Controversial ex-Georgetown administrator appointed as new Florida Polytech trustee

One of Gov. Ron DeSantis’ appointees to the Florida Polytechnic University board of trustees left his Georgetown University Law School position after a kerfuffle involving his posts regarding a Supreme Court nominee.

Ilya Shapiro, who was an administrator at the law school, is one of five new appointees to the school’s board of trustees. As far as educational philosophy, Shapiro seems to fit the bill when it comes to the Governor’s announced “war on woke.”

Shapiro had previously been tapped to become Executive Director for the Georgetown Law School’s Center for the Constitution. But as a Supreme Court seat opened up, Shapiro tweeted that he preferred Sri Srinivasan to fill the seat. He added that Srinivasan “alas doesn’t fit into the latest intersectionality hierarchy so we’ll get lesser black woman. Thank heaven for small favors?”

Shapiro was not disciplined at Georgetown for his 2022 remarks. Still, a four-month investigation into them resulted in his resignation, according to an op-ed he wrote for The Wall Street Journal.

Ultimately, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson filled the position and became the first Black woman on the nation’s highest court.

Shapiro later apologized for the post and deleted it, but the Georgetown Law Dean wrote in a letter to the Georgetown community that Shapiro’s posts were antithetical to the institution’s work and had caused “pain and outrage of so many at Georgetown Law, and particularly from our Black female students, staff, alumni, and faculty.”

Shapiro wrote about the episode in a June 2022 Wall Street Journal op-ed that has echoes of speeches that the Governor has given, reflecting his desire to remake higher education.

“The university didn’t fire me, but it yielded to the progressive mob, abandoned free speech, and created a hostile environment,” reads the subhead on Shapiro’s op-ed.

A report from Georgetown’s Office of Institutional Diversity, Equity and Affirmative Action led Shapiro to conclude his job at Georgetown was “untenable,” he wrote. DeSantis-backed legislation that became law requires all state-run universities and colleges strip funding from diversity, equity and inclusion activities. And DeSantis has been on the campaign stump vowing to root out what he calls “the woke mind virus.”

“We will fight the woke in education, we will fight the woke in corporations, we will fight the woke in the halls of Congress,” DeSantis declared in Iowa. “We will never, ever surrender to the woke mob. We will leave ideology to the dustbin of history.”

A release from the Governor’s Office says Shapiro is now a senior fellow and director of Constitutional Studies for the Manhattan Institute, a conservative think tank. He earned his bachelor’s degree in public and international affairs from Princeton University, his master’s degree in international relations from the London School of Economics and Political Science, and his Juris Doctor from the University of Chicago.

Shapiro’s appointment, and others, were announced this week. They come as the 1,300-student Lakeland university gears up for a search for a new President. Its first and only President, Randy Avent, announced his intention to resign in July.

Florida Polytechnic University will also have DeSantis’ former Deputy Chief of Staff on its 10-member board of trustees. David Clark had been a part of the DeSantis administration for about a year until he announced his resignation in July 2020 to spend more time with his two sons.

Clark, the current CEO of MyGovGuide and managing partner of Allegiant Strategies Group has donated $6,600 to DeSantis’ campaign for President. The veteran of the U.S. Army has his bachelor’s from Flagler College and his master’s degree in business administration from Cornell University.

Also appointed to the board are:

— Doran Abbot, an associated professor at the University of Chicago’s Department of Geophysical Sciences. Abbot, whose bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees all come from Harvard University, is also a member of the Academic Freedom Alliance. The Princeton, New Jersey-based organization aims to protect free speech and offers legal help to those who face disciplinary action over controversial speech or activities.

— Sidney Theis, a U.S. Air Force veteran who owns RDRTec Inc, a Dallas-based federal government contractor for radar research and development. Theis earned his bachelor’s degree in physics, his master’s degree in meteorology, and his doctorate in agricultural engineering from Texas A&M University, according to a release from the Governor’s Office.

DeSantis also reappointed the current Chair of the trustees for another term. Cliff Otto retired from his position as CEO of Saddle Creek Logistics Services, a supply chain, business-to-business company. He has bachelor’s degree in business from the University of Kansas and his master’s degree in business administration from the University of Maryland, according to the Governor’s Office.