Board of Governor Comment February 20, 2025: Points for Honesty

First thank you to the governors for taking time to serve in this important role for the state of Florida, and thank you for the opportunity to comment, I will try to get under time and my full comment is at mikesand dot com.

First I want to mention the history, before talking about what I know of Ms. Nunez, and finally the implications for governance.

In the year 2000 I was a student at New College of USF when under the old Board of Regents, USF was searching for a new president. That was the search that brought Judy Genshaft from SUBY Albany.

There was a state senator from St Pete who had wanted to be USF president, and when he wasn't a finalist, he proposed emanating the Board of Regents, which happened. It was in 2002 that Senator Bob Graham, May he rest in peace, proposed the amendment that created this board. It’s specifically to prevent politicians from corruptly making themselves presidents of the universities.

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As an aside I want to echo Chair Lamb's comments about USF as a former USF student, its elevation is remarkable. Describe USF today and Someone 20 years ago would think you're talking about USC.

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Something has clearly worked in the last 20 years, and some politicians did get presidencies and it worked out.

As for Ms. Nunez, I'll say this, points for honestly. She just says she wants to be president of FIU and it happens. She says she doesn’t want to live in Tallahassee anymore. A special meeting, even though there’s a permanent president in place until November. Better brazenly violate the law then cook up some emergency to justify it.

Nunez didn't feel the need to spin up some narrative to justify it. FIU has "lost their way" or “lost their mission.” That’s what she said about New College. Since Ms. Nunez also said she wants Florida to extend its footprint into advanced manufacturing, research and technological development, I will refer Ms. Nunez to my comment from January about Florida’s existing legacy in advanced manufacturing and technological breakthroughs, not just in Florida but by Florida natives.

And that brings it to the last point. A president selected this way isn’t accountable to the University community and we shouldn’t pretend. If we are moving to a model where the President is the head of state and there’s a second-in-commend who does the work, that’s a valid model. But our system puts power in the President, who are now objectively not qualified to make many of those decisions. And there’s no checks on an endless number of interim appointments, or any requirement the people they hire have qualifications.

Corcoran just confidently bluffs and this board says “number of students go up, no further questions." The legislature even put a specific proviso it wants this Board to provide quarterly status updates on what happened to the things Corcoran spent the $15 million on, and it was delegated to the Chancellor, who is having the vice-chancellor forward Corcoran’s omissions and misrepresentations of the financial disaster on the ground.

This board exists so that we can have Genshafts and Thrashers, not Corcorans and Sasses., and it’s set up for Genshafts and Thrashers, not Corcorans and Sasses. Thank you.

NCF Board of Trustees Comment, February 13, 2025: Dog Food

On Corcoran’s evaluation, I’m reminded of a joke with two business guys talking. First guy says, “my new dog food company’s going out of business”

Second guy says, “But you had such a great product launch! You had all the influencers posting! You had that amazing Super Bowl ad! Why’s the dog food company going out of business?”

First guy responds, “The dogs won’t eat it.”

You’re not evaluating a vision from 2 years ago. You’re evaluating what Richard Corcoran has done.

So speaking of business, and business plans: Board of Governors. Is anyone today going to explain what Governor Silagy alleged on the budget committee two weeks ago? That this board approved illegal spending? I was there, there were gasps from the audience of administrators. The clip is linked on Mike Sand dot com.

It doesn’t matter. Last I heard, applications are down, but good news is accepted applications are down even more. Nothing matters when the dogs won’t eat the dog food.

FL Board of Governors Comment, October 30, 2024: Athletics Funding

My name is Mike Sanderson, I entered New College in 1999. My full comment and previous comment and materials are at mikesand.com.

It’s so great to be here in Miami and at FIU. I was born and grew up here in Dade County, Miami Palmetto class of 1999. The Palmetto Panthers played high school games here and joked the FIU Panthers made this our home field. In the 1990s my mother got her master’s at FIU, and I remember her doing her FIU homework with textbooks spread out on our kitchen table. I went to New College, and my little sister went to UF, where she helped plan Gator Growl.

