I actually wanted to bring that up because Christopher Rufo, one of the people at DeSantis placed on the board. I have a quote here from them. Oh boy, I just lost it. Give me a second. Here it is the student body will be recomposed over time. Some current students will self select out, others will graduate, will recruit
new students who are mission aligned. So I mean he's basically saying, we want to get rid of all these liberal students and we want to bring in people who think the same way we do.
Right.
Rufo also happens to be the one guy I didn't think was qualified to be on the board. Eli, what do you think of this idea of reading out the students.
Well, as you just described it, that is like to accept students who are mission aligned. That is like private school type speak. Like the last segment we did was was private schools acting like public schools. Now we got a public school acting like a private school, and it's that's just so sinister to me. And I feel like I use that word more on a nonprofits than I do like any other time in my life. But it's it. There's a couple of things here that I want to
touch on the school. They respond by I mentioned earlier denying that the books, that all of the books in the dumpster belongs specifically to the Gender University Center. It just happened to be the overwhelming majority of them because
they just happen to not have that program anymore. But as we've already established it, this is for the purpose of getting rid of those students, and when they're basically restricting access to public education by discriminating against and trying to get rid of students that are in marginalized groups. So I think I can see what you were saying a minute ago. Kelly. How's it's difficult to tell. Is it ethically wrong, I think absolutely yeah. Is it legally wrong,
I'm kind of yeah. I'm with you there, Like I'm not sure. But when you look at it from the lens of you know, they are restricting access to education to already marginalized groups by further marginalized, by actively marginalizing them. I think Jonathan has a point. There's some discrimination, you know, if not laws, at least regulations and anti discrimination programs.
I don't.
I just don't know. Like, if they got rid of the Latin studies could have a Mexican community group to them, I don't think that would Bosh and I think we're looking at the same thing here. I understand that the group that the studies is based on is a minority group. They're a very maligned minority group as well, But I don't think that just getting ready of the studying program is attacking the minority group itself. And I think that's where we're going to run into some legal questions here.
Well, if they if they get rid of studies because they don't have a Latin teacher, that's one thing. If they get rid of Latin Studies because they want to get rid of Latin students or Latino or Latina students. That's a completely different matter, and that would be discrimination.
They're not saying they want to get rid of lg They have not come right out and said that that's part of what they're doing these things. We know what we I mean, we can pretty much see what's going on here. But if we're going to take this apart, we have to prove that this is what they were doing. And I don't know.
When when this board member openly states that that's the reason for it and.
Want the LGBTQ students here.
So he openly stated that he's replacing those students because there they are not the type of students they want.
I understand what he's saying, and I believe Kelly understands. I know Kelly understands what he's saying. The problem is is that, yes, is it morally reprehensible, Yes, should it be legal? But you understand that we're in Florida, a state that we're hearing this type of mentality becomes legal statute. You know, when we talk about a lot of these programs, we're talking about a state government that's actually enforcing, endorsing
and pushing these types of programs. So when it comes down to legality on a state level, I don't see any question on a state level. When it comes down to a federal yes, look, this guy is hideous, Christopher Rufo. I mean it isn't just as it is horrendous view on LGBTQ. He made the comment that New College previously enrolled too many women and turned it into a social justice ghetto. This guy is a terrible human being. This guy is someone who shouldn't be in charge of anything,
much less educating students. Because yes, you're right, Jonathan, he wants people he can mold into a mindset that you and I both despise and loathe for good reason, because we want children to go into a mindset of learning to think for themselves and to make those conclusions. And he's not and so yes, but does he say LGBTQ? Does he explicitly say no? And reality is I don't
think it's illegal. But I think that the reason it's important for us to bring this up is because we need to remind people that, hey, remember back when they pass these laws to say don't say gay, and where we pass these laws about racism and all this. This is what happens. You get booked, you get educational material thrown into the trash like garbage because that suits their purposes. And that is the most disgusting thing I can say. But is it illegal? Okay, maybe that's not the most
discussed thing, because I don't think it is. And that is completely reprehensible.
You know.
And since you just a point.
Of information on that that don't say gay bill was overturned in the federal court.
And well I wanted to mention that something about that too. Christopher Rufo was a big backer and supporter of that bill. This is the same guy who's now in charge of his college was pushing that built.
So yeap.
Fortunately, I'm not talking about legal statute. Yeah, I'm not talking about legal statute. I'm talking about this is the mentality in which we see the authoritory in view that DeSantis is pushed onto Florida for years now has been this intolerance squared and and what.
Happens when we get when he was governor, but and that Marco Rubio got his uh senatorial election won by the same sort of rhetoric. So they're they're they're the politicians in the state of the Republican. Uh, well, I can't say that the conservatives have taken over the state the last ten years or something.
You know, you've been pretty silent throughout this whole segment. You got something you'd.
Like to have? No, I started, I had a little bit to say, started off that little TIFFs there, and I kind of just watched it unfold.
That was fun.
It was better is when we have those little tests.
Yeah, that was enjoyable.
And I'm going to have to wait until next year now for that punch John over it too.
So I did find this quote. I think I agree with this person's sentiment. Faculty chair Amy Reid, who seems to be on the position of not agreeing with tossing away these books. She says throwing books away is throwing away democracy, which I think is a really silly thing to say. But I agree with her sentiment and that it's like and I said before, censoring information, hiding information, and getting rid of it is not the right way
to teach people, like the right thing. It's the right way to teach them what you want them to learn, but it's not the right way to teach them the right thing. And I wouldn't quite say that it's strong away democracy, but it's it's definitely not conducive to an educated society.
That's how to think, not what the thing exactly. They've got theirs upside down.
But they.
Can also say the same thing on their side too.
Right, Yeah, and I understand that. And with that in mind, I understand that, you know, and the bottom line is consistently throughout history, once again, I have to say that the side wanting to limit information is consistently on the wrong side. History doesn't tend to go. You know, those people that tried to keep this secret from everybody else, they were the awesome people that we all loved and respected. No, usually they're the people that are keeping something for their
own control, are their own power, are their own self interest? So, and I think that's what we're seeing here. We're seeing people want to remake this college like they want the world around them the look, and they don't give a shit about people who don't fit into that mold. Yeah, if they don't fit the business model, yeah, they'll they'll check out.
Oh well, I know, go ahead, do you like?
I can't kill you? I love how because you brought this up? Andredelle, I want to mention it. I love how like every time we get on here, we talk about how like, no, stop hiding information from kids, give it to them. Someone gets in the comments every single
time at time and starts calling us groomers. And I think that's fucking disgusting because what you do when you start calling people groomers that are like, hey, let's like be open and honest about information and like teach kids real stuff, You're giving cover to real groomers and real people that are actually trying to harm people. And it's fucking disgusting. So get in the comments, say whatever you want to argue with me, I'll argue back with you, because that's fucking ridiculous.
You're taking away the impact of what those word, that word means. When they start throwing words around like that, they're devaluing not only those words, but they're devaluing the experience of people who've had to be on the receiving side those those type of disgusting behaviors. So they should be ashamed of themselves for so frivolously throwing away or throw out out a word like that just because well, I don't agree with you. It's disgusting.
I'm actually kind of glad you brought that up, because I was going to end the segment with this. You know, we love to hear from our viewers, and we want to know what you liked or didn't like about this show. So leave us to comment below or send an email to NP at Atheist THEE Hyphencommunity dot org