DeSantis appoints five new members to a Florida university Board of Trustees
Florida Governor Ron Desantis recently announced five new members to the Board of Trustees at Florida Polytechnic University.
Several of them are outspoken critics of DEI initiatives in higher education.
In an Oct. 24 press release, Florida Governor Ron Desantis announced the appointment of five new members to the Board of Trustees at Florida Polytechnic University (Florida Poly).
The five new Board of Trustees members are Dr. Dorian Abbot, an Associate Professor at the University of Chicago’s Department of Geophysical Sciences; Dr. Sidney Theis, one of the Board of Visitors at Texas A&M University Galveston; David Clark, CEO of MyGovGuide and Managing Partner of Allegiant Strategies Group; Clifford Otto, Chairman of the Warehouse Logistics Association; and Ilya Shapiro, Senior Fellow and Director of Constitutional Studies for the Manhattan Institute.
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Abbot and Shapiro have both been outspoken critics of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) policies in university education. For example, on Oct. 12 of this year, Shapiro—who is a senior fellow and director of constitutional studies at the Manhattan Institute—posted on X that “DEI is a poison that needs to be eradicated from higher ed (and everywhere else).”
He also, along with Manhattan Institute senior fellow Chris Rufo, urged legislators to improve higher education by abolishing DEI policies.
Dr. Abbot has also blasted DEI in higher education. In a Mar. 21 post, he quoted an article he co-wrote which states that “DEI ideology attacks three fundamental values of Western culture: equality before the law, freedom of expression, and due process. We must fight this ideology forcefully if we want to preserve a free and just society.”
[RELATED: DeSantis announces sweeping changes to dismantle DEI, CRT in higher education]
Dr. Abbot was also famously disinvited from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 2021. According to the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), his event was canceled due to pressure from critics who were skeptical about his anti-DEI stances.
“EAPS at MIT is a great department full of excellent scientists who I admire and respect. The department chair ultimately made the decision to cancel my Carlson Lecture, not them. The chair is a good person, but made a bad decision under pressure in this case,” Dr. Abbot posted on X in early October of that year.
Campus Reform reached out to Dr. Theis, Dr. Abbot, Clark, Otto, Shapiro, and Rufo for comment. This article will be updated accordingly.
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