SARASOTA, Florida. – At New College in Sarasota, a large dumpster full of books caught the attention of campus residents.

“It was such a huge amount and I was shocked,” said Natalia Benavides, a new 12th grader at the school.

The controversy quickly spread, with New College saying the books were part of the library’s annual purge of old and damaged books – in some cases damaged by water leaks after Debby.

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Meanwhile, Benavides noticed a second stack of books nearby. They came from the Student Gender and Diversity Center, a study program the university shut down last year.

“It doesn’t matter where they came from, what was important was saving them,” Benavides said. “Because it was a disgrace and incredibly shocking to think that it was acceptable to ignore so many books. No matter what the subject matter was, and what’s even crazier is that this all came out of our Gender and Diversity Center, which was a very popular place for students, and we didn’t have the opportunity to reclaim these books like we should have because students didn’t return to campus. This isn’t just about gender students and LGBTQ+ material, it’s about religious students of all religions. There was a Bible in there.”

Benavides and others, including the Social Equity through Education Alliance (SEE Alliance), worked to rescue the books from the former student spaces while the books were being removed from the library.

“If that was standard protocol, if that was what had to happen, why couldn’t we take 55 seconds of critical thinking and conclude that if I don’t want these books, maybe someone else does,” said Zander Moricz, executive director of the SEE Alliance.

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New College cited the reason as being required by law. Representatives of the school released the following statement:

“The New College Library follows its long-standing annual procedures for retiring its collection, which involves removing materials that are old, damaged, or otherwise no longer meet the college’s needs. This process is conducted by professional librarians trained in collection evaluation. A library must regularly review and renew its collection to ensure that its materials meet the current needs of students and faculty. The pictures seen online of a dumpster filled with library materials refer to the standard retiring process. Chapter 273 of Florida Laws prohibits New College from selling, donating, or transferring these materials purchased with state funds. Retired materials are disposed of, through a recycling process whenever possible.

Separate from the New College library cleanout, a number of books related to the discontinued Gender Studies program were also removed from a room in the Hamilton Center that is now being repurposed. These books came from a variety of sources, primarily donations over several years. Gender Studies has been discontinued as a focus area at New College, and the books are not part of any official college collection or inventory. When the books were not picked up from the room for pickup, the library took them to a book return location, where they were later picked up by individuals who wished to donate the books locally.”

SEE Alliance calls New College’s measures wasteful.

“As a student who will have to pay for books when we go back to school next year, I look at all of these books and I’m just heartbroken when I think of all of the books. Who wanted and needed the books that are currently sitting in the Sarasota landfill? No one on earth will ever read these books again,” Moricz said.

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While the books were funded by the state, the books were donated to the Gender and Diversity Center. New College said students could choose the books as they wished.

However, as the school year begins next week, students are demanding clear communication.

“It is really important for all universities, especially New College right now, to have good communication between administration and students,” Benavides said.

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