Florida College Removes Hundreds of Gender Diversity Books
- BY Dhiren
- August 20, 2024
- Read in 3 Minutes
A Florida College revamped by the state’s Republican governor disposed of hundreds of library books, many of which featured LGBTQ+ themes, in a landfill.
It is the latest step in a conservative campaign that has drawn national attention to New College of Florida College, a small liberal arts institution in Sarasota. Gov. Ron DeSantis, a prominent Republican and former presidential contender, has pledged to transform the institution into the “first public university to push back on gender ideology.”
The school’s makeover, which caused many students and staff members to migrate to other colleges, impacted Republican attempts nationwide to reform higher education in the party’s image.
On Tuesday afternoon, a dumpster in the school’s Jane Bancroft Cook Library parking area overflowed with books and collections from the Gender and Diversity Center, which is no longer in operation.
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A video shows a car driving off with the books before students told. (In the past, New College students had the chance to purchase books from the college’s library collection.)
DEVELOPING: New College of Florida dumped hundreds of library books this afternoon.
— Steven Walker (@swalker_7) August 15, 2024
The school also emptied the college’s Gender and Diversity Center, tossing hundreds of their books.
Working to file a story now. pic.twitter.com/073dU3A6mp
Some of the discarded books were “Nine and Counting: The Women of the Senate,” “The War of the Worlds,” and “When I Knew,” a compilation of LGBTQ+ people’s experiences of when they realized they were queer.
After Gannett’s article published, New College spokesperson Nathan March claimed that the news was wrong.
The Florida College undertook two independent procedures: ordinary library maintenance and removing items from the GDC due to the end of the gender studies program.
“A library must periodically evaluate and renew its collection to make sure its materials meet the current requirements of students and faculty,” March noted in an email. “The images seen online of a dumpster of books are related to the standard cleaning process.”
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March cited Florida Statute 237 as why each book could not be donated or sold. According to Florida law, New College may sell or transfer state-funded personal property to any other governmental institution, private nonprofit agency, or through a public sale.
He further stated that because no one had collected the GDC library’s books from its prior location at the Hamilton Center, they had been relocated to a donation box behind the library.
The donation box is many feet from the book-filled garbage, and New College’s move-in day is August 23, so most students are still on campus.
Several students also said they never informed that the GDC books were available for claim.
Amy Reid, the faculty chair and member of the board of trustees, stated that when institutions discard literature, they also discard democracy.
“Books are what matter,” she explained.
Natalia Benavites, a 21-year-old fourth-year student at New College, claimed the books in the garbage had the college’s seal and a “discard” label on the back cover.
When she asked administrators whether they might give the books, she told that the college could not donate books acquired with public cash under state law.
The Florida College also removed books from the Gender and Diversity Center, which situated across campus. Benavites stated that the GDC books acquired individually rather than using governmental money.
