New College focused more on self-promotion than higher education

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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. 

New College students line up on check-in day for the fall 2024 semester Aug. 21

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%.

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