Board of Governors Comment 6/25/26 Part B: Chair Levine

H,I’m Mike Sanderson. As many of you know, I’m a New College alum and I’ve been very involved in the Board of Governors over the past three years. This comment restates my opinion that I gave on Monday at the UF Board of Trustees meeting.

But If you’d like a splash of normalcy in this unprecedented time, you can see my comment on the metrics mocking Richard Corcoran for his metrics failure.

I appreciate the work the Board of Governors does for the people and State of Florida, and the members of the Board new and old all had great points. I appreciate Board members standing up for themselves and for the Board.

My comments should not be taken as ad hominem against Alan Levine. There’s a lot of water under the bridge already, and I think Alan knows that. My criticism is from a point of frustration.

My three points still stand. Especially about the letter. My complaint had three objections.:

  1. Point 1. The interim President Contract was in the Board of Governors Materials. you saw it. I saw it. The full board saw it. Credit to Gov. Haddock for admitting he didn’t look in the packet.

  2. Point 2. the unilateral action by a chair, objecting to the unilateral action by the chair. In the name of good governance.

  3. Point 3. the authority to hold items off. again, this was a written statement so we can see it.

Your decision on June 17 inflicts damage on the University of Florida on top of years of turmoil. We cannot strip the context.

I stand by my statement that holding the agenda hostage was an arbitrary and capricious abuse of power. I will stick that label on it. I will grant you there is a potentially colorable case this has to be resolved before a new permanent president comes into office, but wWe don’t need to argue if the Presidential confirmation is an abuse of power because you also held up the housing bond approval to the governance issues.

And look at what’s happening at Florida Poly. [Lakeland ledger clip] It mocks the very idea of merit and good governance to see what’s happening down there.

The issues with the Inspector General should not be overlooked. Asking for a “review” I have never heard of quote-unquote review. I would like to focus on the absurdity of the IG receiving a complaint about the Chair of the Board of Trustees and forwarding that down to the university for handling.

Vice-Chair Cerio is right you shouldn't be getting legal opinions. The legal opinions that have been released already are helpful.

But if you look for an example of Good Governance, it's Vice Chair Cerio leaning forward to steers the meeting from the audit committee to the facilities committee.

I’m a member of the public. 25 years ago exactly I was a student at New College when the first Boards of Trustees came into being, and I saw the campaign to pass Amendment 11 and create the Board of Governors. So I want to see this

So inclusion, I hope that you look at what’s going on at Florida Poly and at New College. I of course will have more to say about governance in the weeks and months and year to come.

Board of Governors Comment 6/25/26: The Victim of the Metrics

Hi I’m Mike Sanderson, I’m sorry I won’t be able to join the State University System in Palm Beach County this week as I had hoped.

I have a two comments, the other about the future of my involvement, but this comment is about the metric.

If you know Mike Sanderson, you know I love the metrics. Especially for New College. Let’s see how Richard Corcoran is doing on the metrics.

Post graduation employed, Didn’t meet the goal,Post graduation earnings, didn’t meet the goal; Cost per student, did meet the goal—because he’s paying students nearly $20,000 to go there; graduation rates, didn’t meet the goal; retention, didn’t meet the goal; Programs of Strategic Emphasis, didn’t meet the goal.

If you’d like to learn more about the 30% graduation rate, you can see the documentary, first they came for my college, or the John Oliver program, which landed. Link in description.

Also with the metrics, we get real enrollment numbers. Let’s look at the Freshmen class, First Time In College. Fall 2025, 183 FTIC students. Lower than 2022, when it was 188 FTIC students.

If you remember the Business Plan, that the legislature required New College adopt, Corcoran claimed that he would have 275 FTIC students. He didn’t even have 225 when he presented it.

Richard Corcoran’s enrollment increase is driven entirely by transfers and graduate students, and while there’s nothing wrong with that, those students don’t count to other metrics like GPA and SAT score.

Speaking of the business side, Corcoran is getting twice as much as New College did then from recurring expenses alone. It’s pathetic.

Of course, Richard Corcoran will whine and cry. It’s like that mascot gesture, wah wah wah. I’m Richard Corcoran, it’s so unfair to criticize me for the metrics.

