New College of Florida is Returning to its Roots
When you identify a problem, work on the solution. If surging antisemitism or overt terror support has made you feel unsafe on your own campus, drop me a line. I’m in a position to help.
The other night, at an informal New College alumni event in NYC, I met an alum who was far from enamored with everything we’re doing. Yet he pointed me towards a philosophy professor named Doug Berggren, who left a post at Yale to join the New College faculty in its earliest days and stayed for more than three decades. Berggren reportedly—on far more than one occasion—described his goals for New College as “intellectually dangerous but physically safe.”
I love learning such little tidbits about the history of the institution I’m helping to rebuild because they tell me that we’re on the right track. That’s particulary important given the crisis gripping so many of America’s most prestigious colleges and universities.
To many of us, the crisis of morality and of reason has long been evident. To many others, however, events of the past month have hit like a bolt from the blue. Ezekiel Emanuel, Erwin Chemerinsky, Larry Summers, Bill Ackman and so many others from the left of center (in many cases, far to the left of center) have responded with shock to the wave of antisemitism glorifying Hamas’s barbaric terrorism—and the administrative equivocation unable to decry it clearly.
It’s easy enough to say “We told you so.” It’s a bit harder to appreciate that their awakening is real and to reach out to them. It’s hardest of all to move beyond their specifics and work towards a solution.
That’s why I’m pleased and proud of what we’re doing at New College. Almost as soon as the moral rot dominating today’s top campuses hit the front pages, I highlighted the moves that Florida, its universities, and in particular New College are taking to push back in the direction of decency and moral clarity.
I’m even more pleased and proud, however, to highlight the way that this commitment comes from the very top. New College President Richard Corcoran took the pages of the WSJ to contrast our efforts with those of Harvard—and to welcome any Harvard refugees to join us.
If anyone reading this column knows of any students, schools, parents, faculy members, or organizations eager to join us as part of the solution, please send them my way.
What makes me most pleased and proud is that I’m in a position to help.
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For more information about Bruce D. Abramson & American Restorationism, visit: www.BruceDAbramson.com
To learn more about how America’s elites destroyed the republic, see: The New Civil War: Exposing Elites, Fighting Utopian Leftism, and Restoring America (RealClear Publishing, 2021).
To learn more about the ideology driving today’s anti-American leftism, see: American Restoration: Winning America’s Second Civil War (Kindle, 2019).
To learn more about our work at the American Coalition for Education and Knowledge, visit us at The Coalition for America.
To learn more about how I turn the ideas I discuss here into concrete projects that serve the interests of my clients, donors, and society at large, please e-mail me at bdabramson@pm.me.
To contact me about official New College business, please e-mail me at babramson@ncf.edu.