Trump and DeSantis have it right. It’s time for more Republicans to lead universities | Opinion

Somewhere along the line, we allowed universities in this country to devolve into centers of ideological litmus tests and political posturing. It’s no stretch to say that today, some colleges seem more interested in teaching students what to think than how to think.

In Florida, Gov. Ron DeSantis has spent the past few years stopping this drift to the left. He’s overhauling the state’s higher education system, and his hard work is paying off.

In the past two years, DeSantis has appointed five people to the board of trustees at the University of West Florida and two people to the board at Florida Gulf Coast University. He’s also been appointing Republicans as university presidents, notably his former lieutenant governor, Jeanette Nuñez, as interim president of Florida International University. And former Republican Florida State Rep. Adam Hasner was just hired as the president of Florida Atlantic University.

DeSantis’ goal for higher education, according to an article in the Wall Street Journal this month, was to “make sure that these universities are really serving the classical mission of what a university should be, and that’s not to impose ideology. It’s really to teach students how to think and to prepare them to be citizens of our republic.”

The reset was long overdue.

DeSantis’ appointments and Republican hires by Florida universities are restoring balance to institutions that have long been left leaning. The goal isn’t to turn college campuses into conservative echo chambers. It’s to reintroduce ideological diversity and intellectual rigor.

Students deserve an education that challenges them, not panders to them. That means exposure to a wide range of thought, not just the prevailing progressive orthodoxy common in academia. As former President Barack Obama said, “I don’t agree that you, when you become students at colleges, have to be coddled and protected from different points of view.”

Obama was right.

Universities are supposed to teach students how to think critically. The shift toward classical education — where students study foundational texts such as Plato’s Republic, engage in difficult conversations and hone reasoning skills — is precisely what universities need more of. It’s not a threat to academic freedom; it’s a restoration of it.

President Donald Trump campaigned on the promised to “reclaim our once great educational institutions from the radical Left.” He’s taken a sledgehammer to the federal Department of Education and the concept of DEI. Trump’s approach to education may be like using a cannon to kill a fly, but it isn’t hard to argue that higher institutions need more than simply tinkering around the edges.

I hold two degrees from high education institutions, one private and one public, and there are times when I wonder whether I would be allowed to speak my mind on campus today.

When I was in school, I was taught by professors who welcomed opposing viewpoints and fostered open dialogue, but being conservative on college campuses today has become a problem, at least for some students. They’re concerned if they discuss their world view, they’ll be chided and labeled radical or wrong. University of Florida student Bia Castanho told the Wall Street Journal in a story published earlier this month, “When I got here, if you were a conservative, people thought you were a hater, a racist or homophobic. Now at least some people will at least listen to your ideas.”

Critics will argue that DeSantis and Trump are politicizing higher education and stripping colleges of their free thinking capabilities. Those arguments should be listened to. But I believe that they’re de-politicizing institutions that have been held hostage by liberal ideologies.

Yes, we must be vigilant to ensure that Republicans don’t over-correct. We also can’t allow MAGA ideology to replace woke-ism.

But DeSantis and Trump have identified a real problem, and adding Republicans to the places educational decisions are being made is a step in the right direction to return universities to places of critical thinking, not liberal ideology.

Mary Anna Mancuso is a member of the Miami Herald Editorial Board. Her email: mmancuso@miamiherald.com

This story was originally published March 19, 2025 at 2:10 PM.