Florida college seized by DeSantis in ‘anti-woke’ push to triple in size

USF’s Sarasota-Manatee campus. The deal will significantly expand the footprint of the 900-student New College. Photograph: Octavio Jones/Reuters View image in fullscreen USF’s Sarasota-Manatee campus. The deal will significantly expand the footprint of the 900-student New College. Photograph: Octavio Jones/Reuters Florida college seized by DeSantis in ‘anti-woke’ push to triple in size New College of Florida to acquire USF Sarasota-Manatee in deal that leading Democratic lawmaker says ‘reeks of grift’ A liberal arts college seized by Florida’s hard-right governor, Ron DeSantis, and transformed into a model for conservative higher education is to triple in size after state Republicans engineered a hostile takeover of a rival university’s campus. New College of Florida, which is controlled by DeSantis’s hand-picked board of trustees, will acquire the Sarasota-Manatee campus of the University of South Florida (USF) next month in a deal described by a leading Florida Democrat as “a grift”. The transfer of the 32-acre, 2,000-student facility, which has a new six-story residential hall and $44m student center, will significantly expand the footprint of the 900-student New College that the governor has touted as a blueprint for his “anti-woke” agenda. The transfer will proceed despite almost universal opposition from USF students and faculty, education leaders, and the local business community , who say popular, thriving programs including nursing, tourism and hospitality, will end. “It’s such a bad thing because USF Sarasota-Manatee was serving a different group of students than New College and had very different programs,” said Lucie Lapovsky , a higher education consultant and one of dozens of signatories on a letter to state lawmakers last month condemning the proposal. “Sarasota is a big tourist area right on the water on the Gulf of Mexico. We have lots of hotels and restaurants that employ graduates of that program. We have several hospitals, and graduates of USF health programs work there. It provides opportunities for students who graduated from local high schools, as well as older residents going back to college. “It makes no sense whatsoever in terms of access to higher education for students, in terms of what the area was producing and offering, in terms of academic programs.” In a statement posted on the USF website, its president, Moez Limayem, acknowledged the loss of the campus “creates significant uncertainty and anxiety for our dedicated, outstanding faculty, staff and students”. He said the programs would continue to operate during a four-year “teach-out” period before they close. “USF’s strength is not a collection of buildings and land; our real strength has been, and always will be, our people,” Limayem wrote, promising that students enrolled “will have the opportunity to finish their USF degrees in Sarasota-Manatee without disruption”. Student leaders were also critical. “All students here on our campus truly would like for USF t