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New College loses key administration figure

Written by on Saturday, July 13, 2024

Former interim president moves to another public college in Florida.


By Florence Fahringer

Original Air Date: July 12, 2024

Host: The brain drain of professors at New College is well known. But the campus that has been subject to a makeover driven by Governor Ron DeSantis also just lost one of its last top administrators with deep experience of running a campus. Florence Fahringer brings us this story.

Florence Fahringer: Brad Thiessen was one of the administrative holdouts at New College of Florida, being a fixture of the administration both before and after the college’s “hostile takeover.” That all ended this past week, as Thiessen left the college for Florida Polytechnic.

When the takeover of the New College board happened a year and a half ago, the fate of the college was thrown up in the air. The takeover came as an ambush, and it led to the ouster of then-president Patricia Okker.

Thiessen

So who did the board pick as interim president? None other than then-chief of staff Brad Thiessen. A statistician, academic, and administrator, Thiessen took on a growing workload in the year that followed; while many of his colleagues opted to leave the college, he became increasingly entrenched in the new administration, picking up titles and administrative responsibilities — not by choice, by his own admission, but by circumstance. After his interim presidency, he began his interim provostship, and held other positions such as Vice President of Student Affairs, Accreditation Liaison, and Director of Institutional Performance Assessment, all while retaining his position as Chief of Staff for the first few months. The Catalyst, New College’s student-run newspaper, asked him how many job titles he held at the end of March 2023; he replied, “If I counted the job titles, I would probably depress myself.” On his linkedin page, Thiessen lists his occupation during this period simply as “Interim Interim”  — maybe accidental, but accurate nonetheless. Even though his stint as interim president was brief, he retained some ceremonial responsibilities in the year which followed: at both graduation ceremonies since the takeover, it was Thiessen — not Corcoran — who handed degrees to graduating students and shook their hands.

Then, Thiessen’s biggest title — Interim Provost — was handed over to David Rancourt, the recently appointed Dean of Students, who had just made headlines for his show-stopping comedy performance at McCurdy’s.

Richard Corcoran: Bunga Bunga! Bunga Bunga.

FF: Rancourt’s promotion to Interim Provost caused concern among students and faculty at New College, who expected a more experienced candidate than the former lobbyist in Tallahassee to lead the Provost’s office. The issue was raised by Student Trustee Grace Keenan at the board meeting which followed his appointment, who pointed out that Rancourt’s promotion went against faculty handbook, which specifies that Provosts must be selected from among current faculty members. President Corcoran answered Keenan’s question by punting it to General Counsel Bill Galvano.

Bill Galvano: But under SB 266, the statute now expressly gives the ultimate authority on these hires to the president of the institution. Regardless, it would preempt the handbook in this case.  

FF: So while Corcoran has seemingly been empowered by Tallahassee to pick a new Provost at his leisure, he opted to give the title of Interim Provost to Rancourt. He didn’t clarify why he chose to keep the position as interim, though he seemed to mention it as a means of assuaging faculty concerns of their own circumvention. With Rancourt’s promotion came Thiessen’s demotion, to the position of Vice Provost.

That all happened four months ago. A few days ago, another shift occurred in the Provost office — Brad Thiessen resigned as Vice Provost, and accepted a position at Florida Polytechnic University as Interim Provost. President Corcoran gave him an abbreviated farewell over email, affording four sentences to the experienced administrator. In an email responding to our questions, Thiessen called “the story behind [his] situation … pretty boring.” He elaborates:

“It isn’t that I’ve left New College for any particular reason. I still believe strongly in New College’s educational model, and I think the sky is the limit for NCF going forward […] Florida Poly offered me an opportunity to take on a new set of challenges. As I experienced a few times at New College, presidential transitions provide great opportunities to advance a university.”

His departure leaves a Thiessen-sized hole in New College’s administration. Chair of the Humanities Department Maribeth Clark, answering our questions over email, had this to say:

“Brad was a great provost. He makes data-driven decisions, communicates and listens well, and has a great sense of humor. He worked hard to keep New College in the best standing possible in regard to performance-based funding metrics, and served as a knowledgeable SACS accreditation liaison […] It is hard to imagine how this combination of skills and experience can be replaced.”

Clark adds that she is unaware of any plans to hire a new Provost or replace Thiessen. In the meantime, Rancourt remains the Interim Provost, and no plans for a future non-interim Provost have been announced. Our team reached out to New College for comment, but received no response.

This is Florence Fahringer, reporting for WSLR News.

 

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