He didn’t even meet the goal he picked “Number of Free Speech and Civil Discourse Events Hosted on Campus”

This failure evident in this accountability plan has nothing to do with the goals of the 2023 takeover of New College, which myself and many other alums have no problem with, because ‘classical education’ doesn’t contradict what New College has long championed, which is educational excellence. Rather, this accountability plan has everything to do with Richard Corcoran being a failure, a failure beyond comparison. You can see it in the drama, you can see it in the comedy, you can see it in the boring numbers.

University of Florida BOT Public Comment 6/22/26

(May differ from delivered.)

My name is Mike Sanderson, My full comment is available at Mike Sand dot com. Many of you know me through my involvement with the Board of Governors. I went to New College and grew up in Miami, so innumerable family and friends attended UF. Up front, I thank the Board for quickly pivoting to the interim appointment of Dr. Bell and I thank Dr. Bell for accepting it. I wish I was addressing the UF Board of Trustees for the first time under better circumstances.

Since have been involved with the Board of Governors, the main part concerns the letter by the Chair of the Board of Governors, Alan Levine, on why he has held up the appointment of President-Designate Bell. I am shocked by this letter. I thought Alan Levine was smarter, or at least I thought he thought the public was smarter. There’s three main aspects to his governance complaint in my opinion.

First, the clause in Interim Prescient Landry’s contract that’s so objectionable was approved the Board of Governors, during the meeting held on September 11, 2025, at New College. The Chair saw it, the Vice Chair saw it, the Chancellor saw it, the General Counsel saw it, the full board saw it, the public saw it. Of course someone can change their mind but that’s not what Chair Levine is claiming. He’s saying he just now observed it. He then broadens his objection to practices that have been in place for year. He’s saying he just now noticed and it’s a crisis. Alan joined the BOG in what, 2014?

Then there’s the absurdity of the letter itself. Absurdity. A Board Chair acting unilaterally declares Board Chairs acting unilaterally are out of compliance.

As an aside, where was Alan Levine when New College gave its Board Chair the power to make multiple appointments to the Foundation Board? Returning to the current year, in February, Chair Levine sent a letter to the medical school accreditors as Chair despite having just told the Board the matter would be handled by Governor Good’s committee. That’s an external communication the full Board had no idea was coming.

Finally about Chair consent for agenda items, while the Board of Governors operating procedures do say items are placed on the Agenda with the Chair’s consent, there doesn’t need to be a clause declaring the Chair can’t refuse everything for a university until the university agrees with his personal determination declaration the university is out of compliance. It’s an arbitrary and capricious abuse of authority.

Whatever anyone thinks about the substance of the complaints, Chair Levine’s arbitrary and capricious abuse of authority is far, far worse for governance than anything he is allegedly addressing. As we celebrate the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, I will quote a later document, Federalist 51: Ambition must be made to counter ambition. I think the UF Board of Trustees needs to start the process, today, of taking legal action against the arbitrary and capricious abuse of authority by Chair Levine. It’s just business, although it’s of grave importance.

Regarding the allegations of misconduct, including the quote-unquote review of allegations, I will repeat my warning from September 11 to Interim President Landry: In Florida, audits are weapons, and an audit or a finding just means someone with authority wanted to splatter some mud. I have a complaint against Jason Jewell at the Florida Commission on Ethics. Those complaints have to be sworn and notarized, and I did.

Finally, I will add that this is not about DEI. At New College, in February 2023, I endorsed the elimination of DEI. It was minutes after Alan Levine, then mere Governor, was at the podium to lecture about fiduciary responsibility. Kind of a role-reversal from what you expect.

But regarding DEI, some of the most odious people, who care nothing about Florida students or Florida institutions, are now weighing in on this search. You might think I mean Christopher Rufo, and I do. His term as New College trustee ended in December 2025, he slinked away without even a post. Just absolutely shameless that he’s back, weeks after he was mocked on premium cable, claiming to have secret information. Then there’s Bob Allen, of the Palm Beach Freedom Institute, a New College alum I have known since he became a trustee of New College in 2002. He was then, what we now euphemistically call a “low empathy” person.

Alan Levine is a known quantity — a known quality, but also a known quantity. Aside from litigation, the UF Board of Trustees should be clear that if Alan Levine or the Chancellor want to plunge UF into more chaos on such a selective basis, nakedly kicking up smoke over something they passed 8 months ago, he gets to own it, and it will not be forgotten.

