New College of Florida in Sarasota has moved to eliminate its gender studies program and adopt new “classical” curriculum elements, including required reading from Homer’s “Odyssey,” after Gov. Ron DeSantis appointed a new slate of trustees in 2023. The changes have drawn national attention and criticism, while state officials and supporters point to rising enrollment claims, new spending and facilities work, and expanded athletics as evidence the overhaul is working.
New College of Florida, a small public liberal arts institution in Sarasota, has undergone major changes since Gov. Ron DeSantis appointed six new members to its board of trustees on January 6, 2023, part of a push to remake the school’s direction and priorities.
The overhaul has included efforts to phase out the gender studies program, alongside a broader shift toward a curriculum framed around “classical learning” and the Western canon. A New York Times report described the new direction with a blunt summary: “gender studies is out” and Homer’s “The Odyssey” is required reading.
The same New York Times coverage also reported that the college planned a statue honoring Charlie Kirk, the founder of Turning Point USA, raising questions among critics about whether the campus was trading one ideological orthodoxy for another. In September 2025, New College itself publicly announced plans to commission a privately funded Charlie Kirk statue, saying it would stand on campus as a statement in support of free speech and civil discourse.
DeSantis has publicly defended the New College changes as part of a broader effort to counter what he and allies describe as political activism and ideological conformity in higher education. In a post on X, DeSantis said the New College overhaul was intended to “re-center” the institution on “merit, free speech, classical learning and the pursuit of truth.”
Supporters of the transformation have cited initiatives including expanded athletics, facilities work and new state funding. Separately, the state has promoted the Classic Learning Test (CLT) as an admissions option aligned with classical education, and New College announced in 2023 that it intended to accept the CLT as an alternative to the SAT and ACT for applicants beginning with the Fall 2024 term, contingent on state law.
Critics, including faculty groups and some former students, have argued the changes were imposed in a politically driven process that weakened shared governance and narrowed academic and cultural pluralism on campus. The American Association of University Professors has previously sanctioned New College over what it described as an “aggressively ideological and politically motivated” intervention, citing changes that included dismantling DEI programs and eliminating the gender studies major.
The college and its supporters, however, say the new direction offers students and families a different publicly funded option and a renewed emphasis on traditional academic texts and debate. Enrollment and staffing trends have become central to the dispute, with state officials and allied commentators pointing to increases, while critics question how sustainable and representative the growth is over time.
