John Oliver on New College’s Maga takeover: ‘More about political posturing than students’ lives’

John Oliver dedicated Sunday’s episode of Last Week Tonight to examining how Florida’s New College has been taken over by the conservative state governor, Ron DeSantis, and his allies.New College used to promote itself with videos that emphasized its inclusive community and unique academic program – a rarity for a US state college.“Back when Ron DeSantis thought he still had a shot at being president, he made a lot of noise about how he was going to ‘de-wokeify’ New College, despite admitting he didn’t know much about it” said Oliver.DeSantis said: “If you want to spend your time on some Marxist commune, if that’s what you want to do with your life, who am I to say? But I don’t want the taxpayers of Florida funding that.”In 2023, the small liberal arts college became national news when DeSantis appointed six of his allies to the board of trustees, including “conservative activist” Christopher Rufo.“I’d call it a hostile takeover of a college known for its ultra-progressive policies,” said one Fox News commentator.For Rufo it was a chance to “put his ideas into practice”, said Oliver. “His goal was nothing less than to offer a blueprint for what conservatives could then do for education nationwide.”So what happened when “a bunch of anti-woke crusaders were given free rein and nearly unlimited resources to build a school on their own terms?“Spoiler: it’s not going great,” said Oliver.New College was founded in the 1960s with “complete freedom of inquiry”, Oliver said. “No grades would be given, with each [student] focusing on independent study.”In the following decades, it became a sanctuary for “nerds and dorks”, Oliver joked, as well as a safe haven for the LGBTQ+ community. According to a 2018 report, it ranked third in the US in producing graduates who go on to earn doctoral degrees.Oliver noted that it felt “galling” when Rufo’s first address to the New College community focused on “how much the school sucked”. Rufo said that the school had a “culture problem” and was mainly composed of people that were “politically correct, druggies, weirdos”.Rufo and his fellow trustees ousted New College’s president and brought in Richard Corcoran, a former speaker of the Florida house.“Right from the start, he took some big dumb swings,” said Oliver.“We requested two million dollars for a ‘cancel cancel culture center’,” Corcoran told NBC.“Calling it a ‘cancel cancel culture center’ is pathetic,” said Oliver. “It sounds like the headquarters of a cult founded by Russell Brand – which is barely even a joke given he was invited to be guest speaker at New College on the topic of ‘thinking without permission’.”Corcoran set about making changes including changing the New College mascot to a banyan tree with a face. “It looks like Groot if he hulked,” said Oliver. “If Samantha from Sex and the City saw that tree, she’d say, ‘Shiver me timbers, talk about some hard wood.’”While Corcoran promised that the New School would “encourage debate” under his leadership, Oliver noted that he “got rid of its gender studies program, with Rufo bragging they had closed a “massive” and “radical” department that “indoctrinates students”.“In reality, it had a budget of $7,000 for projects and expenses, and a part-time office manager,” said Oliver.Amid the changes under Corcoran’s leadership, more than a third of professors were fired, took leave or voluntarily resigned from their positions. Instead, Corcoran brought in “presidential scholars in residence”, including Bruce Gilley, author of the book The Case for Colonialism. (“It argues that European colonialism was actually a good thing,” Oliver said.)New College managed to increase enrollment, with an incoming class of 328 students for the first full academic year of Corcoran’s tenure. But Oliver said that statistics may not tell the full story. “Former admissions office employees have claimed that the school boosted enrollment by sharply lowering standards,” the host said, adding that one admissions essay was apparently a phone screenshot with multiple spelling and grammatical errors.Rufo aimed to change the “hormonal balance” of New College’s predominantly female community, and called the fact that two-thirds of students were women “wildly out of balance”.In Corcoran’s first year, the male student population grew by over 23% after the administration offered scholarships to “a fuckton of male athletes” including 70 baseball players, no matter that the school did not have a baseball field at that time.“They were just bringing in ball players and expecting one to magically appear, like some kind of reverse Field of Dreams,” Oliver joked.“Money has seemingly been no object when it comes to this project,” he continued. “A state audit last year found that the public cost to produce a degree at New College had swelled to nearly $500,000, dwarfing what has been spent per student at any other public university.”Administrative costs at New College have sharply risen, with one major expenditure being Corcoran’s own salary of over $1m a year, including perks and bonuses.“The whole New College experiment has been a complete shit show,” said Oliver. “In researching this piece, we talked to so many students, and one big takeaway is that …the school’s administration seems to care much more about political posturing than it does about their actual lives.“The stated mission of those behind the takeover of New College wasn’t just to recapture an institution, but to provide a model for red states to then replicate,” added Oliver. “But if this is that model, it fucking sucks.”