Bar Complaint #2: Millikin's Merit

A second complaint with the Florida Bar has been filed against an employee of Florida Polytechnic University, a sign of a growing lawlessness that has marked of President Stephenson's administration since he eliminated the University’s Office of General Counsel last fall.

Joshua Millikan, now Chief of Staff, graduated from the University of Arkansas law school in May 2025. He is 26 years old. His bio page on Floridpoly.com uses the language of a decades-long elite legal career to describe law clerks and internships:

Millikin worked in both private legal practice and Fortune 1 corporate legal environments, where he concentrated on complex commercial matters spanning mergers and acquisitions, corporate structuring, commercial contracts, regulatory compliance and governance frameworks, joint ventures and strategic partnerships, and wealth management.  

His five months at Florida Poly, three months of which were after passing the Bar Exam, were also described hyperbolically:

Prior to his current role, Millikin built deep experience in university legal affairs, serving as university and legal advisor at Florida Poly, advising on governance, employment matters, Foundation and Direct Support Organization (DSO) relationships, Sunshine Law compliance, and complex institutional agreements. He is particularly skilled in navigating board processes, public records issues, and executive-level decision-making in Florida’s public higher education environment.

Timing Curious Relative to Elimination of General Counsel

Millikin passed The Florida Bar Exam in September 2025, two months into his five-month tenure. President Stephenson said he was eliminating the university’s in-house legal team in October 2025 for cost reasons.

M.E.I.: Merit, Excellence, and Intelligence

Just before the complaint was filed in May 2026, President Stephenson posted to x.com that "Florida Poly is committed to a culture grounded in Merit, Excellence, and Intelligence.”

"Yes, it's hilarious," said Mike Sanderson. "But it's also serious. There is no legitimate reason to mischaracterize his experience, and for a lawyer, it's a violation of the rules regulating the Florida Bar for a lawyer to have their legal experience mischaracterized like this in order to justify putting them in a executive-level nonlegal role for which they have no relevant experience.”

"It makes a mockery of any suggestion of merit or excellence, or intellegence," said Sanderson. “However, the more important word is professionalism. We have already seen that the Trustees will ignore the complaint in the sunshine and then discuss what to do after they cut their mics. The Florida Bar will have to answer if it wants, in the heart of Florida, to let this monumental unprofessionalism fester at what should be a place where merit reigns.”

Rules REgulating the Florida BAr: Possible Rules Violated

● Rule 4-4.1 Truthfulness in Statements to Others

● Rule 4-5.7 Responsibilities Regarding Nonlegal Services

● Rule 4-7.13 Deceptive and Inherently Misleading Advertisements

● Rule 4-8.4 Misconduct

Read the redacted complaint.

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Mike Sanderson is a writer and computer programmer from Miami, Florida. Sanderson is an alum of New College of Florida, where he was editor of the student newspaper.

5/22/26: Ilya Shapiro's Hot Mic Misdemeanor

View on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hcFLvSzF36c

A hot mic during a recess of the Florida Polytechnic University Board of Trustees meeting on May 22 caught Trustee Ilya Shapiro and Board Chair Beth Kigel violating Florida’s Sunshine’s Law. If found to be a knowing violation, their conduct is a second-degree misdemeanor.

The Sunshine Law violation is a new low in escalating lawlessness at Florida Polytechnic University, known as “Florida Poly.” The lawlessness follows the elimination of the Office of General Counsel in October 2025. Earlier that morning, Shapiro chaired a meeting of the “Governance, Audit and Compliance Committee” in which the reports from Sanderson were ignored.

During the recess, the pair were discussing the Bar Complaint and letters that Sanderson had sent to Shapiro (read the May 21 letter). Board Chair Kigel then noticed Shapiro’s mic was on, and pointed to it: “Get your mic there.”

Kigel then leaned back in her chairs and continued to speak to Shapiro.

“This is a cover up,” said Sanderson. “It’s not a technical violation. The trustees know about the misconduct by the administration, they ignore it during the meeting that just happened, but as soon as they think they’re out of the sunshine, they start getting on the same page.”

The complaints followed a disastrous Board of Trustees meeting on April 30 that led Sanderson to file a Bar Complaint against the unqualified and unprepared “University Counsel.”

