Prominent conservative activist and trustee of the New College of Florida Chris Rufo blasted the Biden administration for opening a civil rights investigation into the school and said he was willing to go to prison.
During a roundtable discussion Wednesday with Rep. Jim Banks (R-IN) and members of the House Anti-Woke Caucus, Rufo said he was prepared to "take the heat" and dared the Biden administration to imprison him.
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"I'm under a federal civil rights investigation right now because I refused to call the former DEI director of New College of Florida a ze/zir," Rufo said. "I'm not going to do it. [And] if the Biden administration says that's a civil rights violation, OK, fine, put me in prison. I don't care."
The department launched an investigation into the Florida college last week after a complaint alleged that the school's new conservative administration had violated federal civil rights law by removing gender-neutral signage from bathrooms and because college trustee Rufo had refused to refer to the college's former dean of diversity, equity, and inclusion by "ze/zir" pronouns.
Rufo and a group of other trustees were appointed by Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) earlier this year and tasked with remaking the public college into a classical liberal arts school in the model of the notoriously conservative Hillsdale College in Michigan. The trustees to date have replaced the president, abolished DEI programs, and moved to eliminate the gender studies department.
The conservative reform has prompted a number of faculty to leave but has also led to record enrollment and saddled the school with more students than it could accommodate in on-campus housing.
On Wednesday, Banks led a letter that was co-signed by Reps. Harriet Hageman (R-WY) and Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) demanding that Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Catherine Lhamon provide details on what the department's investigation entailed.
"Like many Americans, we strongly support New College employees’ and trustees’ free speech rights and their efforts to eliminate partisan administrative positions and divisive components of its curriculum," the representatives wrote. "As member[s] of the House Anti-Woke Caucus, we have called for similar reforms in federal agencies, including at the Department of Education and received significant public support."
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The lawmakers gave the department until Sept. 20 to specify what allegations it was investigating at the New College of Florida. The letter also asked the department to detail how many complaints it has received against colleges and universities and how many investigations it has opened. The final question asked by the lawmakers was whether or not the Office for Civil Rights "agree[s] that failing to use Ze/Zer pronouns is evidence of discrimination."
In a statement to the Washington Examiner, a Department of Education spokesperson said, "As a policy, the Office for Civil Rights does not comment on pending investigations."