Among that group, Shapiro, a current Manhattan Institute fellow, and Abbot, a professor in the University of Chicago’s department of geophysical sciences , are the most well-known. Both have courted controversy with their opposition to college DEI practices, which led students to protest and in some cases disrupt or cancel the speakers’ campus talks. Of the five appointees, only two—Clark and Otto—appear to live in Florida.
The appointments—at one of the smallest institutions in the State University System of Florida, with an enrollment of around 1,600 students—come amid a presidential search at Florida Poly and less than a year after the Republican governor appointed a slew of trustees to lead a conservative makeover of New College of Florida, which DeSantis has accused of going “woke.”
Critics worry Florida Poly is in store for a similar transformation.
While suspended, Shapiro was shouted down at the University of California Law San Francisco (then known as UC Hastings) in March 2022 while speaking at a Federalist Society event about Supreme Court appointments. Shapiro was unable to offer more than a few words amid chants and name-calling from students who disrupted the event and made reference to his January 2022 tweets.
Georgetown ultimately decided not to punish Shapiro, but he abruptly resigned days after his suspension was lifted and soon re-emerged as a senior fellow and director of constitutional studies at the conservative-leaning Manhattan Institute. In that role he co-wrote model legislation to help states defund DEI initiatives at public universities, which DeSantis appears to have taken as inspiration as the state has sought to prohibit state spending on such efforts. A New College trustee, Chris Rufo, was co-author of the model legislation.
Abbot made national headlines in 2021 when his scheduled lecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology was canceled amid an outcry over views he expressed in a Newsweek opinion piece; he and a co-author argued that an emphasis on DEI “compromises the university’s mission.” Abbot also referenced Nazism, writing, “Ninety years ago Germany had the best universities in the world. Then an ideological regime obsessed with race came to power and drove many of the best scholars out, gutting the faculties and leading to sustained decay that German universities never fully recovered from. We should view this as a warning of the consequences of viewing group membership as more important than merit, and correct our course before it is too late.”
Among the other appointments, Otto has served on the board since 2016, despite his term expiring in 2019, a college spokesperson confirmed. Otto is a retired businessman who has frequently donated to conservative causes and is currently the chair of the Florida Poly board.
Theis is also a retired businessman who has donated to Republican candidates such as Donald Trump and former Georgia Senate candidate Herschel Walker and is a new appointee to the Texas A&M University at Galveston Board of Visitors. Theis began his term on Texas A&M Galveston’s board earlier this month.
Clark is a technology entrepreneur who worked as deputy chief of staff for DeSantis from September 2019 to August 2020. Of those three appointees, only Clark responded to a request for comment.