When the hostile takeover of New College of Florida officially took place in 2023, New College alumni began using this slogan: “Your Campus is Next.”
Sadly, one of those “nexts” has turned out to be right next door.
With the vote on the new budget, the ax fell for our neighbors at USF Sarasota-Manatee (USFSM).
As New College alumni, we mourn with our USFSM brethren because their school provided critical services to the Sarasota-Manatee area.
And it sets up a scenario where New College will likely need to be closed or bailed out in the future.
Why?
Just follow the money
Let’s just follow the money.
Before these recent developments, New College had debts of about $17 million.
That’s a lot for a school its size.
With the land transfer of USFSM, New College will take on roughly $53 million in additional debt.
It also takes on an additional $5 million-plus in operating expenses.
So New College’s debt has gone from $17 million to $70 million.
Well, surely the new buildings will bring in the income to cover that debt, right?
That’s not what the numbers say.
New College President Richard Corcoran and his administration like to say the school is undergoing “record growth.”
But the numbers they turn in to the state say it is not.
They also like to say they have stabilized New College’s finances.
But the numbers say they have not.
What the numbers tell us is that New College is effectively bribing students to attend with $10,000-a- year scholarships and backfilling all of the students who leave with athletic transfers.
These scholarships are paid exclusively by taxpayers.
New College’s net income for tuition is effectively zero.
The added USF Sarasota-Manatee dorms will help because it will keep students from being housed in hotels.
However, those 200 beds on the USF Sarasota-Manatee campus will still be 50 fewer than the number provided by the existing Pei dorms on the New College campus.
Yet the PEI dorms have been sitting untouched and moldering in the sun despite the state’s investment of millions of dollars for “enhancements.”
This year’s compromise budget between the Florida House and Senate removed a $5 million earmark for scholarships that New College has had since 2023, thereby allowing the money to be used for anything the college administration chooses.
But New College is unlikely to attract students without these scholarships, and the entire $5 million will likely be eaten up by the cost of running the additional USF Sarasota-Manatee facilities.
Here’s the bottom line:
One school with effectively no income will quadruple its debt and reduce its ability to attract students. And another school that has served its community well for decades will be closed.
At some point in the near future, Corcoran will leave his position as New College president.
He will leave as a multimillionaire, thanks largely to all the public money New College has received.
And he will leave two important institutions of higher education in total shambles.
William Rosenberg is president of the Novo Collegian Alliance and a 1980 graduate of New College of Florida.
This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: New College takeover of Sarasota school is sad news | Opinion
Reporting by William Rosenberg Guest columnist, Sarasota Herald-Tribune / Sarasota Herald-Tribune
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By William Rosenberg Guest columnist, Sarasota Herald-Tribune | USA TODAY Network
