The New College of Florida is a public liberal arts college in Sarasota, Florida, United States.
Founded in 1960, it opened in 1964 and was a private college. It ran into financial difficulty in the 1970s and was merged into the University of South Florida. In 2001, it became an autonomous college within the state university system of Florida, and was designated by statute as "the residential liberal arts honors college" for the state. Division of land holdings and sharing of some facilities followed for creation of a satellite campus for the University of South Florida that would become its Sarasota-Manatee campus on much of the Seagate subdivision and some of The Uplands subdivision.
In 2023, the state government of Florida under Governor Ron DeSantis summarily replaced the New College board of trustees in an attempt to transform the honors college into a conservative institution modeled on Hillsdale College, a private, Evangelical Christian school. Nearly 40% of the faculty resigned.
The college has the smallest student enrollment in the State University System of Florida; as of 2026, it has 710 students and 94 faculty members for student-faculty ratio of roughly 8:1.
The college is a member of the Council of Public Liberal Arts Colleges.
History
New College was founded in 1960 as a private college for academically talented students. Financial assistance was provided by the United Church of Christ.A Brief History – New College of Florida, The public liberal arts honors college for the state of Florida George F. Baughman served as the first president from 1961 to 1965.
Open to students of all races, genders, and religious affiliations, New College opened its doors in 1964 to a premier class of 101 students. Faculty members included the historian and philosopher Arnold J. Toynbee, who left retirement to join the charter faculty.
The school offered a liberal arts education valuing freedom of inquiry, where individual students were responsible for their own education, implemented through a unique academic program.
By 1972, over 500 students were studying at New College. As the 1970s progressed, inflation threatened to undermine the economic viability of the institution. By 1975, the college was $3.9 million in debt and on the brink of insolvency. At that time, the University of South Florida (USF) expressed interest in buying the land and facilities of the college to establish a branch campus there. The school merged with USF as a separate "upper division campus" within the public university.
In the agreement, the New College board of trustees agreed to hand over the school's campus and other assets to the state, at the time valued at $8.5 million, in exchange for the state paying off its debts and agreeing to continue to operate the school as a separate unit within the USF system. The agreement stated that New College was to receive the same funding, per-student, as other programs at USF. The former New College board of trustees became the New College Foundation, and was required to raise money privately to supplement the state funds to reach the total necessary to run New College, at the time about a third of New College's $2-million-a-year operating budget. Under that agreement, New College was renamed the "New College of the University of South Florida". USF started a Sarasota branch program that shared the bayfront campus, and the schools began an uneasy relationship that would last for the next twenty-five years, with New College and the University of South Florida through its Sarasota branch program sharing the campus.
In 2001 it became an autonomous college, the eleventh independent school of the State University System of Florida as the honors college for the state system. As part of a major reorganization of Florida's public education system in 2001, New College severed its ties with USF, became the eleventh independent school in the State University System of Florida, and adopted its current name, New College of Florida. The Florida legislature officially designated New College as the honors college for the state of Florida. The school's unusual academic system was also encoded in statute: "To provide programs of study that allow students to design their educational experience as much as possible in accordance with their individual interests, values, and abilities." As part of its establishment as an independent university, the University of South Florida was directed to relocate its facilities away from the New College campus, which it did on August 28, 2006, when it opened a new campus for USF Sarasota-Manatee on the undeveloped Seagate portion of the campus. With conditions including that neither institution would build on the undeveloped bayfront property, the Uplands Preserve, that New College owned independently by a donation from the subdivision neighborhood as a natural preserve when the private college was being founded, New College divided the property and allowed USF Sarasota-Manatee to take possession of a portion of the preserve that is north of the city limit and located in Manatee County.Werner, Johannes, New College 'beautifies' bayfront preserve cutting trees for soccer and volleyball , WSLR, Sarasota, May 24, 2024 New College and USF Sarasota-Manatee continued to share campuses until the new campus was completed and thereafter, certain facilities such as the library remained shared.
For the 2010–2011 academic year, New College had the highest percentage of students receiving a Fulbright scholarship of any college or university in the United States.New College of Florida Named a 'Top Producer of U.S. Fulbright Students' for 2010–11 , New College News, October 27, 2010
Appointment of conservative trustees (2023-present) In early 2023, Governor Ron DeSantis overhauled the college's board of trustees, appointing six new members, including Christopher Rufo, Matthew Spalding, Charles R. Kesler, Mark Bauerlein, Debra Jenks, and Eddie Speir. Of those, the first four are well-known conservative activists who live outside of Florida. The DeSantis chief of staff, James Uthmeier, said that "It is our hope that New College of Florida will become Florida's classical college, more along the lines of a Hillsdale of the South." At its first meeting, on January 31, 2023, the new board fired President Patricia Okker ("without cause") and installed Richard Corcoran, a political associate of the governor, as its interim. These actions received national attention and commentary.
