Inside the small liberal arts college that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis wants to take over

SARASOTA, Fla. — The campus was on edge, with more than a dozen police and a bomb-sniffing dog on patrol and rumors spreading that far-right militias were on their way.

Outside an auditorium, a few protesters held up signs declaring: "NO HOSTILE TAKEOVER!"

The focus of the controversy was Christopher Rufo, the most prominent of six conservatives recently named trustees at New College of Florida by the state's governor, Ron DeSantis, as part of his war on "woke."

In a hyper-politicized age in which liberals dominate higher education and conservatives push for more control over what students are taught, this small college overlooking Sarasota Bay looks set to become a pivotal battleground in the war over the mission of public universities.

Rufo, best known for his activism against critical race theory in American education, had come to the left-leaning liberal arts school to hold a pair of town halls, one for faculty and the other for students.

Minutes before the first meeting was to start, the provost announced that she had decided to cancel it because of a threatening the school had received a day earlier. It was directed at another new trustee who was also scheduled to speak, Jason "Eddie" Speir, the founder of a nearby Christian school: "MAKE SURE THAT YOU