A 100-acre coastal corridor, home to major arts and educational institutions in Sarasota, including The Ringling Museum, the University of South Florida’s Sarasota-Manatee campus and Asolo Repertory Theatre, could all soon belong to New College of Florida, under a plan largely kept hidden from the public, community leaders warned on Tuesday.
No legislation has been released, and what little has been said by Florida politicians suggests a deal has been struck behind closed doors, with the transfer of hundreds of millions of dollars in land, buildings and assets to New College, possibly appearing as an item in Gov. Ron DeSantis’s budget, which will be voted on in the coming weeks.
ALSO READ: Emails detail plans to ‘transfer’ USF Sarasota-Manatee campus to New College
Speaking to a full house of about 300 people at the Unitarian Universalists Church in Sarasota, Nancy Parrish, former board chair of The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art Foundation and president of Citizens to Protect the Ringling, urged people to call their legislators and ask their friends to speak up, too.
“The community is up in arms at this proposed transfer of The Ringling Museum of Art and USF Sarasota-Manatee to New College,” Parrish said. “New College is in its own precarious transition. It lacks stability. It has issues with management of funds.”
Florida State University has been managing The Ringling Museum and its 66 acres of grounds for more than two decades and has excelled in that task, Parrish said.
New College “has no infrastructure or capacity to handle something as complex as The Ringling Museum,” Parrish added.
New College is the smallest public college in Florida, with around 750 students.
Yet the cost to educate a student who receives a four-year degree at New College in 2023-24 was vastly higher than other schools in the State University system at $512,200. That’s according to Florida Board of Governors documents, which calculate per-degree costs by dividing Education and General (E&G) funds allocated by the state legislature by the number of degrees awarded. In contrast, a four-year degree at USF cost $50,494 last year.
Parrish also pointed to a financial audit last year that found New College had mismanaged finances by overpaying administrators and vendors and under-collecting student charges.
More recent concerns were raised by the chair of the New College Alumni Foundation, Ben Brown, who resigned in March, citing a “broken” administration that engaged in “runaway spending.” He addressed the Protect the Ringling gathering via Zoom from Tallahassee.
“I had — along with another New College alumnus — six meetings with state legislators. Many of them have acknowledged in private that New College’s costs are unreasonably high,” Brown said.
A legislative request from New College, obtained by WUSF this week as part of a public records request, shows New College asked lawmakers for five things, including the “transfer of USF-Sarasota Manatee to New College” and “FSU Ringling Museum and Asolo Theatre transfer to New College.” Both those items add, in parentheses: “with the accompanying appropriation and conforming bill,” with no further details.
Other legislative requests on the New College document, sent from Chief of Staff Christie Fitzpatrick to New College President Richard Corcoran via email on March 25, include $20 million in new and recurring funds, $5.8 million for dorms, unspecified “bill language” for the “Freedom Institute” which would address “growing polarization” and “the decline of civil discourse.”
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New College has shifted in a conservative direction in the last two years, after DeSantis appointed a slate of new board members, with the goal of remaking Florida’s small, left-leaning liberal arts honors college in the image of Hillsdale College in Michigan, a private, Christian conservative school.
In a speech that drew applause and cheers from the crowd at the Protect the Ringling event, local restaurateur John Horne said the 32-acre USF Sarasota-Manatee campus is a valuable asset to local business owners, like him, who hire recent graduates.
“If it's such a good idea, why aren't you talking about it in public so everyone's aware?” asked Horne, an advisory board member for the University of South Florida School of Hospitality and Tourism Management.
“We're going to lose the kids that come to school here, that get a degree in business, in accounting, in hospitality, God love them in nursing, and they stay in our community,” Horne said.
“If New College brings a Hillsdale-type curriculum, that may be wonderful for some, but it's not going to do anything for our community. USF is producing wonderful students with great degrees, with great education that stay in our community and keep our community awesome.”
Horne invited attendees to another event to rally support, called Stand Up for USF Sarasota-Manatee, on Thursday, April 24, from 5:30 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. at the Anna Maria Oyster Bar Landside, 6906 14th St. W, Bradenton.
Former USF campus president Laurey Stryker said if New College prevails, it will amount to evicting the staff and students at USF-SM.
"I've said to my museum friends, we're partners in this, but at the end of the day, you're probably going to have a museum. The proposal for USF is that our 2,000 students go elsewhere," Stryker said.
Former regional chancellor of the USF Sarasota-Manatee campus, Karen Holbrook, who retired last year, agreed.
"It isn't like USF gets transferred to New College, it doesn't. The land gets transferred, and our students, faculty and staff are gone," Holbrook said.
Stryker and Holbrook both plan to be at Thursday's oyster bar event, which is open to anyone who wants to join and shared their connection to USF-SM.
"Why is USF Sarasota-Manatee important to the community, and why is it important to you? You as an employer, you as a student, you as a community member? It's the conversation that we haven't been able to have," Stryker said.
Stryker, Parrish and Horne said that despite hearing talk that this is a "done deal," they believe it is still possible to stop a New College takeover.
“We absolutely have to stay involved, because it shouldn't be to the point where it's just rammed down our throats,” Horne said. “We are the citizens, and we should be able to say what is good for us.”
This story was written by WUSF reporter Kerry Sheridan and edited by Emily Le Coz, executive editor-in-chief of Suncoast Searchlight, an independent nonprofit newsroom based in Sarasota. This was done to ensure editorial independence.
WUSF broadcasts from studios at the University of South Florida, including one on its Sarasota-Manatee campus, which is the subject of this story. Its broadcast license also is held by USF.
No USF or WUSF officials, or WUSF news managers reviewed this story before it was published.
