‘Go to Berkeley’: Ron DeSantis said students seeking ‘woke’ classes should study elsewhere

[keith99]

View attachment 373944


“If you want to do things like gender ideology, go to (the University of California) Berkeley,” DeSantis added. “There’s nothing wrong with that, per se, but for us with our tax dollars, we want to focus on the classical mission of what a university is supposed to be.”

“What this does is reorient our universities back to their traditional mission and part of that traditional mission is to treat people as individuals, not to try to divvy them up based on any type of superficial characteristics,” DeSantis said.

US Rank 2026	WUR Rank 2026	University	Overall	Teaching	Research Environment	Research Quality	Industry	International Outlook
1	2	Massachusetts Institute of Technology	97.7	99.2	95.3	99.6	100	91.9
2	=3	Princeton University	97.2	98.2	97.3	99	98	85.4
=3	=5	Harvard University	97.1	95.9	100	98.9	86.7	88.3
=3	=5	Stanford University	97.1	97.5	97.4	99.5	100	83.9
5	7	California Institute of Technology	96.3	96.4	97.4	96.8	100	87.9
6	9	University of California, Berkeley	94.4	87.3	99	98.9	99.5	83.9
7	10	Yale University	94.1	94.6	94.5	97.2	87.6	81.4

1) According to the TIMES HIGHER EDUCATION WORLD UNIVERSITY RANKINGS, the University of California (Berkeley) ranks 6th among US universities and 9th in the world!

2) Two other California universities actually rank ahead of Berkeley, the California Institute of Technology and Stan ford (tied with Harvard) rank 5th and 3rd for US universities - 7th and 6th worldwide!

3) A total of 9 universities in California were slotted ahead of the University of Florida (44th) - the highest ranked university in that state!

3rd - Stanford University (5th worldwide)
5th - California Institute of Technology (7th worldwide)
6th - University of California Berkeley (9th worldwide)
11th - University of California Los Angeles ranks (18th worldwide)
22nd - University of California San Diego ranks 22nd (47th worldwide)
25th - University of California Davis 25th (64th worldwide)28th - University of California Santa Barbara (72nd worldwide)
29th - University of Southern California (73rd worldwide)
35th - University of California Irvine (97th worldwide)

44th - University of Florida (134th worldwide)

4) Apparently Governor DeSantis has decided to start his 2028 Presidental Campaign early but he's finally learned the hard way not to renew his fight with Disney!

5) Now he's decided to take a page out of President Trump's playbook, he's picking a fight with the universities - threatening to establish his own accreditation board as a means of forcing Florida's institutions to comply!

6) Florida's Governor has assumed the role of determining what can/can't be taught in that state's institutions for the express purpose "to focus on the classical mission of what a university is supposed you be!"

7) Someone should inform the Governor that try as he might, he can't recapture his idyllic version of "THE GOOD OLD DAYS" and that the 1950's are not about to make a comeback anytime soon!

8) DeSantis' comments directed at Berkeley, that supposed "bastion of woke," are all the more misguided, given that the Governor has unintentionally issued an open invitation to compare Florida's public universities with those of California - a state where the Governor has made no attempt to impose his will on what is being taught!

9) As previously stated, the "Times Higher Education World University Rankings"
places the University of California Berkeley as the 6th best university in America and 9th in the World - in fact, California has currently placed 3 universities in the Top 10 in the world (2 public, 1 private)!

10) California also has 9 universities (7 public, 2 private) that rank in the Top 35 nationally and all are included within the Top 100 internationally!

11) Compare "woke" California where all 9 universities are ranked ahead of the highest placed university in Florida, where no institution of higher learning, public or private, managed to be included among the Top 100 worldwide!

44th - University of Florida (134th worldwide)
56th - University of Miami (private)(201-250 worldwide)
66th - Florida State University (301-350 worldwide)
74th - University of South Florida (351-400 worldwide)
80th - Florida International University (401-500 worldwide)

12) Many of Florida's universities, both private and public, are better known for their football program than academics!

13) In 2023, Governor DeSantis set aside $1 million in pubic funds to finance a Florida State University's (FSU) legal challenge directed at the College Football Playoff Committee when FSU wasn't included as one of the playoff teams that year!

Top Universities in the US 2026 - US College Rankings

Discover the best colleges in the US according to the Times Higher Education’s trusted World University Rankings. This list highlights the which universities in the US excel in teaching, research, and global influence. The Times Higher Education US college rankings are based on a trusted...

www.timeshighereducation.com

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis Sets Aside $1 Million For FSU's Legal Battles Against CFP

The outrage in Tallahassee isn't limited to just supporters and fans of the program.

www.si.com

‘Go to Berkeley’: Ron DeSantis said students seeking ‘woke’ classes should study elsewhere

'We want to focus on the classical mission of what a university is supposed to be.'

floridapolitics.com

TIMES HIGHER EDUCATION WORLD UNIVERSITY RANKINGS, the University of California (Ber

“If you want to do things like gender ideology, go to (the University of California) Berkeley,” DeSantis added. “There’s nothing wrong with that, per se, but for us with our tax dollars, we want to focus on the classical mission of what a university is supposed to be.”

“What this does is reorient our universities back to their traditional mission and part of that traditional mission is to treat people as individuals, not to try to divvy them up based on any type of superficial characteristics,” DeSantis said.

Notice that Cal Tech is the only truly small school on the list! There is a bias against small schools and an even greater bias against colleges where teaching rather than research is the emphasis. My guess is if smaller schools get looked at the contrast between California and Florida increases. Pomona and Harvey Mudd both are excellent, but small. Heck all the Clairmont Colleges are probably better than anything in Florida. Along with Occidental and a couple of San Diego area small colleges.

Cal Tech, undefeated in Football for the last 40 years!

 

[BCP1928]

While it may not interfere with someone learning STEM. It does interfere with "the normal college experience" for some of the students.

And while it may only be a minority who would actually light a dumpster on fire to prevent an Ann Coulter speech from taking place...

Overall, attitudes toward "squashing free speech that I don't like" are more than just a small minority.

UC Berkeley students, faculty evaluate campus free speech climate

While the topic of free speech is intertwined with UC Berkeley’s legacy, it has recently become a particular source of concern on campus and across the nation.

www.dailycal.org

UC Berkeley’s Free Speech Identity Crisis | Berkeley Political Review

“Speech is not violence. The Left conflates the two in order to justify its own violent reactions to differing points of view.” Michael Knowles “I go to UC Berkeley…” Usually, when a Berkeley student utters these words to those who aren’t lucky enough to attend our university, they are met with...

bpr.studentorg.berkeley.edu

A campus culture of more than just a few outliers being intolerant of "anything but the most progressive viewpoint" was evidently enough of a problem, and some Senior faculty recognized it was something that needed to be addressed in the form of a brand new course called "Openness to Opposing Views"

It sounds like you think Universities should be citadels of some slate of "traditional American values" that you are imagining.

 

[ThatRobGuy]

It sounds like you think Universities should be citadels of some slate of "traditional American values" that you are imagining.

No, I actually think they should aim to be either as balanced as possible (where every viewpoint gets a seat at the table for healthy debate) in the "soft sciences" & humanities, and as values-neutral as possible in the hard sciences.

There's been a noticeable shift on that between 1994 and present day.

And mind you, this was all pre-Trump in this chart. (because I've heard the rationale given that Academia has become more galvanized in progressivism as a response to Trump)

This big shift happened over the time period where Republicans were pretty vanilla. (Bob Dole, John McCain, and Mitt Romney were all about as provocative as a peanut butter and jelly sandwich on white bread)

If both political viewpoints were getting equal time and equal access to the proverbial "town square", I would expect the results to look more like the 1994 results, and not like the 2015 results.

 

[iluvatar5150]

No, I actually think they should aim to be either as balanced as possible (where every viewpoint gets a seat at the table for healthy debate) in the "soft sciences" & humanities, and as values-neutral as possible in the hard sciences.

There's been a noticeable shift on that between 1994 and present day.
View attachment 373972

And mind you, this was all pre-Trump in this chart. (because I've heard the rationale given that Academia has become more galvanized in progressivism as a response to Trump)

This big shift happened over the time period where Republicans were pretty vanilla. (Bob Dole, John McCain, and Mitt Romney were all about as provocative as a peanut butter and jelly sandwich on white bread)

If both political viewpoints were getting equal time and equal access to the proverbial "town square", I would expect the results to look more like the 1994 results, and not like the 2015 results.

Those charts show that the growth in liberal votes came predominantly from the ranks of the “mixed”. From 1994-2015, conservatives lost some ground among people with graduate degrees and a HS diploma, but stayed about the same with “some college” and college degrees.

Maybe there’s something about contemporary conservatism that turns off people who’d previously been moderates.

 

[ThatRobGuy]

Those charts show that the growth in liberal votes came predominantly from the ranks of the “mixed”. From 1994-2015, conservatives lost some ground among people with graduate degrees and a HS diploma, but stayed about the same with “some college” and college degrees.

Maybe there’s something about contemporary conservatism that turns off people who’d previously been moderates.

Or they're only being given one viewpoint.

If it was purely case where something about conservatism was turning moderates off, then the pattern wouldn't be more pronounced the longer they stay in college, correct?

If there's something about conservativism that's off-putting to moderates, then I wouldn't expect having a PhD vs. a Bachelors to impact that the way the chart reflects.

I'd venture a guess and say that most college kids on the Master's and PhD path in public colleges aren't getting exposed to a whole lot of conservatism to begin with. However, they probably are getting exposed to a lot of "conservatives are evil" rhetoric while they're there.

 

[iluvatar5150]

Or they're only being given one viewpoint.

If it was purely case where something about conservatism was turning moderates off, then the pattern wouldn't be more pronounced the longer they stay in college, correct?

If there's something about conservativism that's off-putting to moderates, then I wouldn't expect having a PhD vs. a Bachelors to impact that the way the chart reflects.

Did you go to college? That sounds jerky, but I don't mean it that way. I ask, because the way you talk about college suggests that you haven't, or that maybe you got an Associates or tech degree and aren't around many people who went much farther than that. What you keep describing is sort of the right-wing media caricature of college, not the reality.

The driver of this educational sorting isn't folks only being given one viewpoint in school. College typically isn't that formative and by the time you're doing graduate work, you're doing a lot of independent study. The drivers are largely cultural - what I would describe as a culture of institutional professionalism.

What I mean by that is not as lofty as it might come off - what I mean is that the Dems have become the party that embodies how you're supposed to act in an office. Some of that is good (e.g. appreciation of data and meritocracy); some of it is bad (e.g. weak and out of touch leadership, gerontocracy, too accepting of bureaucracy); but it all maps cleanly onto "college educated." The Republicans, OTOH, have gone the other direction by appealing to a more instinct-driven, boorish, conspiratorial type that's really out of place in a big office, but a lot more common amongst the entrepreneurial, small business set. Yes, the longer you're in college, especially if you're pursuing a graduate degree, the more likely you are to become acculturated to this form of professionalism and expect it of leaders.

Your data may precede Trump, but it doesn't precede the cultural shifts that facilitated his ascension. He doesn't win a primary in a party that's not already primed to swallow a bunch of wackadoo garbage. What that graph says to me is that about 20% of the population is conservative to the core and will always vote that way. The group in the middle floats, but has, over time, moved left. I'm also noticing now that nearly all of the shift left came between 1994-2004. Between 2004-2015, the left only picked up a couple points, while the right picked up a lot from the "mixed." I'm kind of surprised at the timing of that shift given W's electoral successes.

