Rick's Blog

Daily Outtakes: Will Yenor support a female UWF president

Rick Outzen Rick Outzen

Licensed under the Unsplash+ License

New University of West Florida board trustee Scott Yenor believes in national conservatism and sees independent women as “a fundamental threat to strong, fruitful families” and our national prosperity and stability. Those beliefs put him out of step with Pensacola, Escambia County and most of the United States.

In a 2021 speech at the National Conservatism Conference in Orlando, the Boise State professor particularly focused on what he termed “the independent woman” in modern society, suggesting that this career focus comes at the expense of family life:

“Our independent women seek their purpose in life in mid-level bureaucratic jobs like human resource management, environmental protection, and marketing. They’re more medicated, meddlesome and quarrelsome than women need to be without connections to eternity delivered through their family.”

YouTube video player

WHO IS SCOTT YENOR?

The official profile released by the governor’s office and the University of West Florida:

“Yenor is the chairperson of The Ambrose School Board, a professor of political science at Boise State University, an honored visiting graduate Faculty at Ashland University, and a Washington Fellow at The Claremont Institute’s Center for the American Way of Life. His research focuses on feminism, sexual liberation, and on dismantling the rule of social justice in America’s universities. He previously served as a visiting fellow on American Political Thought for The Heritage Foundation and a Fellow for the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies. Yenor earned his bachelor’s degree from the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire and his doctorate degree in political science from Loyola University.”

MORE INFO: Yenor’s remarks at NCC did draw protests and calls for his termination at Boise State, where he has taught since 2000. Wikipedia states: “He is a member of the men-only Christian nationalist organization Society for American Civic Renewal and works for the Claremont Institute‘s Center for the American Way of Life. He wrote the 2011 book Family Politics: The Idea of Marriage in Modern Political Thought and the 2020 book The Recovery of Family Life: Exposing the Limits of Modern Ideologies.”

Yenor is a fellow with the Center for the American Way of Life of the Claremont Institute. In February 2023, Claremont hired Yenor as Florida’s first senior director of state coalitions. Idaho media reported the job was based in Tallahassee to stop “woke policies” at the state level, but Yenor stayed on the Boise State faculty.

Florida First Lady Casey DeSantis tweeted, “Thrilled to welcome @scottyenor from the Claremont Institute to his new home in Tallahassee.”

However, Yenor, a Boise State faculty member since 2000, has not left the university. University spokesman Mike Sharp said, “Professor Scott Yenor is on sabbatical from Boise State University and remains a faculty member.”

In 2024, he was also revealed as the anonymous creator of Action Idaho, a far-right website that published controversial content. He received funding from Claremont Institute chairman Thomas Klingenstein.

THE PENSACOLA PROBLEM

Our community has several strong, independent women who hold powerful, influential positions in our community.

We have IMPACT 100 Pensacola Bay, which is filled with successful women who have careers and families.

The Inweekly Power List has had several women as #1: Judy Bense, Rishy Studer, Bentina Terry, Sue Straughn and Martha Saunders.

Annually, UWF hosts the popular Women in Leadership Conference.

Here are just the 2022 Speakers at the conference:

MORE BACKGROUND

Pay Attention: 2nd Anniversary of New College Experiment

UWF has excelled in meeting Florida’s performance metrics

Daily Outtakes: PNJ misses significance of UWF Board picks

More changes with UWF Board of Trustees

Exit mobile version