The fallout came fast and hard for New College of Florida and its administrators after multiple videos were posted of books dealing mainly with sexual identity and race found filling a dumpster behind the school library.
The immediate reaction from the school’s spokesperson, Nathan Marks, was nonsensical. Marks claimed two things, neither of them believable. The first was that this was just routine periodical “pruning” of books that were too damaged or otherwise unneeded by the school. The second was that it was illegal to notify students, staff, or other entities that this purge was happening so that they might be able to rescue some of the books slated for destruction.
As to the first part of his claim, it was immediately apparent most books were neither damaged or old. Instead, they were books retained by the school’s now-defunct Gender and Diversity Center — something that was axed as soon as Governor DeSantis stocked the school board with his personal picks.
The second part was blatantly false. The school was permitted by law to sell or give away the books to anyone interested in them. In this case, it simply chose not to because the far right school board saw the books as garbage and treated them as such.
Now, the flailing is even worse. A steady stream of criticism has forced the college to react. And it has reacted in the worst way possible. The worst way is personified by school president Richard Corcoran, who has decided to pin all of the blame on someone who likely had no control over the purge pushed by the school board.
A New College of Florida library administrator has been placed on leave after thousands of books were found in a dumpster on campus, a university spokesperson confirmed to News Channel 8.
Shannon Hausinger, dean of the library, was placed on leave after “the library did not follow all of the state administrative requirements while conducting the routine disposition of materials,” the spokesperson said.
Maybe Hausinger agreed with the purge. Maybe she didn’t. Either way, Corcoran has made her the scapegoat.
But that’s not all he did. He claimed the public was too stupid to recognize what happened here. As is almost always the case when public leaders get caught doing things they shouldn’t, Corcoran has chosen to blame the media and anyone else who might have disagreed with this move.
“Unfortunately, much of the coverage has been sensationalized, catering to the narratives of our critics,” Corcoran wrote in the letter. “While the optics of seeing thousands of books in a dumpster are far from ideal, it is important to understand the disposition of materials is a necessary process in libraries, and ensures that our collection remains relevant, up-to-date, and in good condition for our community’s use.”
To put this politely, that’s bullshit. The school board — the same one that shut down the Gender and Diversity Center — had a hand in this. We know this because at least one board member has admitted as much. Christopher Rufo — a board member personally appointed by Ron DeSantis — took to ExTwitter to crow about this purge of LGBTQ content, saying the quiet part as loudly as he could.
If you can’t see/read the screenshot, it features several shots of these books in the dumpster, accompanied by Rufo’s statement:
We abolished the gender studies program. Now we’re throwing out the trash.
And here’s what Rufo said after taking the college board position:
Earlier this year, Florida governor Ron DeSantis appointed a new board majority, including me, to New College of Florida and tasked us with a simple, but audacious, mission: take over the failing school, bring in new leadership, and transform the institution into a liberal arts college in the classical tradition.
The move caused a firestorm. Conservatives cheered it on as an essential step in recapturing democratic institutions. Progressives denounced it as a violation of some principle or another. But, whatever your opinion, one thing is certain: the takeover of New College has changed the dynamics of America’s culture war and, if successful, will provide a model for conservatives across the nation.
None of this is addressed in the school president’s letter to the college’s staff. This unfortunate truth is simply ignored and spun to make it appear as though it’s just a misunderstanding that has been inflamed by careless reporting.
But that was never the case. This was always about a conservative-majority board inflicting its preferences on the college, starting with the gender studies program and culminating in the shocking display of contempt that is hundreds of gender and race-related books being consigned to a dumpster and hauled away before any collective effort could be made to rescue literary works DeSantis’ hand-picked board considers trash.
