The New College of Florida is under scrutiny this week after discarding hundreds of its library books, many from its now-defunct Gender and Diversity Center.
Photos and videos showed books in dumpsters outside the Jane Bancroft Cook Library on campus on Tuesday. Students had previously been allowed to purchase books no longer being used by the school, but according to the Sarasota Herald-Tribune, students weren't notified this time around. Most students are not yet on campus, as New College's move-in day is Aug. 23. Many of the tossed books covered LGBTQ+ issues, women's topics, and religion.
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.
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In a Thursday statement, the university denied there was anything nefarious behind the book dump, saying the move was part of the library's "longstanding annual procedures for weeding its collection, which involves the removal of materials that are old, damaged, or otherwise no longer serving the needs of the College."
Officials also referenced Florida Statute 273, which "precludes New College from selling, donating or transferring these materials, which were purchased with state funds. Deselected materials are discarded, through a recycling process when possible."
Regarding the literature associated with the college's gender studies program - which was discontinued last year following the appointment of more conservative trustees to the school's board - officials said those books were mostly donations and not officially part of their inventory.
"When the books were not claimed for pickup from the room, they were moved to a book drop location by the library where they were later claimed by individuals planning to donate the books locally," they said.
The controversy comes as Gov. Ron DeSantis works to diminish the role universities play in social activism. In January, the state Florida Board of Education banned public colleges from using state and federal funds for diversity, equity and inclusion programs, leading to the shuttering of those divisions in recent months.
The ACLU of Florida called the book dump a "brazen act of censorship" and demanded answers from the administration.
"The fact that these books - sources of wisdom, diverse perspectives, and the narratives of marginalized communities - were discarded in the dead of night, without transparency, and without giving students the opportunity to preserve them, should outrage every Floridian and every American who values democracy and free thought," said Bacardi Jackson, executive director of the ACLU of Florida.
Here are some of the discarded book titles:
- "Nine and Counting: The Women of the Senate," by Barbara Boxer, Susan Collins, Dianne Feinstein, The Girl Scouts of the USA and Whitney Catherine.
- "The War of the Worlds" by H.G. Wells.
- "When I Knew," by Robert Trachtenberg
- "Cures: A Gay Man's Odyssey," by Martin Duberman
- "Big Girls Don't Cry," by Connie Briscoe
- "Women's Bodies, Women's Wisdom," by Christiane Northrup
- "Grace: An Invitation to a Way of Life," by John Ortberg, Laurie Pederson and Judson Poling