So I asked to speak about the NCF Carry Forward plan. If you don’t know about last year’s carry forward meeting, the NCF plan was subject to an emergency Board of Trustees meeting, because Corcoran thought carrying E&G funds forward magically lets them be used for athletics. And make no mistake, Corcoran desperately needs money for athletics.

That’s why they’re moving against the New College Foundation. The chair of the Foundation Board of Directors works at Morgan Stanley, the Chair of its Finance Committee is a CPA, but the chair of the Board of Trustees Audit Committee, a Sarasota dentist, on July 31 made the unprecedented request for an investigation going back to 2017 — but cut off in June 2023, 4 months into Corcoran’s tenure.

It’s an appalling abuse of the internal audit power happening in the shadows in Sarasota, to generate reasons to purge the last holdovers while creating a false impression Corcoran has been subjected to scrutiny. Now the Foundation scheduler won’t even schedule Foundation committee meetings until after the next Board of Trustees meeting in November. The portfolio management firm activated a PR and litigation team, and the local external auditing firm also objected to the first draft of the investigation memo. From London to Bradenton, the integrity of Florida’s universities are being shredded.

All this is the subject to our report, submitted as a formal complaint to the Inspector General this morning.

Athletics funding is a dark joke. Earlier this year the athletics program held an "Athletics Gala", which I attended. It raised $88,000 towards the athletics budget of 3.7 million. New College coaches are encourage students give blood to generate money earmarked for the athletics program.

Returning to the packet, I did notice the carry forwards have a "certification representation" page. This is new.

I see New College's its signed by Interim VP of Finance Christie Fitz Patrick. Last year Christie Fitz Patrick signed the application to join the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics as Faculty Athletics Representative. Christie Fitz-Patrick is great, but she is not a faculty member. The NAIA told me in writing their Code of Ethics wasn’t going to be enforced.

Is it legal to lie to this board? Because in September, Corcoran told Governor Silagy, quote, “we don't have sports scholarships, I don't know where you're getting that from."

Here's the audit work plan approved in June that says clearly, 200 hours to audit “student athletic scholarships” for Title 9 compliance. I could go on and on. The Chronicle has my report, and it’s at mikesand.com.

To Governor Jones, I say I think it would be grossly irresponsible to not schedule meetings of the Strategic Planning committee to prepare plans for the legislature. I will add, it's not an accident the bill in 2001 that abolished the Board of Regents also created the independent New College , and in 2002 the hasty political creation of the independent new college was cited as exactly something the Board of Governors would exist to prevent.

My full comment and report are available at mikesand.com. Thank you.

NCF Board of Trustees Comment, June 13, 2024: Protected

I asked today to speak about the internal audit plan.

A year ago at the Board of Governors in Tampa, I raised concerns about athletics funding, and in response I received a letter from Mr. Tzoumas, copied to the Inspector General’s office.

Mr. Zoomas wrote, “The university is supported by an experienced VP of Finance and Administration as well as the Office of General Counsel … it is my understanding that funding for athletics will come from tickets sold when the events commence, etc,, and other allowed sources.”

That was July, and if you remember, in November you had do an emergency zoom call to redirect unallowed funds away from athletics.

Despite this, there’s no auxiliary audit plan this year. You could add one.

I could say more about Mr. Tzoumas direct email to students providing legal advice, or how he buried last April’s Title IX consultants report.

To members of this board serving as part of your long-term commitment to the governance in Florida: If you sign off on another one of this guy’s audit plans, are you actually protected, reputationally or legally? I’m asking. I am not a lawyer. Thank you.

Accountability 2: Board of Governors

Good morning Mr. Chair, members of the Board.I’m here because I’ve been deeply interested College governance, since 20 years ago as a New College student I saw the first group of trustees build the independent New College -- great Floridians like the first Board chair, former republican senator Bob Johnson and legendary foundation president Lt. General Rolland Heiser. I was an intern for Congresswoman Kathrine Harris of Sarasota, a supporter of the school.

