Florida Republican Governor. Ron DeSantis announced on Tuesday that he has ordered higher education institutions in Florida to ease the transfer process for Jewish students. He cited the ongoing controversy regarding Ivy League colleges and their handling antisemitic events on their campuses.

DeSantis stated, “Today I am directing Florida Colleges and Universities in order to make it easier to transfer Jewish students into a Florida higher educational institution.” “While leaders of elite’ colleges enable antisemitism we will protect Jewish Students and welcome them to Florida.”

Student groups held demonstrations in support of Palestine in the aftermath of the Hamas attack on Oct. 7, which sparked the current hostilities in Gaza. Some of these statements raised concerns about rising antisemitism among college students. After the disastrous congressional testimony of Presidents Claudine gay of Harvard, Sally Kornbluth from MIT and Liz Magill from UPenn, who refused to condemn calls for genocide, the situation escalated.

Magill resigned later amid public criticism, while Gay resigned only after a long-running scandal over plagiarism allegations in her academic work. Kornbluth is still in her position.

DeSantis’s announcement received a lot of criticism online. Many suggested that it showed hypocrisy in the areas of diversity, equity and inclusion, as well as affirmative action.

BlazeTV’s Lauren Chen posted, “[l]ooks Like You Support Affirmative Action After All” and included screenshots from his previous comments criticizing DEI initiatives.