Early takeover changes included firing the university president, dissolving the university's diversity and equity office, banning personal pronouns in faculty email signatures, and canceling events promoting diversity and inclusion. Christopher Rufo was reported as having announced: "We will be shutting down low-performing, ideologically-captured academic departments and hiring new faculty" and "The student body will be recomposed over time: some current students will self-select out, others will graduate; we'll recruit new students who are mission-aligned."
According to NPR, "Professors at the New College of Florida are using personal email because they're afraid of being subpoenaed. Students are concerned, too. Some fear for their physical safety. Many worry their teachers will be fired en masse and their courses and books will be policed. It's increasingly hard to focus on their studies."
In April 2023, the board of trustees denied tenure to all five professors who stood for it that year, sparking outcry from the attending audience and leading to the resignation of trustee and faculty chair Matthew Lepinski. When asked to provide reasons for the decision, interim president Richard Corcoran argued for the denial or delay of tenure due to administrative changes and the college's shift towards a more traditional liberal arts focus. Mark Bauerlein argued against granting tenure because the five professors were seeking tenure after meeting all requirements in five years rather than six, claiming that receiving tenure after five years is unusual, and stating that he would apply different criteria if the faculty stand for tenure again after another year. However, the faculty handbook states that the criteria for tenure are identical regardless of year, and around 30% of New College faculty hired in the past decade have received tenure after five years.
The professors—two organic chemists, an Islamic historian, a Latin American/Caribbean historian, and an oceanographer—had already gained approval for their tenure applications from New College faculty, external reviewers, and the previous administration; they were denied in identical 6–4 votes, with the new conservative board members forming the majority. This move was criticized by some as part of a larger trend of conservatives targeting tenure, particularly for professors perceived to hold liberal views. Four of the five professors were awarded tenure the subsequent year, alongside two others applying for tenure for the first time.
Hugo Viera-Vargas, the specialist in Latin American and Caribbean history and the sole professor permanently denied tenure, was identified by President Richard Corcoran as having insufficient class sizes to qualify for tenure. Viera-Vargas was also the sole New College professor who had taken legal action, serving as a plaintiff in a lawsuit against SB266, a comprehensive higher education bill from Governor Ron DeSantis that also eliminated arbitration in university employment disputes.
In May 2023, the college fired librarian Helene Gold, drawing criticism from faculty and students. Gold, the second LGBTQ+ employee terminated in the same year, referred to her firing as a "deliberate and targeted attack on our students who need support now more than ever". Later that month, New College students successfully fundraised over $100,000 for an alternative commencement ceremony. The event was created in protest of the college's conservative takeover and the inclusion of Scott Atlas, a top advisor to former president Donald Trump during the COVID-19 pandemic, as the college's keynote speaker for its end-of-year graduation ceremony. National civil rights activist Maya Wiley delivered the keynote speech at the alternative ceremony, commending students for their advocacy while referencing the Florida Parental Rights in Education Act. Patricia Okker, the former president of New College who was fired after the college's conservative overhaul, gave a brief address. The college's recently dismissed librarian, Helene Gold, spoke at the event and received a standing ovation.
By mid-July 2023, more than a third of the existing faculty had left the college, many choosing to resign or take a leave of absence as a direct result of the conservative takeover. By the fall of 2023, 40% of the professors had left the college, and 1/8 of the students transferred to other schools. Of those who left, some attempted to form an alternative called "Alt New College", which was threatened by a lawsuit by New College of Florida in late 2023.Attorneys for college taken over by DeSantis allies threaten to sue 'alternate' school Associated PressNew College issues cease-and-desist letter to Alt New College Suncoast News Network The alternative would end up renaming to AltLiberalArts following the lawsuit.Alt New College becomes Alt Liberal Arts WSLR-LP
All of the six trustees appointed by DeSantis were eventually confirmed by the Florida Senate except Eddie Speir, a cofounder of a local Christian academy. Speir blamed the school's new interim president Corcoran for the Senate's rejection in early May.