Tallahassee sources have shared that Tampa podcaster Gates Garcia has resigned from the University of West Florida Board of Trustees. Gates is the second resignation among the five Trustees appointed by Gov. Ron DeSantis. Boise State professor and board chair Scott Yenor resigned on April 9.
- Gates was scheduled to appear before the Senate Committee on Ethics & Elections next Tuesday.
Last week, while under oath before the Senate Appropriations Committee on Higher Education, Gates claimed he voted for Yenor based solely on his “track record in education reform,” and four times he stated that he was unaware of Yenor’s controversial comments.
“He has a demonstrated track record there if you read everything he’s written,” Gates said of his research. “I believe that sort of diversity on this board, as far as being competitive in a marketplace that’s undergone education reform for the last 15 to 20 years, would’ve been warranted. And when I spoke on him, the only area I was speaking on, if you look at my quotes, are education reform.”
His exchange with Sen. Jennifer Bradley (R-Fleming Island) was particularly pointed.
Sen. Bradley asked, “And so I hear those comments and I wonder why you would explore the background of this individual and choose him when his comments are not supportive of what you’ve just described as being an important goal of yours. And you say that you explored his educational positions yet had no. Did you have not? Were you aware of all the comments?”
- Gates replied, “Depends on which comments you’re speaking to. I was familiar with his work in education reform.”
Sen. Bradley said, “The controversial comments that I think we all in this room are referring to.”
- Gates replied, “When I read his work on education reform and prior work on education reform, nothing stood out, controversial to me. But it’s unfair if we’re not sort of quoting what we’re talking about here because there’s all sorts of comments out there, some of which I was familiar with, some of which I was not familiar with.”
Sen. Bradley pressed, “I’m having trouble understanding how you are not familiar with the comments about not needing higher participation rates and engineering programs and the fact that women should not be, or the goal is not to have women in higher ed and that a primary focus and a better, stronger society would be if women did not participate in higher ed. Those are very core principles that I hear as I read his work very consistent throughout work. And so I’m trying to understand where you’re coming from.”
- Gates asserted that he shouldn’t have to replied because he only knew about the education reform. “Like I said, he’s written on diversity, equity, inclusion. I’ve read comments about that. I did not come across these specific remarks of being so disparaging towards women. And I have a demonstrated track record of believing the exact opposite of that.”
Sen. Bradley replied, “Interesting.”