Meyer’s coaching career
As head football coach at the University of Florida, Meyer led the Gators to national championships in 2006 and 2008. He later guided Ohio State’s football program to a national title in 2014. His only NFL coaching season came in 2021 with the Jacksonville Jaguars.
DeSantis’s overhaul of New College
New College, a public institution on the shores of Sarasota Bay, had a reputation as a progressive school with a prominent LGBTQ+ community when DeSantis targeted it roughly two years ago as part of his campaign against what he calls “woke” ideology. The governor and his allies contended the school had been indoctrinating students with leftist teachings and should be remade into a more conservative institution.
DeSantis allies gained control of the board by packing it with supporters and conservative figures. They then fired the college president and replaced her with a Republican politician, the first of several administrators to lose their positions. The school’s office of diversity and equity was dismantled.
Students said the changes amounted to “a hostile takeover” and said the governor was dismantling what had been a safe place for many LGBTQ+ students who felt marginalized at other schools.