New College of Florida board fires President Patricia Okker at first DeSantis-reshaped board meeting

At the inaugural meeting of a newly appointed board of trustees backed by Governor Ron DeSantis, New College of Florida's trustees voted to terminate President Patricia Okker and moved immediately to install a DeSantis ally as interim president. DeSantis had recruited conservative activist Christopher Rufo to help reshape the small public liberal arts college into what Rufo publicly called an alternative to so-called woke ideology in higher education. The firing of Okker without a formal performance review set aside normal shared-governance processes in which boards and faculty jointly evaluate academic leadership. New College subsequently saw major faculty departures and declining enrollment as the board dismantled programs and administrative structures it characterized as ideologically incompatible with its new mission.