Triggered gender studies director leaves Florida school after it throws out radical gender ideology books
Amy Reid saw the decision to dispose of the books as part of the school’s alleged attacks on ‘academic freedom.’
A student at the school disagreed with Reid’s perspective, saying there is ‘a freedom to discuss anything’ at the school and that ‘NCF has now made it possible to discuss opinions without feeling threatened.’
The New College of Florida’s (NCF) Amy Reid, founder of the school’s gender studies program, is leaving the school following its recent disposal of many library books tied to its gender studies program, which is no longer operational.
Reid is taking unpaid leave to work as the senior manager for the Freedom to Learn program at PEN America, a nonprofit that lists “book bans” and “campus free speech” as top issues.
“Over the next year, we look forward to benefiting from [Reid’s] long experience in higher education and her sterling record of support for students and faculty as we work to promote intellectual freedom and free expression in higher education,” Jeremy Young, the program’s director, said in a statement shared with Campus Reform.
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Last August, NCF ended its gender studies program, making it the first public university in the U.S. to abolish such a department.
At the time, Young called the NCF’s dismantling of the gender studies program a “repressive act that echoes the actions of a repressive foreign government.”
When Campus Reform asked the “Queery Club,” a club for “LGBTQIA+”-identifying students at NCF, for comment, the club replied: “literally you are such a soulless cretin . . . find some other naive college student to fuel your depressing, hateful intentions so you can save up for your next stop at the Eras Tour.”
In an Aug. 16 interview with the feminist magazine Ms. explaining her decision to leave, Reid condemned NCF’s ban on “transgender bathrooms.” She called the taking down of signs advertising “gender-neutral bathrooms” and replacement with signs saying “men” and “women” a “visible and hostile defacing of our campus.”
“We lost a lot of students,” Reid said. “We’ve had a large queer presence on campus and now students have to think twice about even using the bathroom.”
The president of Turning Point USA’s NCF chapter disagrees with Reid’s view that there is an attack on “academic freedom” at NCF, telling Campus Reform that there is “a freedom to discuss anything” in classrooms.
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“NCF has now made it possible to discuss opinions without feeling threatened,” Jackson Dawson said. “I do not feel people are being pushed out at all.”
He also claimed that the books related to gender studies are still accessible to interested students, despite the department’s closure.
“These books would still be available through the interlibrary Loan System, which allows students to get books from all over the United States . . . So students are still given the freedom and opportunity to read whatever books they desire.”
NCF’s now-defunct gender studies program hosted a “Feminist Fridays” series discussing topics such as “Reproductive Health and Abortion Access: How NCF Shaped My Career as an Organizer,” “Poetry and AIDS Activism,” and “What’s Normal Anyway? From Gender Studies to a Career in Arts, Design & Communications,” as seen on a flyer posted on its X account in 2022.
The school’s Gender Studies program web page is no longer available.
Campus Reform reached out to Amy Reid for comment. This article will be updated accordingly.
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