Three years into the political takeover, John Oliver delivers biting critique.
By Noah Lechtenstein
Original Air Date: June 10, 2026
Host: It’s been three years since the political takeover of New College and its makeover as a conservative campus. This weekend, the campus received national attention—but not the good kind. Noah Lechtenstein has the details.
John Oliver: Look, in case it’s not clear by now, the whole New College experiment has been a complete [bleep] show.
Noah Lechtenstein: This was John Oliver’s bottom line after skewering Sarasota’s New College for nearly half an hour. The British comedian, host of “Last Week Tonight” on HBO, dedicated his entire segment on Sunday to the takeover and conservative transformation of the small college. In his usual style, he went in-depth with his reporting.
The college’s liberal arts program and campus had been known for its progressive culture, student-led curriculum, lack of grades and academic results.
A decade into its existence as a private school, New College went bankrupt and was moved under the umbrella of the University of South Florida. In 2001, the school became an independent public college, and has been for the past 25 years. It was a campus on a tight budget and with declining student numbers.
In January 2023, Gov. Ron DeSantis appointed six conservative allies to the College’s Board of Trustees, beginning with Christopher Rufo, a high-profile conservative activist.
The new board of trustees for New College immediately made changes once appointed, firing the former president and selecting Richard Corcoran as the school’s interim president.
The former Speaker of the Florida House and state education commissioner took away the gender studies program, among other changes.
JO: For instance, the school got rid of its gender studies program, with Rufo bragging they got rid of a massive and radical department that indoctrinates students, despite the fact that in reality it had a budget of just $7,000 for programs expenses and a part-time office manager.
NL: One of the actions under Corcoran was to throw away the books in the Gender and Diversity Center. Oliver made a bold comparison, noting how the school waited until students were on break to take action.
JO: Say what you will about—here it comes—the Nazis, but—stick with me—credit where it’s due—I know—when the Nazis went after books, they went big; they didn’t wait for students to be on break. At least the Nazis—I hear it too—were bold.
NL: After bringing up ideology, Oliver shifted to money. Corcoran is currently being paid the highest per-student salary of any president in Florida’s university system, more than $1 million per year.
JO: When he took the stage at that stand-up comedy night, this is how he opened his set:
Corcoran, joking about his job: “Doesn’t really pay well, but it’s a good job.” | Screenshot
Richard Corcoran: Thank you. Uh, I’m actually the president of New College—
[applause]
RC: Yeah. The job doesn’t really pay well, but it’s a good job.
JO: Right from the start, he took some big, dumb swings.
NL: One of Corcoran’s first moves was to request—and get—from the state legislature millions of additional taxpayer dollars. One of his ideas: Build a “Cancel Cancel Culture Center.”
JO: First, calling it a “Cancel Cancel Culture Center” is pathetic. It sounds like the headquarters of a cult founded by Russell Brand, which is barely even a joke, given that he was invited to be guest speaker at New College on the topic of “thinking without permission,” which is a bold sequence of words, given his, you know, everything. Fun fact, by the way: His appearance at the “cancel cancel culture” school is currently postponed.
NL: Brand, a controversial British comedian, has been accused of sexual assault.
Other targets of Oliver’s wrath included an instant rise of student enrollment under Corcoran.
The big number—328 incoming students for the 2023 academic year—came thanks to lowered standards.
John Oliver: Former admissions office employees have claimed the school boosted enrollment by sharply lowering standards. One recalled a colleague showing him an admissions essay that was a screenshot of cell phone notes riddled with incorrect spelling and grammar. Apparently, that person went on to be accepted.
NL: Of those 328, 70 were baseball players. Oliver would not let go of that number.
The New College baseball roster, catchers highlighted. | Screenshot
John Oliver: 70 baseball players! That is multiple dozen too many. For context, the University of Florida, which has a student body 60 times New College’s size, had only 37 student athletes on its baseball team that year.
And it gets even more ridiculous when you learn that they recruited, again, 70 baseball players—
NL: The Novo Collegian Alliance released a statement about John Oliver:
I reached out to NCA president William Rosenberg for comment.
William Rosenberg: John Oliver will always make you laugh. The honest truth is I laughed and cried at the same time all through the segment. You can’t help it. He’s an excellent humorist, but some of the stuff is so heartbreaking. I just want to say one thing further: This fight is far from over, and three years of performative cruelty have not erased 62 years of institutional memory. I want to say that.
NL: I reached out to New College communications for comment. I did get a statement from Corcoran:
“As we have shared, the most meaningful way to understand New College of Florida is not through commentary from afar, but by experiencing the institution firsthand and engaging directly with the students, faculty, and community. In recent months, New College formally invited John Oliver to visit campus multiple times, meet with our students and faculty, film his segment here, or participate in an open conversation on our Socratic Stage. That invitation was declined. It remains open. During the past three years, New College has experienced record enrollment growth, rising academic achievement, significant philanthropic investment, historic growth in foundation support and endowment assets, the recruitment of exceptional faculty, and a strengthened campus culture rooted in intellectual freedom, civil discourse, and academic freedom.”
Oliver obviously disagrees with the notion that something is being built. He called the takeover a “smash-and-grab” while noting that other conservative colleges took their time to build an institution.
JO: This? This is pathetic. And depressingly it is the exact sort of smash-and grab-we’re seeing in so many so many places right now from public health to newspapers to broadcast news—ideologues capturing something that they hate, claiming that they want to fix it and then destroying it instead.
NL: For WSLR News, this is Noah Lechtenstein.
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