DeSantis appointees voted for Yenor, didn’t know his views -

The Senate Appropriations Committee on Higher Education asked Gov. Ron DeSantis’ appointees to the University of West Florida Board of Trustees to explain, under oath, why they voted to make Boise State professor Scott Yenor the board’s chairman. Despite objections, all three will be sent with a favorable vote to the Senate Ethics & Elections Committee.

Yenor resigned via email on Wednesday afternoon, effective immediately.

Chris Young said that had he known about Yenor’s view on women, he would not have voted for Yenor. Gates Garcia said he voted because he supported Yenor’s view on education but claimed not to know about Yenor’s controversial views. Paul Bailey also claimed not to know Yenor views.

When Sen. Carlos Smith asked Young about his vote for Yenor, Young said, “I did vote for him. In hindsight, if I had known about the context of the comments that were made, I would stand for you and tell you that that was a bad decision. I would not have voted for him. The things that have come out about the comments that he’s made are not what I stand for. They’re not what I believe in.”

Young continued, “If that was the case, my mama would never had a job. I own a trucking company, and my general manager of my trucking company is a female. My audit compliance officer, which in the trucking world is very intense. She’s a female. I gladly hired both of them and had no qualms about it.”

Gates Garcia said, “I voted for Mr. Yenor’s track record on education reform. He has a demonstrated track record there if you read everything he’s written. 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.”

Senator Smith asked, “So you were aware of all of the controversial comments he’s made about women, about Jews and about gays, and you just didn’t want to address any of that? You just thought that he was appropriate for him to be the chair of the board of trustees of your state university.”

“I was not aware of those statements when I made those comments,” Garcia said. “My comments were specifically on education reform as they’re quoted,”

Smith pressed, “So even though every local paper, TV station, and news publication was circulating this and the entire community was aware, you’re saying that you just were not engaged with the community on that level.”

Garcia replied, “The areas of education and education reform, which is what the university is, are what the governor appointed me to do at the school. That’s where I was engaged. And those are the comments I was familiar with and his work there. The others I was not.”

He professed his support for women: “60% of the student body population is women there. If you read my writings, I’m a huge proponent of women. I have a working wife, not only a full-time job, but a public servant as well. My sister is an assistant US attorney. She’s married with three children, works about 60 hours a week, harder than anybody I know. I’m a huge advocate of having prepared women in the workforce and women in the workforce.”

Senator Jennifer Bradley had trouble believing Garcia: “Thank you for the background and your sister and your relationship with women in the workforce. 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.”

Garcia repeated that he only read Yenor’s views on education reform. He said, “(Yenor) has 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.”

When Paul Bailey testified, Smith read one of Yenor’s statements: “Every effort must be made not to recruit women into engineering, but rather to recruit and demand more of men who become engineers. Ditto for medical school and the law. And every trade efforts should be redoubled to encourage more men to enter the medical field space, exploration, mining endeavors, and every other high ed, even low-end profession. If every Nobel Prize winner is a man, that’s not a failure. It’s kind of a cause for celebration.

Paul Bailey took the same approach as Young: I was not aware of some of those comments, and the one that you specifically read, I had no knowledge about prior to voting for former Chair Jenner at the time. And honestly, in hindsight, if I had the knowledge that I have now, I would not have voted for him.”

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DeSantis appointees voted for Yenor, didn’t know his views

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