More Politicization of Higher Education
“Ben Sasse, the Nebraska senator, arrived in Florida in February 2023 to help cement a … makeover of one of the nation’s top five public universities.
The University of Florida had lured the senator with an unusual $10 million, five-year contract, possibly the most lucrative ever for a public university president. Gov. Ron DeSantis applauded the selection …, calling Dr. Sasse a “deep thinker on education policy.”
Then, in July, just 17 months into his contract at the Gainesville university, Dr. Sasse resigned, sparking a host of questions about what went wrong.
Dr. Sasse cited his wife’s deteriorating health as the reason for his departure. But observers of the university knew there were a number of other possible factors.
The former senator had never quite won over many professors or students. After he announced his resignation, there were revelations about questionable hiring practices and spending.
There were also signs that Dr. Sasse faced another problem that has haunted college leaders everywhere: the school’s U.S. News & World Report rankings.
Before Dr. Sasse took over the school, the University of Florida had been proudly ranked among the country’s top five public universities. Just months into Dr. Sasse’s tenure, though, the school fell to No. 6, prompting the removal of the No. 5 banners that had hung from lampposts throughout campus.
…
… when the latest U.S. News rankings were released in September, Florida had fallen once again, to No. 7.”
Was the continued rankings decline a problem? Read more here: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/17/us/politics/rankings-university-of-florida-ben-sasse.html
Fealty
“Florida is among half a dozen states where civics schools and centers …, envisioned as an antidote to concerns that left-leaning humanities professors are turning away from Western thought and that conservative scholars are underrepresented. National faculty advocates have sounded alarms about the new units, which they see as a troubling injection of political influence into teaching.
[In Florida, President] Sasse’s conversation with [David Richardson, then dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences], in which the then-president threatened to trample on UF’s existing liberal-arts programs, encapsulates professors’ fears about the worst-case scenario.”
What led to the threat?” Read more here: https://www.chronicle.com/article/oath-of-fealty
Power Grab
UNC Trustee Boliek won his election to state auditor, but his new role may be used as another opportunity for lawmakers to grab even more power from the governor and the people of North Carolina.
“… lawmakers in North Carolina plan to transfer authority over the state’s Board of Elections to the state auditor’s office, a move that will place administration and appointment of its members under GOP purview.
Changes would make it harder for people who use absentee ballots to have their votes count.
The plan, included in a bill that also funds further aid for Hurricane Helene relief, would further strip power from the governor’s office, which currently has appointment power and will remain in Democratic control under Governor-elect Josh Stein.
The measure also grants Auditor-elect Dave Boliek,…, new jurisdiction.”
Read more here:
“The Enemy” – Colleges Wonder if They Will Be ‘the Enemy’
For many years, colleges have been portrayedas “bastions of leftism, awash in bias against conservatives and impervious to change.”
With Donald J. Trump’s victory and a unified congress, are lawmakers “now poised to escalate their efforts to root out what they see as progressive ideology in higher education.”
Should Carolina be concerned? Read more here:
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/12/us/trump-higher-education-policy-universities.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare