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Storming the Ivory Tower: How a Florida College Became Ground Zero in the Struggle to Take Back Our Campuses
A firsthand account of how Richard Corcoran, former education commissioner of Florida, successfully took on powerful progressive interest groups, broke their monopoly, and paved the way for higher education reform across America.
Covid alerted the nation to the reality that K-12 schools—private and public alike—were infested with ideologues bent on indoctrinating children. Then, three years after the beginning of the pandemic, the shocking response to Hamas’s genocidal assault on Israel made Americans aware that the same tumor had wholly sickened our country’s colleges and universities. Now, conservatives—and increasingly, moderates and old-school liberals—want to know exactly how the radical left captured higher education.
Florida has been the vanguard in the war to restore sanity to higher education. And Richard Corcoran has been one of its commanding generals—and racking up wins.
When Corcoran was Florida’s education commissioner, he was the point person for reopening schools and banning mask mandates. He triumphed. Then, he was given a herculean remaking a college overrun by radicalism and cancel culture. In 2023, he moved into the president’s office in Sarasota, took on a campus mob, and challenged a media firestorm.
Just a year later, Corcoran achieved the seemingly impossible. He turned around New College of Florida. Now, free speech is protected. Violence and anti-Semitism are abolished. DEI bureaucracy is eliminated. And, already, enrollment records are being broken. Storming the Ivory Tower is the story of how Corcoran is winning the fight for freedom in hostile territory, and how others can join the battle.
Covid alerted the nation to the reality that K-12 schools—private and public alike—were infested with ideologues bent on indoctrinating children. Then, three years after the beginning of the pandemic, the shocking response to Hamas’s genocidal assault on Israel made Americans aware that the same tumor had wholly sickened our country’s colleges and universities. Now, conservatives—and increasingly, moderates and old-school liberals—want to know exactly how the radical left captured higher education.
Florida has been the vanguard in the war to restore sanity to higher education. And Richard Corcoran has been one of its commanding generals—and racking up wins.
When Corcoran was Florida’s education commissioner, he was the point person for reopening schools and banning mask mandates. He triumphed. Then, he was given a herculean remaking a college overrun by radicalism and cancel culture. In 2023, he moved into the president’s office in Sarasota, took on a campus mob, and challenged a media firestorm.
Just a year later, Corcoran achieved the seemingly impossible. He turned around New College of Florida. Now, free speech is protected. Violence and anti-Semitism are abolished. DEI bureaucracy is eliminated. And, already, enrollment records are being broken. Storming the Ivory Tower is the story of how Corcoran is winning the fight for freedom in hostile territory, and how others can join the battle.
299 pages, Kindle Edition
Published November 19, 2024
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
July 12, 2025
Excellent summary of the actions by Governor DeSantis and Richard Corcoran to restore a true liberal arts education and to rejuvenate New College. It also details the methods used to debunk the false attacks from the far left and the media.
June 13, 2026
A strong Governor. A strong Board of Trustees. A strong university President. And a decision to act no matter what the Media says.
This is a story of a public institution that didn't merely ideate a rededication to the originalist definition of what higher education should be, but delivered a living blueprint for other colleges and universities across this nation to follow.
As a lifelong Floridian, I'm proud that an institution like this exists in my state. As an American, I'm hopeful that higher education can again become a force for creating keepers of the Republic rather than keepers of a job. As a lifelong learner, I'm excited to see the story of education as a whole develop, however it might manifest itself in the years ahead. As a member of New College Class of 2030, I get to be a component behind part 2 of this book.
The fight is not lost.
This is a story of a public institution that didn't merely ideate a rededication to the originalist definition of what higher education should be, but delivered a living blueprint for other colleges and universities across this nation to follow.
As a lifelong Floridian, I'm proud that an institution like this exists in my state. As an American, I'm hopeful that higher education can again become a force for creating keepers of the Republic rather than keepers of a job. As a lifelong learner, I'm excited to see the story of education as a whole develop, however it might manifest itself in the years ahead. As a member of New College Class of 2030, I get to be a component behind part 2 of this book.
The fight is not lost.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews