The Board of Trustee
On Jan. 6, Gov. Ron DeSantis made headlines when he appointed five new members to the University of West Florida Board of Trustees, the university’s governing body. The appointees are:
- Paul Bailey, an attorney at Welton Law Firm in Crestview.
- Gates Garcia, president and CEO of Pinehill Capital Partners in Tampa.
- Adam Kissel, a fellow on higher education reform at The Heritage Foundation, the conservative think tank that authored Project 2025. He is also a senior fellow at the Cardinal Institute for West Virginia Policy.
- Chris Young, a founder and senior partner at Perry & Young Law Firm in Northwest Florida who owns or operates several businesses.
- Scott Yenor, a political science professor at Boise State University.
For many students, new board appointments would typically go unnoticed. Most are focused on grades, part-time jobs or preparing for graduation. This appointment, however, is different.
Yenor has become a topic of discussion among students and faculty at UWF due to his controversial history regarding comments about women. In 2021, he spoke at the National Conservatism Conference, where his speech, “The Family Form That Nations Need,” criticized feminism in America. He described independent women as “feminist overlords” and argued that their role challenges conservative values and American society. However, these were not the comments that sparked the most outrage online or at his workplace.
The Statements
“Every effort [must] be made not to recruit women into engineering, but rather to recruit and demand more of men who become engineers,” Yenor said during the conference. “Ditto for med school, and the law, and every trade.”
While the comment itself was controversial, Yenor’s response on Twitter, now known as X, only worsened the situation. In a Twitter thread, Yenor defended his remarks from the conference.
“While there, I said that there was no need to ‘recruit women into engineering.’ University engineering programs, I argued, need not be ashamed even if three-fourths of their students are male,” Yenor wrote. “In order to reach what they believe is an imperative for a just and equitable distribution of engineers, they set up scholarships and programs aimed at ‘inspiring’ young women to enter the field. They shouldn’t be doing this. That effort, I believe, is misplaced energy in the service of ideology; the policy is based on faulty assumptions about what they think women should want to do with their lives—rather than what women actually want. So when I argue to stop making special efforts to recruit women into fields where they don’t seem to want to be, I am accused of keeping women out of these professions—and (insanely) wanting to deny them an education altogether.”
In the same speech, Yenor criticized universities for their inclusion efforts and labeled independent women as “more medicated, meddlesome and quarrelsome” than necessary. He also referred to universities as “the citadels of our gynecocracy.” Yenor stated that he believes women should prioritize becoming mothers rather than focusing first on career success
The Controversy
Unsurprisingly, Yenor’s comments have sparked protests—several, in fact—throughout the years, including in 2021, 2024, and now in 2025.
With the ongoing controversy surrounding Yenor, I reached out to him for comment. While he declined a recorded interview over Zoom, he agreed to a Q&A session via email, which is detailed below.
Editor’s note: The following interview remains unedited. Questions and answers are presented as they were received to preserve the integrity of the statement
The Interview
Question: Tell me a little about yourself. Do you have family, kids?
Dr. Yenor: My wife, Amy, and I were married in 1993, directly out of college. We have five children, four of whom are married, and one is 17. We have five grandkids and one on the way (so far). All our kids live in Idaho.
Question: How were you approached about the Board of Trustees position at the University of West Florida?
Dr. Yenor: As someone interested in higher education reform, I recognize the importance of university leadership—at the trustee level and at the administrative level. Having an interest in serving as a trustee at the university level, I applied for the position and was fortunate to have received the nomination from Gov. DeSantis.
Question: What aspects of your career and experience do you believe make you a great candidate for the Board of Trustees, including your position as chair of the board?
Dr. Yenor: I have been involved in founding two schools, including one of the flagship Association for Classical Christian Schools K-12 schools, The Ambrose School. I have been on the board at Ambrose for about 20 years. I have been involved in higher education reform for years, including in Florida, where I am knowledgeable about and support the DeSantis agenda.
Question: What do you hope to accomplish at the University of West Florida? How do you plan to improve the school, curriculum, etc.?
Dr. Yenor: Right now, I am poring over reports and familiarizing myself with UWF’s operations and objectives. It is too soon to discuss plans. Generally, my hopes are to help UWF have an academic mission that not only meets the needs of the local community on workforce education and professional education but also provides world-class offerings in general education.
Programs that are based on theories of systemic racism, sexism, oppression, and privilege that are supposedly inherent in the institutions of the United States have no place in the modern university. Instead, I am hopeful that great education in American history, the great ideas and actions of Western civilization, the basic principles of science and numeracy, and other emphases of Florida’s general education reform take deep root at UWF.
