Amy Reid spent greater than 30 years at New Faculty of Florida, the place she served as a professor of French and the founder and director of the gender research program. Her comparatively safe employment as a tenured professor emboldened her to turn out to be probably the most outspoken critics of the conservative effort to remodel NCF right into a “Hillsdale Faculty of the South,” led by then-interim president Richard Corcoran, who was employed by a swath of conservative trustees put in by Gov. Ron DeSantis in 2023.
That very same yr, Reid was elected to function school consultant on the Board of Trustees; she voted towards Corcoran’s appointment to be the school’s everlasting president and pushed again towards quite a few insurance policies, together with an effort by the administration to make use of the school to assist implement gendered rest room legal guidelines.
Final month, Corcoran denied a advice from the New Faculty provost that Reid be granted emerita standing on the school, citing Reid’s advocacy for school and tutorial freedom, which he described as “hyperbolic alarmism and useless obstruction.” In response, the New Faculty Alumni Affiliation Board of Administrators made Reid an honorary alum.
Since taking unpaid depart in August 2024 after which retiring a yr later, Reid has introduced her skills and penchant for advocacy to PEN America, a nonprofit targeted on preventing schooling censorship and defending press freedom.
Inside Larger Ed spoke with Reid over Zoom about her expertise as the school consultant on the New Faculty Board of Trustees, the transformation of the general public liberal arts school and increasing efforts by Florida conservatives to censor school speech.
The interview has been edited for size and readability.
Q: Earlier than you turned school consultant on the Board of Trustees at New Faculty, the earlier consultant give up in protest. What motivated you to pursue the function and what have been you hoping to do with it?
A: Issues had been contentious on campus. Frankly, that’s an understatement. When the new board members have been appointed that January [2023], they described their arrival on campus as a “siege”—utilizing army language. So I started organizing with different school members and offering assist to college students in order that they might reply to the fast adjustments on campus, adjustments that included the instant firing of our president [Patricia Okker], after which, over the approaching weeks, numerous key leaders; the censoring of scholar speech and chalking on campus; the denial of tenure to numerous very certified school.
I began holding weekly teas for college students, offering them a spot to ask questions and to be heard and likewise to have cookies. So working with my colleagues and offering assist for college students have been the 2 issues that I actually wished to do.
As a senior member of the school and because the chief of the gender research program, I felt like I had a selected duty to talk up on campus. I knew that colleagues of mine who weren’t tenured couldn’t essentially try this, so I attempted to talk up for my group. And after Matt Lipinski resigned from the Board of Trustees and from his school place [after the board denied tenure to five professors], he truly reached out and requested me to face for election as chair of the school, as a result of I’d been each working in collaboration with others by way of the union and likewise due to my outspokenness as director of the gender research program. So after speaking with different colleagues, I agreed to face for election in collaboration with two different colleagues.
Q: What was the preliminary reception from the board if you joined?
A: What I actually keep in mind, truly, was the true assist that I had from colleagues and college students and alums. So sure, there was a specific amount of rigidity with sure members of the Board of Trustees. There have been folks on the board who did attain out in pleasant {and professional} methods—greeting me at conferences, issues like that—however actually I had sturdy assist from school, alums and college students, and that’s what mattered.
Q: Do you suppose you have been profitable within the school consultant function?
A: That’s actually a difficult query, and it is dependent upon what metrics you wish to use. I believe I did job of elevating critical questions and issues within the trustee conferences, even when my votes weren’t typically on the successful facet. I at all times introduced my integrity with me, and as an educator, that was actually necessary to me. I believe I used to be capable of assist rally school round numerous coverage proposals that we put forth, as a result of my job wasn’t simply within the Board of Trustees, it was additionally within the administration of the school, which meant a number of conferences each week about budgets and different administrative points.
There was plenty of work there behind the scenes to assist school, to assist the curriculum and likewise to advocate for college students in numerous methods. I do know that college students and school and alums felt that they might attain out to me about their issues, that they knew I might hear and reply. When folks spoke at Board of Trustees conferences, I paid consideration and took notes on all the individuals who got here to talk. In that approach, I believe I used to be efficient, however frankly, the votes on the board have been stacked.
Q: Whenever you resigned, you stated that the “New Faculty the place you as soon as taught now not existed.” Was there a selected second that tanked your religion in New Faculty management?
