Academic freedom no, patronage yes

One of my favorite details from the WSJ story on spending in higher ed that Paul discussed below:

The University of Florida in 2022 had more than 50 employees with titles of director, associate director or assistant director of communications, roughly double the number it had in 2017. The school also employed more than 160 assistant, associate, executive and other types of deans last year, up from about 130 in 2017. 

Political machines in particular need lots of well-compensated sinecures!

And the schools where DeSantis has been most successful at destroying academic freedom will have even more money to spend giving no-work jobs to cronies:

By the way, that last sentence is a rough paraphrase of Christopher Rufo’s hypocritical proclamations on this topic. To repeat a theme: when conservative activists say they want to root out ideology in universities, they are lying. What they really want is to impose their own preferred ideological litmus tests — their own forms of political correctness, if you will — when it comes to faculty hiring. Rufo’s ideological jihad against New College is Exhibit A of this phenomenon. According to the Tampa Bay Times’ Ian Hodgson, “more than one-third of New College of Florida faculty will not be returning in the fall,” in no small part due to Rufo et al’s capricious and chaotic management style.

The ideal DeSantis/Rufo university is 500 Republican donors making six figures to be Associate Vice Provost Directors of Corporate Strategery while a few adjunct instructors play Prager U videos.