New College of Florida's board of trustees approved a revised five-year business plan Thursday, mapping out how to spend tens of millions of dollars allocated to the school from the state budget.
Lawmakers included a total of $25 million for New College in the budget for the fiscal year that begins July 1. Gov. Ron DeSantis approved a $116.5 billion state budget on Wednesday.
The school will receive $10 million for “operational strengthening” that New College President Richard Corcoran and its board of trustees (mostly appointed by DeSantis) will have broad discretion over how to spend, but $5 million will be dedicated to student scholarships.
Another $15 million would be required for specific expenditures, such as temporary student housing, additional stipends for students, campus security and technology updates.
The funding was contingent on the board's approval of a “business/strategic” plan. The New College board approved an initial version of the plan last year, but Corcoran said the revised plan includes “more data” and other revisions to meet requirements that come with state budget funding.
Corcoran told the board that the budgetary obligations contained in so-called “proviso” language designed to implement the state's spending plan are not typical.
“It's probably best to use those words in relation to college funding, but it's pretty unusual,” Corcoran, a Republican former Florida House speaker who became interim president of New College last year, said at Thursday's meeting. “But obviously the Legislature is incredible, and so is the governor. $80 million in 15 months is just phenomenal. So we wanted to put together something worthy of their request.”
Former Senate President Bill Galvano, general counsel for the New College board of trustees, also called the request “very unique.”
The 38-page document approved by the board on Thursday lays out a six-point “action plan” to foster the school's growth, including goals such as attracting “students with a broad intellectual curiosity,” encouraging “public debate,” developing a core liberal arts curriculum, establishing high participation rates in sports and cultural programs, creating a “vibrant student life, first-rate housing and infrastructure” and recruiting faculty “with a strong interest in ensuring student learning.”
Increasing enrollment at the school has been a top priority for Gov. DeSantis and his Republican allies, who have been pushing for sweeping reforms at the school since early 2023. The plan sets a goal of increasing enrollment from 750 students at the start of the fall semester to 1,200 by 2028.
“It's perhaps best associated with university funding, but it's somewhat unusual.”
New Chancellor Richard Corcoran
The university also set a goal of maintaining a student-to-faculty ratio of 7:1 over the five-year period. To achieve this, the plan projects that 148 new hires will be added over the next five years, but that the faculty may decline by 84 positions. This would mean a net gain of 64 faculty positions by 2028.
New College plans to start the next academic year with 107 faculty members.
Amid a lot of change at the school, New College has seen a lot of turnover among its faculty: Last summer, the school was looking to fill 36 teaching positions, though its website at the time said it had 94 full-time faculty members at its Sarasota campus.
Part of the revised New College plan included comparing Sarasota's small liberal arts college with some of the “best” liberal arts colleges in the country, including Washington and Lee University, the University of Richmond in Virginia and Davidson College in North Carolina.
Amy Reed, a trustee, professor and dean of New College, said she “realized one thing” the three Southern liberal arts colleges don't have in common with New College.
“All three of these schools actually have something. All three have a women's and gender studies major or minor. I hope the board keeps that in mind. If you're comparing yourself to the best universities in the South, you still need a gender studies program,” Reed said.
The New College Board of Trustees voted in October to begin the process of eliminating the school's gender studies program.
The business plan approved Thursday also includes doubling New College's recently established athletics programs from a total of 12 sports teams and 140 student-athletes next school year to 24 teams and 432 student-athletes by 2028.
The plans also include a cultural programme that could be implemented as part of the school's expansion.
“New College is considering a range of cultural activities, including music (band, orchestra, ensemble, vocal, dance, drama, debate and other activities which could involve up to 25 per cent of New College students),” the planning document states.
The revised business plan will ultimately have to be approved by the State University System's Board of Trustees.
A $25 million proviso in the budget directs the board to submit a “status report” to the chairmen of the Senate and House Appropriations Committees on a quarterly basis.
The report must include details such as new student enrollment numbers, funds spent on each strategy in the business plan, and “any corrective actions or changes in strategy needed to achieve milestones identified in the business plan.”
