A Conservative Takeover at a Progressive College: What Happened Next?

SARASOTA, Florida - Jones Hogsed knew all about the political firestorm at New College of Florida when he was deciding whether to enroll two years ago.

The public liberal-arts school had a reputation for being far left, with an intellectual culture centered around identity politics. New College had also just been upended by Republican governor Ron DeSantis, whose supporters wanted to shape it into the ‘Hillsdale of the South’, a nod to the proudly conservative college in Michigan.

Hogsed was worried about both extremes, including what he described as the false premise that ‘serious academia is primarily a ’conservative’ effort.‘ He came to New College anyway — and just finished his sophomore year. What he found turned out to be very different.

‘It’s really not a battlefield of political views,’ said Hogsed, who is from Orlando and studies literature and philosophy. He sees ‘divides in a few different ways,’ but ‘none of them are political.’

This college of fewer than 1,000 students has been the subject of countless op-eds and think pieces since DeSantis packed the board overseeing New College with conservative allies in 2023. Depending on your point of view, it is either a blueprint for how to save American higher education from progressive ideological capture or a foretaste of where the Trump administration’s crackdown on academia will lead.