SARASOTA, Fla. — The New College of Florida board of trustees — now dominated by conservatives chosen by Gov. Ron DeSantis — voted Monday to approve hiring a DeSantis ally as the interim president.
The trustees agreed to an 18-month contract with Richard Corcoran that will pay him $699,000 a year, which is about $400,000 more than the previous president earned at the school in Sarasota, Florida. The contract also calls for an $84,000 housing allowance and $12,000 for vehicle costs.
Corcoran, a Republican, is a former state House speaker and education commissioner who also served on the state Board of Governors that oversees Florida's university system. The appointment comes after DeSantis appointed six new conservative trustees tasked with transforming the New College, long known as a progressive institution and haven for LGBTQ students.
“He will be the person that can take us from where we are now to where we need to be," said Debra Jenks, the trustees' chair and one of the governor's new appointees.
Several students and faculty spoke to the board, which decided to hold public comment after approving Corcoran for the job. That move and the overall appointment led some students to speak out against the school's new, conservative push.
"The students don’t want this," Cooper Wright, a student, said. "But I know we’re not the people you intend to please. You want to pull our school out by its roots. I don’t want to be part of a grand experiment."
"We need funding for students, we need more funding for like all kinds of student-life stuff but like they choose to give out like the better part of $1 million to a president like I'm in disbelief," Alaska Miller, at student at New College, said.
According to the board members, taxpayers are picking up the tab for around a quarter of the amount, while the rest of the funding would come from the NCF foundation account.
Some new board members had previously argued the college was in dire financial straits.
"It's also the place where we get a lot of funding for our students to do the research study abroad to do things like that and so I really personally am very nervous that this is going to impact the quality of the education that we're able to get for students just for the cost alone," Steven Shipman of the United Faculty of Florida Union said.
Corcoran’s appointment is subject to approval by the Board of Governors. Jenks said a more exhaustive search would be undertaken to find a permanent New College president.
10 Tampa Bay's Adaure Achumba contributed to this article.