Good morning Mr. Chair, members of the Board.I’m here because I’ve been deeply interested College governance, since 20 years ago as a New College student I saw the first group of trustees build the independent New College -- great Floridians like the first Board chair, former republican senator Bob Johnson and legendary foundation president Lt. General Rolland Heiser. I was an intern for Congresswoman Kathrine Harris of Sarasota, a supporter of the school.
When new trustees were appointed in January, I spoke positively towards them and their proposals. This isn’t about if New College could improve, we all know that. We’re here to talk about what Richard Corcoran has done over the past 10 months.
Richard Corcoran didn’t shake the hands of the graduates at the commencement ceremony. Corcoran fired the dean of the library three weeks before the end of the semester.
He has told you students left for ideological reasons, Corcoran doesn’t mention took away their on-campus housing assignments over the summer, and returning students learned two weeks before their semester would they would have to live 4 miles off campus in quote “vibrant downtown Sarasota”.
I’ve put in a public records request for any message over the summer that welcome students back or tries to reassure them.
I can also add on faculty, Corcoran drove away the head of the Data Science program, an alum who personally worked with Steve Jobs in the 1990s and was part of the group of 200 people who returned to Apple with Jobs in 1996.
In my last in person comment I told you he’d been dishonest with this board. I can add, he lied to you yesterday. He said that the accountability plan is exactly the same as june, that’s false, compared to June the revised plan lowered the graduation rate from 68% to 50% for the class in 2027-- the graduating class of ‘27 is the entering class of ‘23 class he recruited.
I already told you over zoom he got that enrollment by sending a men’s soccer coach in July to Mexico and other countries to recruit soccer players, -- do you think Mexico has a pool of speak English well enough to do college-level work. Not just the cost to get them but the metrics.
There’s no reason to think that by 2028 that he’ll improve retention, why would parents who would send their kids to Hillsdale want to send their kids to a college where the Dean of Students is a former lobbyist? Cronyism and self-dealing
I’m not going to ask you to overturn the apple cart and reject Corcoran, but he wants credit for boosting enrollment through athletics when his plan was to use E&G fund.
When it comes up, I ask that you motion to table Richard Corcoran’s confirmation until he shows he has a plan for the college to pay for what he wants to collect a salary for accomplishing. Both inputs and outputs. Not to reopen the search, just to table, and he remains interim president.
If you demonstrate this board will approve over a million dollars in salary for making changes with no plan to pay for changes, you’ll turn the SUS into the legislature pension plan. That’s not how to be stewards of the investment in money and time of past generations of great Flordians who built our State University System, including building New College.