Background: WATCH: DISASTROUS BOARD MEETING AT FLORIDA UNIVERSITY THAT HIRED UNQUALIFIED LOBBYIST TO REPLACE GENERAL COUNSEL

“It’s defeat snatched from the jaws of victory for the rule of law at Florida Poly,” said Sanderson. “Shapiro and the administration are ignoring their responsibilities to address misconduct and to do so in the sunshine. Their private comments show they know about this misconduct and are privately discussing it among themselves, even as they publicly present nothing is wrong. Something is deeply wrong at Florida Poly.”

Shapiro’s position and the distinctive orange coat were posted by Stephenson after the meeting.

In the hot mic video, Shapiro also tells Kigel about an email Sanderson sent the previous night about a statement by the VP/CFO during the Finance Committee the previous day (the two-day meeting spanned May 21–22). On May 21, Florida Poly’s VP/CFO had stated that the university was spending a nonrecurring allocation received in 2025 over 3 years — an additional violation.

(The Finance Committee video with the VP/CFO’s comment was not immediately available.)

Just after the recess starts, FPU’s Chief Compliance Officer approaches Shapiro. Shapiro says, almost immediately, “Do I have any concerns? No I don’t think I have any concerns, I want to understand what he’s saying.” Watch:

“The walls are closing in at Florida Poly,” said Sanderson.

—

Florida’s Open Meetings “Government in the Sunshine” Law jurisprudence has established that during a recess of official proceedings, inaudible conversations about business constitute cause the public “irreparable harm” Citizens for Sunshine Inc, v. City of Sarasota (2012).

Citizens for Sunshine Inc, v. City of Sarasota (2012), concerning a recess conversation between two board members.

While any violation of the Sunshine Law is a noncriminal infraction, a knowing violation is a 2nd degree misdemeanor. Sanderson added, “Ilya Shapiro is free to argue that he’s innocent of the criminal offense because he doesn’t know the law so good.”

Sunshine Law also provides for civil action, which could be used to demand external investigation. “That should be happening anyway,” said Sanderson.

Trustees Ilya Shapiro and Jesse Panuccio playing video games at Florida Poly’s E-sports studio earlier in 2026 (Image FPU Public Record under Chapter 112). The video game room was paid for with “President Discretionary” funds.

Reported misconduct now includes:

  • May 22 “hot mic” Sunshine Law violations;

  • Illegal use of nonrecurring spending over multiple years mentioned by VP/CFO;

  • Bar Complaint against “University Counsel” for accepting a position in violation of multiple Bar rules;

  • Complaint against President Stephenson for elimination of General Counsel, creation of “University Counsel” position, and hiring decision; and

  • One other report of felony criminal conduct has not yet been made public.

In the May 22 meeting, Trustees Shapiro and Kigel were not the only members of the Board to be captured in streaming video and audio during the recess.

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Are you an employee or trustee of Florida Poly? Don't take legal advice from a website!

Employees of Florida Poly may also be interested in the following resources for white-collar criminal defense attorneys — and whistleblowers get better deals. Check out:

The Florida Bar Lawyer Referral Service

Orange County Bar Association Lawyer Referral Service

Hillsborough County Bar Association Lawyer Referral Service

Watch: Disastrous Board Meeting at Florida University that Hired Unqualified Lobbyist to Replace General Counsel

Florida Polytechnic University, which last fall eliminated its Office of General Counsel supposedly to save money, debuted its replacement on April 30: a DeSantis-aligned anti-abortion lobbyist-lawyer with no experience called “University Counsel” who left trustees including Ilya Shapiro — themselves appointed by DeSantis — so frustrated by her lack of preparation that they declined to take action on the $1,800 tuition increase.

This is not normal.

A complaint filed with the Florida Bar, which regulates lawyer conduct, covers both the meeting and circumstances of the unqualified but politically-connected lawyer taking the job. Read the redacted complaint here.

Grasping for excuses, the unprepared DeSantis-fan at one point told Trustee Shapiro an excuse that a statute he'd asked about "was modified significantly in 2025." (It wasn't.) WATCH:

The President of Florida Polytechnic University eventually apologized to a visibly-frustrated Iyla Shapiro and other Trustees after the disastrous Board meeting in which trustees refused to vote. On the agenda was an $1800 tuition increase, meeting opened with 4 students making public comments about hardship.

