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Save New College & Defend Educational Freedom Fund
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Our "Defend Educational Freedom Fund" will help defend a small public college in Florida from a hostile government takeover and help launch a movement to defend Educational Freedom for all students across America. Help us keep politics out of classrooms!
UPDATED GOAL TO $500K
We reached our $100k Stretch Goal! THANK YOU! Getting close to $250k thanks to MSNBC, and stretching to $500k to help continue to support urgent needs to Save New College (DeSANTIS is using $15M of tax payer dollars as part of his hostile take over of New College).
HOW FUNDS WILL BE USED:
Funds raised will help our coalition build capacity and infrastructure to organize and fight back against this partisan attack on New College and educational freedom across America.
FUNDING GOALS*
- $25k: Support students and faculty w rapid crisis management response and field-organizing support. (DONE - THANK YOU!)
- $50k: Increase capacity for a campaign to defend educational freedom (filmmaking, web dev, and organizing across Florida and America) (DONE - THANK YOU!)
- $75k: Retain top legal firm to advise (DONE - THANK YOU!)
- $100k: Create an official 501(c)4 to Defend Educational Freedom, increase our field organizing across Florida, filmmaking, web dev, and comms. (DONE - THANK YOU!)
- $250k (GETTING CLOSE!): Additional funds help support urgent needs to Save New College (legal, communications, student organizing), and increase capacity with full-time staffing to launch a National grassroots organization to fight for Educational Freedom across America, starting with New College and Florida.
- $500k: this will help our (Save New College) coalition continue to fight back against DeSantis and the dangerous fascist attacks on educational freedom in America. New College is a small school, but out students and Alumni are smart and strategic, and with your help, we are organizing to fight back. We will be updating here how funds have already been used to help us defend New College and start to organize in various ways. Thank you!
*These are examples of the types of general expenses we anticipate. We have already started to deploy funds to support most urgent needs - THANK YOU!
WHO WE ARE
We are a coalition of students, alumni, faculty, parents and allies organizing to defend New College from this unprecedented government attack on a public university and educational freedom in America.
WHAT’S HAPPENING
New College is a tiny school of 700 students nestled in Sarasota, Florida. It is one of the top 5 liberal arts colleges in the country and has generated many incredible alumni, with exceptional students drawn to the school’s freedom to learn. That educational freedom is now being threatened by Governor DeSantis and his politically hostile Board of Trustees, who want to put politics into our classrooms
IN THE NEWS:
- " The Florida of Today is the America of Tomorrow": Ron Desantis’s New College Takeover Is Just the Beginning of the Right’s Higher Ed Crusade - https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2023/02/ron-desantis-new-college-florida" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Vanity Fair
- ‘Hostile takeover’: the tiny Florida university targeted by Ron DeSantis:“Academics specializing in issues related to higher education say they have never seen a scorched-earth assault on a college or university for apparently political reasons that remotely approaches what is facing New College today.” - The Guardian
- DeSantis’s Latest Target: A Small College of ‘Free Thinkers’ - NY Times
WHY THIS MATTERS
The school we love is in danger, and schools across the country are next. Schools, alumni, and students at public universities should be concerned that extreme politicians are creating a “roadmap” for big government hostile takeovers that will reshape public schools across the country, controlling what students can learn, what faculty can say and who can safely attend. #YourCampusIsNext
WELCOME TO NEW COLLEGE!
If you’re just discovering New College for the first time, we would love to take this moment of crisis to share a little of what makes it so special!
New College, despite its tiny size, consistently ranks among the top 5 liberal arts colleges in America. Tuition is low and class sizes are small (and filled with exceptionally bright faculty and students).
83% of New College Students go on to graduate school or Employed within 4 months of graduating. New College has had 34 Fullbright Scholars in the last 5 years (with a student body of less than 700 students).
New College was founded 50 years ago as a bold experiment in free thinking, creating a school where “every student is ultimately responsible for his or her own education.” No grades, no set curriculum, but just enough rules to make it rigorous.
Another thing that makes New College unique is its Tutorial System. New College Students can create Tutorials to study anything they want (as long as they can find a faculty to sponsor it). This allows students to create courses whether offered in the official curriculum or not. Want to study Gender Studies or Classics? Go for it! You’re free to study what YOU want.
These are just some of the unique ways New College has pioneered a self-directed learning model that has continued to generate highly accomplished Alumni for 50+ years.
SOME OF OUR ALUMNI:
- Anita L. Allen - Legal Scholar & Philosopher
- David Allen - Founder of Get Things Done System (GTD)
- Derek Black - Former White Nationalist & History Scholar Read this incredible story
- José Diaz-Balart - Journalist
- Dr. Rick Doblin - Founder, MAPS.org (Treating Veterans w PTSD with MDMA)
- Bill Dudley- Former President of the NY Federal Reserve
- X González - activist and co-founder of March for Our Lives
- Leander Harding - Priest
- JayMay - Singer/Songwriter
- Jessica Rosenthal - Rabbi
- William Thurston - Fields Medal Winner (highest prize in mathematics)
- Jackie Wang - Academic, 2021 National Book Award for Poetry Finalist
New College produces highly employed, intellegent trailblazers across industries (who can and will fight back when educational freedom is attacked.)
Share Your New College Story
We’re calling on all who know and love New College to share your story about how New College has impacted you (leave a comment after you donate)!
Please also sign up for email updates on our SaveNewCollege.org website to join our Coalition to fight back and defend Educational Freedom.
Vielen Dank!
Fundraising team (3)
Save New College Educational Freedom
Organizer
Sarasota, FL
Brian Cody
Team member
![](https://images.gofundme.com/ddbLFXWG_2WxWhuDvqj-oGxmnpU=/128x128/https://www.gofundme.com/person/profiles/110df3fb4ee24dbb93b038ff03a24eee_edited_photo_1722287184441.jpeg)
Nirvan Mullick
Team member