Last week, in response to the premiere of a new documentary about New College of Florida, Trustee Lance Karp offered a defense of the college that lacked any actual evidence. The timing of his response also suggests the college is trying to revive energy around a bill that would shut down the USF Sarasota-Manatee campus and transfer its property and debt to New College. Let’s look at some actual facts.

Since Richard Corcoran took over in early 2023, New College has seen a:

— Drastic decline in SAT scores for the incoming class, dropping from an average of 1233 the year before Corcoran arrived, down to 1153 in Fall 2024.

— Sharp downturn in high school GPA for the entering class: before Corcoran, 55% of FTIC students had a 4.0 or higher; after Corcoran, only 41% had a 4.0 GPA or higher. This is a major problem, given that New College is“the legislatively designated Honors College of Florida,” yet it seems to be struggling to recruit honors students.

— Nosedive in the U.S. News & World Report’s college rankings, dropping 59 spots, so New College is no longer even in the top 100.

— Drop in FTIC (first time in college) students this year, reporting only 183 FTIC students in Fall 2025 compared to 188 the year before Corcoran arrived, a decrease likely due to the focus on recruiting out-of-state transfer athletes rather than academically excellent FTIC Florida students.

— Self-perpetuated housing crisis with 40% of the student body living in hotels and off-campus housing — despite receiving $20 million in taxpayer money for student housing. Karp, along with most of the New College trustees, has not voted to construct new permanent dorms at any time in the last three years. He has been content with approving payment for hotels and temporary housing rather than actually fixing the problem. This is a self-created housing crisis, and stealing dorms from USF Sarasota-Manatee doesn’t solve it.

Elected officials, including House Rep. James Buchanan and U.S. Rep. Vern Buchanan, as well as the Manatee County Chamber of Commerce, have all raised concerns about the bill, which would result in USF Sarasota-Manatee being shut down. New College is a school being run poorly, and its leadership should not be rewarded, especially not in ways that hurt USF and the Sarasota-Manatee region.

It is notable that Karp and the rest of the New College trustees have met half as often as their counterparts at USF (11 Board and Committee meetings at New College this academic year compared to 21 at USF). This absentee trusteeism means the Legislature needs to step in to keep the wheels from coming off at New College, not penalize USF and the entire Sarasota-Manatee region to reward New College’s self-created problems.

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Brian Cody is an alum of New College of Florida, a former New College trustee (2004-2006), and a current Board member of the Novo Collegian Alliance.

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