The new in-house counsel arrived smiling mid-discussion nearly an hour into the meeting, which the Board Chair interrupted to announce "you come to us with very high praise.” The Board Chair’s broad smiles turned to dear-in-the-headlights shock as the DeSantis-fan "University Counsel" invented a state rule against phased-in tuition increases that one trustee called "odd."

When asked to explain, rambled about her invented rule like a student who hasn't done the reading. (The Florida Board of Governors approved a two-phase tuition increase in 2025 [WATCH at 1:17].) No one from the university either knew or tried to correct her on her made-up rule. WATCH:

Trustees ultimately declined to vote on the $1800 tuition increase, a delay that increased uncertainty for students.

Last October, President eliminated Office of General Counsel and fired 4 people, saying the move would reduce costs by moving to an "outsourcing" model, but new "University Counsel" has essentially the same responsibilities.

The Bar Complaint covers both the meeting and the circumstances of her hiring, which positioned the university’s primary in-house lawyer as being an employee of the President.

The full meeting is available at https://thefloridachannel.org/videos/4-30-26-florida-polytechnic-university-board-of-trustees-meeting/

FL Poly Comment 4/30/26: Accountability and the Truth

Thank you members of the Board. My name is Mike Sanderson.

First, about Gen Ed, I’m not going to have time to make a full comment, but I wanted to warn you that someone has been going around saying the Florida Legislature wants space exploration removed from the Gen Ed curriculum.

No, the Florida Legislature does not want space exploration removed from Gen Ed. The guy who wrote that has no STEM background whatsoever. Kind of a problem he has the made-up title “Chief Academic Officer.”

I traced the removal to the University of West Florida and the trustee who suggested that since has been rejected by the legislature for the second time. I invite you to read my letter to the Chair of the UWF Board of Trustees on my website, mikesand.com.

Moving to the accountability plan, my comment last year got quite a bit of attention. That was of course when I pulled the prior year accountability plans and found that for the 4-year graduation metric, you were lowering the goal for the current year for the third year in a row.

But then before the BOG met in June, you changed it back to 49%. Even though you you thought you weren’t going to make it. I know you thought that because during that BOG meeting at FAU Provost Thiessen told me.

Don’t be so hard on him, I said directly, “Brad, I know you know the min max for that graduation figure, what’s the min max.” President Stephenson saw me talking at the FL Poly staff table and came rushing over, but it was too late.

If you think the Provost shouldn’t have told me the min max for graduation because that’s some kind of state secret, i think you might want to step back and rethink your role as a public university trustee.

As an aside, too bad about the General Counsel office, I get saving money, not having in-house counsel seems like a false economy.

Anyway, returning to the Accountability Plan, the problem isn’t that you told me that, it’s that a few hours later President Stephenson didn’t tell the BOG Chair that.

In April 2024, two years ago, your former president wrote directly that Florida Poly expected to exceed 50% in 2025 (Page 7). Rather than telling the chair of the Board of Governors that you weren’t going to meet that goal and why, you just blah blah blah we have to do better.

Florida Poly’s 2024 Accountability Plan said 2021-25 Four-year Graduation Rate would be 50%

I know blaming COVID, and sounding like you’re throwing the former president under the bus for overpromising wouldn’t be well received at the BOG, but it’s the truth. Either that’s the truth or President Stephenson has really dropped the ball.

Finally, I invite you to check out last year’s Gender Studies ROI study. It was commissioned by the Chancellor but released by Anna Eskamani because it showed Gender Studies does have a good ROI. It also has a graph titled, “What you study matters more than where you study,” and it seems to show that Computer Science majors at Florida Poly make less money and are less likely to use their degree than even UWF or UNF. So that’s an important area for follow up.

Salary isn’t everything — I’m a computer programmer, I have gotten a great salary working on the iPhone app for Facebook for Dogs. That is not a joke, dogs don’t use the app but dogs have profiles, they follow other dogs, like other dogs’ photos, etc.

It’s safe to say that no one has ever been as excited for an Accountability Plan as I am for New College’s which of course has not bee released.

Good luck with all your goals. It’s too bad land acquisition isn’t a metric, amirite?