When new trustees were appointed in January, I spoke positively towards them and their proposals. This isn’t about if New College could improve, we all know that. We’re here to talk about what Richard Corcoran has done over the past 10 months.

Richard Corcoran didn’t shake the hands of the graduates at the commencement ceremony. Corcoran fired the dean of the library three weeks before the end of the semester.

He has told you students left for ideological reasons, Corcoran doesn’t mention took away their on-campus housing assignments over the summer, and returning students learned two weeks before their semester would they would have to live 4 miles off campus in quote “vibrant downtown Sarasota”.

I’ve put in a public records request for any message over the summer that welcome students back or tries to reassure them.

I can also add on faculty, Corcoran drove away the head of the Data Science program, an alum who personally worked with Steve Jobs in the 1990s and was part of the group of 200 people who returned to Apple with Jobs in 1996.

In my last in person comment I told you he’d been dishonest with this board. I can add, he lied to you yesterday. He said that the accountability plan is exactly the same as june, that’s false, compared to June the revised plan lowered the graduation rate from 68% to 50% for the class in 2027-- the graduating class of ‘27 is the entering class of ‘23 class he recruited.

I already told you over zoom he got that enrollment by sending a men’s soccer coach in July to Mexico and other countries to recruit soccer players, -- do you think Mexico has a pool of speak English well enough to do college-level work. Not just the cost to get them but the metrics.

There’s no reason to think that by 2028 that he’ll improve retention, why would parents who would send their kids to Hillsdale want to send their kids to a college where the Dean of Students is a former lobbyist? Cronyism and self-dealing

I’m not going to ask you to overturn the apple cart and reject Corcoran, but he wants credit for boosting enrollment through athletics when his plan was to use E&G fund.

When it comes up, I ask that you motion to table Richard Corcoran’s confirmation until he shows he has a plan for the college to pay for what he wants to collect a salary for accomplishing. Both inputs and outputs. Not to reopen the search, just to table, and he remains interim president.

If you demonstrate this board will approve over a million dollars in salary for making changes with no plan to pay for changes, you’ll turn the SUS into the legislature pension plan. That’s not how to be stewards of the investment in money and time of past generations of great Flordians who built our State University System, including building New College.

August 10, 2023: Quagmire

My name is Mike Sanderson, I entered New College in 1999.

I asked to comment on the, quote, business plan, because I was there in Tampa at the Board of Governors — the BoG — when they asked for it.

Richard Corcoran’s rambling confession that prompted that was really something and I submit that transcript for this meeting’s record.

I just got this business plan: Let me tell you something.

Bob Allen sold you a bill of goods. He told you this was going to be easy. He told you this was going to be a cakewalk.

Alums know 2023 was preceded by years of vitriolic Facebook arguments — but now it’s your reputations, and your movement’s reputation under threat.

At some point this board, the board of governors, the governor, are going to have to realize: New College is not the people who argued with Bob Allen on Facebook

To make a very Florida phrasing, Bob Allen led the BoG into a quagmire. See you at The Swamp.

July 6, 2023: Auditing

Auditors, sharpen your pencils! 

Hi, I’m Mike Sanderson, I entered New College in 1999. As before, my full comment is at mikesand.com. 

By the way Trustee Spalding, from the search meeting yesterday, apologies to General Counsel Galvano, but after you have finalists your search no longer gets to be shady. I mean, not shady under the metaphor of the Sunshine Laws. 

Anyway, I asked to speak on the audit plan, and I note the line, about admissions, quote, “avoid repeat allegations of misconduct.”

Too late. 

As you should know, in my comment to the Board of Governors in June, I asked for an investigation into the shambolic new athletics department, and yesterday I was informed it will happen.

Did you even apply to the NAIA by July 1 as you told the media and prospective students you would? Your dubiously-qualified women’s soccer was out there tweeting “New College of Florida (NAIA)”. Also, what’s with her being a part-time financial advisor or something? Is MLM an intercollegiate sport? 

When you’ve got a mix of tens of millions of dollars and some deeply dishonest people, what do you think is going to happen? A lot of work for auditors. Maybe New College should open an institute for that. 

Thank you.