A: It’s actually not a few lack of religion within the new management. Richard Corcoran got here in with a set of concepts about how he wished to alter the campus, to alter what one trustee known as the “hormonal and political steadiness on campus.” And Corcoran adopted by way of on that. I can level first to the firing of worthwhile and devoted campus leaders, together with President Patricia Okker, the dean of range, the campus analysis librarian. [I can also point to] the denial of tenure to 6 very certified and efficient school, the chasing away of over 30 % of the school and about 100 college students—and that’s an actual report for the primary eight months of this administration.
Then you could have the portray over of scholar artwork on campus, the alternative of grass with Astroturf and the plowing down of lots of of timber alongside the bay entrance. You will have the losing of thousands and thousands of {dollars} of state funds on bloated administrative salaries and transportable dorms that have been uninhabitable inside three months attributable to mildew. You will have the abolishing of the gender research program in the summertime of 2023, the erasure of our price range, our eviction from our campus workplace in December of 2023. The imposition of a inflexible and restricted core curriculum in spring of 2024. The withholding of diplomas from a cohort of scholars in Might 2024, the wholesale destruction of the student-led gender and variety middle in August 2024. That was a student-led house with a set of books that had been curated by college students for over 30 years, all thrown within the dumpster.
So not one second, however loads. However what I nonetheless think about, even immediately, is the dedication of scholars and alums to pursue an schooling that embodies tutorial freedom, which I perceive is the proper of scholars to pursue an schooling free from authorities censorship. And likewise, I’ve nice religion in these school who’re remaining, who assist the New Faculty tutorial mission and who’re doing their greatest day in and day trip to assist our college students.
Q: Had been you shocked when Corcoran denied the dean’s advice to grant you emerita standing?
A: Not likely. I’d say it’s par for the course, however I used to be shocked that he was so up entrance about his causes. In his assertion, he famous that regardless of my report of accomplishment as a trainer and a researcher, it was my advocacy for the school—my opposition to him—that was the issue. So now he’s on the report explicitly as punishing speech, and that’s gorgeous.
What occurred to me is only one small factor, but it surely displays a sample of censorship on the campus that must be known as out. However extra importantly at this second, I actually wish to thank my colleagues who nominated me for emeritus standing and the New Faculty alums who adopted me as considered one of their very own. That’s significant, and I’m very grateful.
Q: As a reporter, I spend plenty of time studying and writing dangerous information, however I’m seeing the identical varieties of assaults on school speech and tutorial freedom that occurred at New Faculty happen at different establishments, in Florida and elsewhere. Would you say these present assaults on school speech are unprecedented?
A: Lots of people have talked about this as unprecedented, however what I see is the fruits of a sample of censorship we’ve seen enjoying out at state ranges throughout the nation. In Florida, in 2022, they handed Home Invoice 233, which permits or encourages college students to surreptitiously report school in the event that they intend to file a criticism towards them.
Since then, actually, the state has been tightening a gag round school speech in myriad methods. Simply up to now couple of months, we’ve seen numerous school sanctioned—even one emeritus professor at [University of Florida] misplaced his standing based mostly on complaints about his social media posts. So what’s taking place now may very well be forged as unprecedented, however but, it’s a part of this sample we see enjoying out now, not simply in Florida, however throughout the nation, the place some 50 school members have been sanctioned or fired due to their speech or social media posts for the reason that begin of September.
Since 2021, PEN America has been actively monitoring efforts to censor speech in school and college school rooms throughout the nation, and we’ve seen an actual rise within the variety of payments launched to censor speech … and within the numbers which are being handed; 2025 was actually a banner yr for censorship in larger schooling on this nation. There have been a report variety of gag orders handed throughout the nation—10 of them, 10 payments that explicitly restrict what will be stated in school and college school rooms.
After which there are different restrictions designed to relax school speech—restrictions on tenure or curricular management payments, and let’s additionally keep in mind the payments that have been launched or handed to restrict scholar protests on campus. All of these issues are designed to make folks afraid to talk up and to query issues on campus. That’s not wholesome for our schooling system, and it’s not wholesome for our democracy. At the moment, about 40 % of the U.S. inhabitants lives in a state that has at the least one state-level regulation limiting classroom speech on the school and college stage. Is that one thing we’re OK with as a rustic? Do we actually suppose that our First Modification rights are that fungible?
