Youssef Mazouz, Contributing Photographer

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis ’01 returned to his alma mater on Friday to denounce the lack of intellectual diversity during his time at Yale and highlight his anti-liberal crusade in Florida.

DeSantis, who has openly criticized Yale and higher education more broadly, is known for his opposition to what he calls woke ideology, which he made the centerpiece of his campaign for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination. On Friday, he carried that emphasis into a meet-and-greet event with Yale College Republicans and a keynote address at the Buckley Institute’s annual conference.

“If you’re a student of a place like Yale and it’s not kosher to be talking about conservative ideas but you’re willing to stand up and take scorn from some of your classmates and stand firm for what’s right, you’re doing your part to keep it,” DeSantis said of the founders’ promise of a republic.

DeSantis, who was once the captain of Yale’s baseball team, has repeatedly criticized Yale in the past, describing his undergraduate years as “years of indoctrination,” calling his Yale degree a “scarlet letter” in his career in Republican politics and claiming that he would be “negatively disposed” if he were to receive a résumé from Yale.

In two events reflecting on his time at Yale and his tenure as Florida’s governor, DeSantis argued that ideological diversity has only decreased since his graduation in 2001.

DeSantis says Yale’s political climate has become ‘worse’

DeSantis echoed his attacks on Yale during his keynote address at the Buckley Institute’s annual conference in the Omni New Haven Hotel’s ballroom. The conference was titled “The Future of American Conservatism: Buckley’s Centennial and Beyond.”

When asked during the question-and-answer period whether he thinks the political climate at Yale has improved, DeSantis said he thinks it has become “worse,” adding that “the Great Awokening was a disaster for higher education” and that leftist ideologies have come to declare a “war on truth itself.”

He also said that the aftermath of Halloween in 2015, when thousands of students and faculty protested for racial inclusivity and reforms at Yale and some were criticized for apparent intolerance to opposing views, was a “low point for Yale.”

He began his address by recounting his arrival on campus in 1997, when he was shocked by Yale’s cultural difference from Florida. While he showed up to his first day of class in jean shorts, flip-flops and a cut-off t-shirt, he said, his classmates from private schools like Phillips Academy in Andover and Phillips Exeter Academy were “a little bit different.”

In the classroom, DeSantis said he was stunned by a leftist orthodoxy, leading him to reject “everything that I learned here in terms of the political orthodoxy.” Yale was not living up to its mission of preparing people to be strong leaders for American society, DeSantis said, adding that the “craziness” has only gotten worse since his time at the University.

“I am definitely one of the few people, unquestionably, that can say I went through both Harvard and Yale and came out more conservative than when I went in,” he said.

During his keynote address, DeSantis also quoted William F. Buckley Jr., the namesake of the Buckley Institute who described the mission of the National Review magazine he founded to stand “athwart history, yelling Stop, at a time when no one is inclined to do so.”

While the issues that conservative politicians face now are different from what Buckley was writing about in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, DeSantis added, the “underlying principles don’t change,” regardless of what the media, pundits or “online influencers” say.

DeSantis then touted his record as the governor of Florida, including the elimination of diversity, equity and inclusion programs from public universities and a crackdown on teachers’ unions.

In Florida, preventing further advances from the left was not enough, DeSantis said. He had to “regain all the territory that the left has taken over these many years.”

Both CNBC and U.S. News rank Florida as the best economy in the U.S., Desantis said.

DeSantis also said that the proper approach to artificial intelligence is a critical issue that conservatives must wrestle with. The strategy of leading artificial-intelligence companies is to “make it too big to fail,” and it’s important to protect people and intellectual property that these companies could put at risk, he said.

“I think human beings have a duty to make sure we’re thinking for ourselves. We can never be relieved of that duty,” DeSantis said. “There’s also a transhumanist element in all this where they want to basically wipe out human agency and turn things over to machines. That is not conservative, and that is certainly not right.”

DeSantis talks with student Republicans about governing Florida

In a joint event hosted by the Yale College Republicans and Yale Law Republicans, DeSantis spoke about his priorities for his last legislative session as governor and on his past work in the position.

“I’m going to make the legislature do redistricting,” DeSantis told attendees in the Omni Hotel’s Wooster Room.

While suggesting that “the court is going to say that’s unconstitutional,” DeSantis cited population change as a reason for this initiative.

Discussing Disney’s fight with him over the Florida Parental Rights in Education Act, which restricted some teaching about sexual orientation, DeSantis said, “It was not consistent with the fiduciary and duty of their shareholders for them to inject themselves in against the rights of parents.”

DeSantis emphasized that he did not want to infringe on the rights of businesses, but his administration would step in to counter left-leaning ideology.

“I want to protect people from the pathologies of the left,” DeSantis said.

Attendees interested in governor’s visit

Kunwoo Min ’27 said DeSantis’s keynote address at the Buckley event sounded like a “campaign speech,” restating many points he made during his presidential run.

Min, who said DeSantis’s address was “decent,” also said he wished DeSantis spoke more about the future direction of the U.S. rather than echoing existing conservative ideas.

Steven McGuire — who is affiliated with the American Council of Trustees and Alumni, which he described as a “higher-ed reform organization” — said he found it notable that DeSantis described Yale as less accepting of intellectual diversity now.

“It wouldn’t surprise me if it was worse now than it was when Governor DeSantis was a student here,” McGuire said. “But like I said, it’s good to see that the Yale administration is taking some positive steps.”

Several attendees at the meet and greet were enthused at DeSantis’ presence at Yale. 

Manu Anpalagan ’26, president of the Yale College Republicans, expressed gratitude for the group’s event with DeSantis.

“When do you get the chance to be right next to a governor?” Anpalagan said in an interview. “I think the governor’s concerns and his criticism of his time at Yale is perfectly valid.
And a lot of people have seen the horrifying mistakes that past graduates of elite schools have made in politics in government, and they are rightfully skeptical of that.”

Shailen Sharma ’27 underscored DeSantis’ positive reflections of his time at Yale. In an interview with the News, Sharma said he appreciated DeSantis’ focus on “sharing experiences about Mory’s, his time on the baseball team.”

“It felt like we were talking to a Yale student,” Sharma said.

DeSantis was in Yale’s chapter of Delta Kappa Epsilon.