Despite questions about transparency and threat of lawsuit, the board gives unanimous go-ahead.
By Reece Helmick
Original Air Date: June 27, 2025
Host: Two and a half years after the New College takeover by the state, the new administration is pointing at rising student enrollment. But alumni donors and former foundation board members keep asking questions about academic freedom, financial mismanagement, and lack of transparency. WSLR News reporter Reece Helmick was at a New College Board of Trustees meeting Thursday.
Reece Helmick: New College has close to 700 students on its campus, and that number is expected to rise to over 900 this coming school year. With that in mind, will the budget for this year be sufficient? Will the college be able to support its rapidly growing athletics program?
New College President Richard Corcoran touted the rising student enrollment, a record budget, and what some of that money will be going towards.
Richard Corcoran
Richard Corcoran: It’s an increase of about $36 million. We got $5 million to start the new student center, the Rice building that would begin to build out that Dort walkway quad of moving the kids to the west side of campus.
RH: Kyla Baldonado is the president of the New College Student Alliance and represents the students on the board. She quizzed Corcoran on the sustainability of the budget, given the rising student numbers. She also followed up on two public commenters who expressed concern about the president’s power to pick classroom reading materials.
Kyla Baldonado: We did have a lot of public comment for this item. I know this is the kind of thing that goes before the committees first, and given that there is a lot of concern still, I would like to motion that this could be committed to the academic student and external affairs committee.
RH: But most of her fellow trustees did not even want to discuss Baldonado’s concern.
Baldonado and trustee Mark Bauerlein asked questions about the sustainability of the proposed budget. Corcoran did respond to their questions, reassuring them that student needs will be met. The other trustees remained silent and unanimously approved.
Even though it was on the agenda, there was no discussion of the New College Foundation’s finances over the past year. The Foundation is the fundraising arm of the college, and it has been the target of questions surrounding its role in funding most of Richard Corcoran’s $1.1 million pay this year. In its draft budget, the college administration revealed for the first time that, in the current financial year, the Foundation paid $865,000 for “executive salaries”—three times as much as for scholarships and more than one-third of the total support it provided to New College. In the same year, the Foundation fell short by $1 million of the contributions it was expected to make to the college.
Sydney Gruters, executive director of the New College Foundation, and President Richard Corcoran.
Even so, the trustees unanimously approved the Foundation’s finances.
Rodrigo Diaz is a member of NCF Freedom, a group that formed in response to the state takeover. He is concerned about misappropriation of donor money at the New College Foundation.
Diaz said he doesn’t believe that the foundation, and even the board of trustees, have handled their affairs in a matter that is fully transparent, including their financial affairs. He believes that matters need to be investigated and things need to be brought to light.
Diaz’ comments come after Ben Brown, former chair of the New College of Florida Alumni Association, sent a letter to New College administrators signed by former Foundation board chairs and committee heads. In it, they are asking for access to internal records and warned about a lawsuit.
Reece Helmick, reporting for WSLR News.
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