The New College of Florida Board of Trustees on Thursday approved requesting $2 million dollars from the state Legislature to set up a “Freedom Institute” intended to get rid of what they call “cancel culture” in higher education. About three quarters of the request would go toward hiring “scholars to work and teach” on the New College campus. Here’s Interim President Richard Corcoran.
“And right now there is a tremendous cancel culture that exists in higher ed. There’s tremendous pushback against that cancel culture, and to have a Freedom Institute, the Board of Governors literally created a task force for free speech and civil discourse, and there’s none in the entire state of Florida. In the last three years alone, three or four SUS institutions got funding of at least 2 million dollars.”
The funding proposal would be subject to approval by state lawmakers during next year’s legislative session. It comes following several changes at the school. Governor Ron DeSantis appointed the majority of trustees to the board earlier this year. The board then voted to place Corcoran, a Republican former House Speaker and state education commissioner, as the school’s interim president.
A document about the proposal laid out goals for the proposed institute. But trustee Amy Reid, who is a professor of French language and Literature at New College, criticized the way the funding proposal was written and some of its citations.
“If this is going to be a hallmark for New College, let’s make it solid, and not something any New College of Florida faculty member would say needs more editing.”
Even DeSantis appointed trustee Christopher Rufo, who has opposed Critical Race Theory on a national scale, called the opening paragraph hyperbolic.
The paragraph read,
“These may be the times that try men’s souls (Thomas Paine, The Crisis, 1776), wherein the masses, yearning to breathe free (Colossus, 1883, Statue of Liberty) were instead everywhere enchained (Rousseau, Social Contract Theory, 1762) by a cabal Orwellian thought police. In some quarters, the gesture of criticism has become elevated above the substance of criticism or the pursuit of understanding. And these gestures have ranged from subversive censorious silencing to barbarous mob militancy,”
The board voted to strike that paragraph.
Additionally, the trustees also approved a proposed pay range yesterday for the school’s next president. They have started accepting applications. Corcoran has a base salary of $699,000. Supporters of the proposal on the Board of Trustees asked the 15 member committee to sign off on a pay range of $487,000 to $868,000.
The college used Mercer, a consulting firm, to analyze presidential pay at 13 comparable schools. Student trustee Grace Keenan voted against the pay range, and said that the school is still barely keeping up with being able to cover Corcoran’s salary.
“The foundation had said they only provided $65,000 to pay for interim presidents’ compensation. And so that would mean if the university had provided $200,000, I think that they do, we’ve only covered about a quarter of what we owe Mr. Corcoran. And so I’m really concerned we’re now increasing that salary even more so for our future president. And so I would love to see that these numbers be redone by Mercer.”
The New College trustees also approved a request for $6 million dollars for three new master’s programs. The programs would be a master’s in marine mammal science, masters of educational leadership, and a master’s of environmental economics and policy.
