Do the new laws affect private colleges in Florida?

[warblersrule]

I would not consider FL publics as an OOS student, personally. Fortunately, there are many other generous colleges with comparable (or more) academic rigor.

As @MYOS1634 noted, the situation at NCF in particular seems concerning.

Amy Reid, a member of the school’s Board of Trustees, said course options have dwindled after nearly 40% of faculty members have resigned.

Reid said the situation is quickly becoming “untenable.”

“Just before I came to this meeting, I received word that one more faculty member in biology is leaving,” she told CNN. “That’s going to make a challenge for students to complete their areas of studies here.”

Classes are scheduled to begin on August 28, but Chai Leffler is already struggling to navigate his fourth year at the school.

Leffler is an urban studies major, but he said most of his professors have resigned.

In order to graduate, Leffler said he has asked faculty in other subject areas to sponsor his thesis…

https://kesq.com/news/national-world/cnn-national/2023/08/26/students-professors-report-chaos-as-semester-begins-at-new-college-of-florida/

[Mwfan1921]

Regarding biology, I wonder if the curriculum is different now too. Although NCF is not a religious school (yet), DeSantis and his peeps have made it no secret they want to move to a Hillsdale type model. I am not sure about Hillsdale and how they teach bio, but at many religious schools, evolution is not taught as a scientific fact. Creationism is also taught (throughout the curriculum), and the schools leave it to ‘the student to decide’ (quote from an administrator at my recent visit to George Fox U in Oregon).

[merc81]

@Mwfan1921

I am not sure about Hillsdale and how they teach bio, but at many religious schools, evolution is not taught as a scientific fact.

With respect to Hillsdale, its biology course content appears to be typical of the discipline generally. For example, this is the description for a 200-level course, “Evolution and Biological Diversity”:

An introduction to the vast diversity of life from prokaryotic forms to the eukaryotic vertebrate mammals. This course introduces the beginning biology student to all the major groups of organisms and to their fundamental taxonomic relationships. Laboratory work is included. This course is required in the field of concentration.

[beebee3]

Sasse’s preliminary strategic plan includes tuition changes, department...

Sounds like more changes coming to public university in Florida.

[simba9]

@merc81

With respect to Hillsdale, its biology course content appears to be typical of the discipline generally. For example, this is the description for a 200-level course, “Evolution and Biological Diversity”:

An introduction to the vast diversity of life from prokaryotic forms to the eukaryotic vertebrate mammals. This course introduces the beginning biology student to all the major groups of organisms and to their fundamental taxonomic relationships. Laboratory work is included. This course is required in the field of concentration.

Those can be taught from a Creationist or Intelligent Design perspective. The main difference between those perspectives and the non-religious perspective is how life got started in the first place.

[merc81]

While taxonomy without an evolutionary framework has been taught since at least the time of Aristotle, consider that in Hillsdale’s case the term “Evolution” appears as part of the course title sampled above.

[simba9]

In Intelligent Design lectures that I’ve gone to, they start off with the initial creation by an intelligent designer (God), and then everything after that is the Darwinian evolution that the rest of us think of.