Dr. Yenor has made it clear in interviews, statements, and speeches in the past that he has no love for any sort of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives at any level of academics.
Question: Have you visited the school since receiving the Board of Trustees appointment?
Dr. Yenor: Not yet. I have been to campus before. I plan on visiting again in March for our next board meeting.
Question: The headlines about you center around the comments you’ve made about women in the workforce. Many of these comments are considered controversial and have sparked protests. What are these stories getting right or wrong about your comments? What is your actual position on the matter?
Dr. Yenor: No great country can be built entirely on modern feminism. In my book, The Recovery of Family Life, I lay out my vision of “womanism” against the vision of women typical of feminists. (Somebody recently Twittered on the topic, and here are the pages of the book.)
My hope is that America would have a culture that encourages all citizens to be future spouses and parents, not just workers. It is an error to think any woman who does not buy into the feminist career mystique thinks women can onlybe mothers. I do not subscribe to this error and have faced the wrath of feminists because of it. A job is not the pinnacle of life. Men and women have different needs for lives well lived.
I would like to see a country that accommodates and honors women who prioritize motherhood, even as many of them will work. I would also like to see a country that can celebrate men as fathers and providers. I would like to see a country where we are good with men and women doing somewhat different things with their lives and having somewhat different priorities. Family life is, after all, among the most important and meaningful experiences of life for both mothers and fathers.
In this statement, Dr. Yenor’s words ring true for some. A job is not the pinnacle of life for everybody, but it is for some. He makes it clear that he doesn’t believe women should only be mothers but that women and American culture should prioritize motherhood over their careers. The above statement still holds the line that he draws in his book, The Recovery of Family Life. Yenor stated in his work that “The modern university, in America at least, has become a major vehicle for the career mystique and hence, through its alliance with radical feminism, a source of human misery.” This quote can be found in the tweeted pages that he linked in his response above.
Question: How do you plan to stay up to date on university matters from another state?
Dr. Yenor: All our board members get regular updates from the staff. All can keep up with changes in state law and in university policies. Many board members on many state boards live out of state, but I am sure every member of the board is committed to overseeing and directing UWF.
Almost all of the new appointees live in Florida, with the exception of Dr. Yenor and Adam Kissell. While this itself is not ideal, it could be dealt with. It should be noted that none of the new appointees are UWF alumni, whereas prior board members were. Only one appointee lives near the university (in Crestview), while others live in Tampa, Tallahassee, or out of state.
Question: What do you believe should be the first order of business for the Board of Trustees after appointment?
Dr. Yenor: The first order of business is to ensure that UWF’s mission is completely in line with the mission of the state university system, which is to provide students with a rich, classical education and to prepare them for professions. We must also discover how UWF is accomplishing Gov. DeSantis’ important education reforms. UWF has the potential to do much more in the current environment, and I look forward to working with my fellow trustees to help take UWF to the next level.
Two follow-up questions were sent to Dr. Yenor after receiving his original responses in an attempt to clarify some of his stances regarding his statements about women in the workplace.
He did not respond to the request for comment. Gov. DeSantis’ office did not respond to requests for comment either within an allotted two-week time span.
The Significance
The views of the Board of Trustees have taken a sharp shift to the right with the new appointments. As a student, you might be wondering why this matters to you.
The primary concern is the number of appointees. Gov. Ron DeSantis not only appointed five new trustees in January but also added three in late December. With this many new members, if they vote as a bloc, they effectively control university affairs. They have the power to monitor and alter curriculum, as well as regulate events and student organizations on campus.
Other board members, including the president of the Faculty Senate and the president of the UWF Student Government Association, risk losing their influence if they disagree with the appointees on key issues. This is concerning for some, as the Student Government Association plays a significant role in campus life and serves as the primary voice for the student body.
So Now What?
At this point, UWF remains in a state of limbo. As of Feb. 15, 2025, the appointees have yet to be confirmed by the Florida Senate.
A protest led by a group of UWF students was held Tuesday, Feb. 4, and was covered by local news outlets. Nearly all UWF faculty and staff I reached out to for comment, including the university’s Institutional Communications department, either declined to comment or did not respond. However, Chasidy Hobbs, president of the UWF chapter of United Faculty of Florida, agreed to speak on the record.
“UWF has a long record of academic freedom, civil engagement, and the protection of our constitutional rights to free speech,” Hobbs stated. “By every metric our university is assessed with, we have excelled. We are even on a trajectory to improve that excellence in many categories. I look forward to continuing to exceed our mission with our new trustees.”
The Voyager will continue to follow this story as it develops and provide updates as necessary.
