New College focused more on self-promotion than higher education
The Herald-Tribune has run opinion pieces lately touting the “extraordinary progress” at New College of Florida since the January 2023 appointment of board trustees who are conservative idealogues.
Clearly, New College President Richard Corcoran has been successful in persuading the Florida Legislature to fund the revised vision of the formerly highly regarded Honors College of the State University System of Florida. And Corcoran has been just as successful in persuading the Herald-Tribune to promote his version of events at the college.
In a Sept. 5 Herald-Tribune guest column, Corcoran bragged about the rising caliber of New College’s incoming students; the president boasted that the new students’ SAT scores were, on average, 20 points higher than last year.
However, I am fond of the expression “happiness is a low base” – and the fact is last year’s incoming class had the lowest SAT scores in New College’s history. Given that bit of context, the current 20-point jump is good but nothing to really celebrate. Meanwhile, between 2023 and 2024 the proportion of New College students with 4.0 grade point averages has declined from 55% to 44%.
Yes, the college has welcomed record-breaking numbers of incoming students; however, many of them are transfer and international students, which makes evaluating the quality of the incoming class difficult.
And in addition to possessing greater resources for scholarships, New College’s recruitment strategies are different from those employed before the 2023 transformation: now it is about growing quickly, regardless of student interests or readiness levels.
More:New College of Florida President Richard Corcoran held a town hall. It did not go well.
In his column, Corcoran also happily noted that Washington Monthly ranked New College as the nation’s No. 1 public liberal arts residential college. I couldn’t find any lists of public liberal arts residential colleges in 2023 or 2024, although a look at Washington Monthly’s overall lists for liberal arts schools does show that most of those ranking above New College are private institutions.
However, New College’s overall ranking in 2024 was No. 23 compared to last year’s ranking of No. 18. That’s hardly an improvement.
Burden on faculty
As Corcoran noted, New College has indeed recruited a lot of new faculty members – a necessary step since a significant number of professors have left since January 2023. But what criteria was Corcoran using when he described the new professors as “the most distinguished group in the school’s history”?
Is it because this cohort is mostly white and male?
Many of these newly arrived professors are paid significantly more than their peers – and while they may be fine scholars, new faculty members need time to acclimate and can seldom act as thesis sponsors or academic advisers. This puts a significant burden on the more seasoned faculty members, many of whom are earning less than their new colleagues.
It is also important to point out that despite working under challenging conditions, the established faculty members have demonstrated their professional commitment to the students’ learning and holistic education.
That’s why any current achievements occurring at New College should be attributed to their hard work and care for the students – and to the students who have shown the necessary dedication to their intellectual, emotional and physical health.
New College’s administration seems particularly enamored of Presidential Scholar Dr. Bruce Gilley, who was described by Corcoran as “one of the nation’s leading scholars on democracy and global politics.”
Yet Gilley’s fame arises from being provocative in support of colonialism. And for some reason, Gilley and New College found it appropriate to demean the achievements of established NCF professors on the college’s webpage before he even arrived on campus.
Is that the model of “virtuous, classical” education that now represents higher education in Florida?
Other recent opinion pieces have boasted about the embrace of free speech and the encouragement of civil discourse at New College. But there are ongoing rumors on campus that New College’s administration is cracking down on gatherings of students without prior authorization.
And New College’s recent move to destroy books on gender studies and religion seems at odds with its assertions of promoting free speech and civil discourse – as does the closure of common areas around campus where students can have some degree of autonomy and encouragement for healthy discussion and community.
More:New College of Florida book purge: A horror story of secrecy, ineptitude and stupidity
Lastly, a campus that has all white administrators – most of them male – and newly hired faculty members who largely share their political leanings is not what makes a great college. It makes an echo chamber.
I applaud New College’s aspiration to be the nation’s No. 1 liberal arts college, and I hope that comes to pass. Unfortunately, however, the overwhelming evidence suggests that New College’s approach over the past 18 months has only made it more difficult to ever reach that lofty goal.
Felice Schulaner is a New College of Florida alumna who served as chair of both the New College Board of Trustees and the New College Foundation.
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