 

[ThatRobGuy]

Did you go to college? That sounds jerky, but I don't mean it that way. I ask, because the way you talk about college suggests that you haven't, or that maybe you got an Associates or tech degree and aren't around many people who went much farther than that. What you keep describing is sort of the right-wing media caricature of college, not the reality.

Yes, I went to college, I have a Computer Science degree from a public university. I'm from Ohio, so obviously it's probably a far cry from present day UC campuses...but none the less.

Graduated in 2004.

If I came of age now instead of then, I would've just gone the certification route. But back then, the corporate culture was very much "if you want a white collar desk job (even in IT), gotta have that degree"

The driver of this educational sorting isn't folks only being given one viewpoint in school. College typically isn't that formative and by the time you're doing graduate work, you're doing a lot of independent study. The drivers are largely cultural - what I would describe as a culture of institutional professionalism.

I would disagree, there is that period of time where you put College instructors on a pedestal and feel like they're the "smartest people you've ever met", and that creates an inclination to want to mimic them in ways that aren't affiliated with their area of subject matter expertise.

Fun Fact: One of the instructors I had in a Java class (who I did look up to at one point) ended up being a co-worker who was a rung beneath me on the ladder) 8 years later. I was a Sr Dev at the time, they got hired in as an App Dev II. It sort of "pulled the curtain back" a bit. I didn't have to call them "Mr." anymore, and they had to come to me for guidance and info.

What I mean by that is not as lofty as it might come off - what I mean is that the Dems have become the party that embodies how you're supposed to act in an office. Some of that is good (e.g. appreciation of data and meritocracy); some of it is bad (e.g. weak and out of touch leadership, gerontocracy, too accepting of bureaucracy); but it all maps cleanly onto "college educated." The Republicans, OTOH, have gone the other direction by appealing to a more instinct-driven, boorish, conspiratorial type that's really out of place in a big office, but a lot more common amongst the entrepreneurial, small business set. Yes, the longer you're in college, especially if you're pursuing a graduate degree, the more likely you are to become acculturated to this form of professionalism and expect it of lead

To be more specific, Democrats have become the party that embodies the HR department of the office environment.

You go into meetings involving the top brass, there's some very cut-throat republican economic thinking, or have an environment where it's "just the boys", there's a lot of that "locker room talk" if you catch my drift.

Your data may precede Trump, but it doesn't precede the cultural shifts that facilitated his ascension. He doesn't win a primary in a party that's not already primed to swallow a bunch of wackadoo garbage. What that graph says to me is that about 20% of the population is conservative to the core and will always vote that way. The group in the middle floats, but has, over time, moved left. I'm also noticing now that nearly all of the shift left came between 1994-2004. Between 2004-2015, the left only picked up a couple points, while the right picked up a lot from the "mixed." I'm kind of surprised at the timing of that shift given W's electoral successes.

He won the primary because they had a bunch of people up there and the "sanity" vote was split between a dozen other people.

Armed with the information that there's a solid 20-30% of people who will lock into the most zany option available, it serves a party well to make sure that the other 70% isn't split 12 ways.



Basically, what I think is happening is a cultural/ideological capture of what's perceived to be "intelligent", with regards to the modern college environment.

The people who hold the keys to knowledge can shape other people (and societal perceptions) by having a system in which people have to enter their preferred bubble/echo chamber for an extended period of time in order to be the benefactor of a "knowledge hand-off". And after a certain period of time, people start to associate that ideology with intelligence.

It's not unlike the early church. There was a time when the only access for learning to read, getting access to certain books, or attaining other forms of knowledge was isolated to those entering the seminary to become members of the clergy. That was no accident.

If "the smartest guy in the room" is (99% of the time) someone from a particular ideological framework, it's only a matter of time before large parts of the general public associates that ideology with intelligence, and gaining knowledge comes saddled with sitting through years of their overall sales pitch, and like with anything, there is a percentage of people who are susceptible to sales pitches.