BOG Public Comment 11/13/2026: Debt and Carryforward

I’m Mike Sanderson. Back by popular demand. My full comment and more is at MikeSand.com.

The last meeting I was in person was the DOGE meeting - remember that? Mr. Chair, did you catch the John Oliver Program? Remember when New College’s biggest problem was no one had ever heard of it?

It’s what I said to Governor-Elect Donalds yesterday at the summit, this is Florida’s reputation.

Let’s get right to the Agenda. New College will not survive.

Look first at the carryforward. New College received $25 million less from the legislature, but is not reducing spending, but using $21 million in carryforward funds including $1.8 million for utilities. Carryforward for utilities. When this carryforward is up New College won’t be able to keep the lights on — literally.

New College cannot pay this. In the historical coverage, the coverage took the hotel rooms the state paid for, subtracted out 100% of the cost, and credits student housing fees to the “existing housing system.” I thought you weren’t allowed to lie in loan documents.

That first $8.9 million alone could have been the backstop to a long-term fix, instead it was spent on hotels to get a short-term revenue pop to claim success.

I have from my records request to the Division of Bond Finance the emails and drafts between the BOG and New College since the summer, primarily Vice Chancellor Pritchard. It’s so funny reading as Mr. Pritchard gives them deadlines.

You don’t have the New College Board of Trustees resolution in their packet. The New College Board of Trustees voted that their debt conforms to the guidelines. After all the work Mr. Pritchard and Division of Bond Finance did to help them explain why they don’t conform, New College just said, we conform.

Staff recommended it because “the legislature required it.”

Remember the business plan? The legislature required this board to provide status updates on enrollment and spending? Governor Broxson, you were Chair of the appropriations in that period, and the BOG didn’t do, and later learned in that period New College recruited fewer first years than in 2022.

This Board failed to be accountable to the legislature, and now USF Sarasota has been liquidated to preserve the image of success. Richard Corcoran calls it turnkey.

This proposal only gets them to 400 beds, there’s no plan whatsoever for housing any more students.

We do have confirmation that precisely $8.9 million was spent on hotels. That matches two fields in the State University Data System. Where you track spending, if you are recruiting faculty, you code the job advertisement with the code for job advertisements. Those precise amounts spent on hotels are coded as “Job opportunity advertisements.” No one can think hotels are job advertisements. He’s been spending millions on E&G funds on athletics.

What I’m hearing now is Corcoran is definitely not leaving. Corcoran’s definitely not leaving.

Richard Corcoran has been deceiving the legislature. This is about the truth. The truth about New College will prevail.

9/23/26: Decline

U.S. News & World Report put out its 2027 rankings this week. New College of Florida came in at #150 among national liberal arts colleges — its fifth drop in five editions.

New College of Florida is now #150 in U.S. News. Before the 2023 takeover it was #76, its best rank ever.

Before 2023 the college was climbing. It went from #102 in the 2020 edition (Patch) to #84 (Sarasota Magazine), then #82 (Sarasota Magazine). It peaked at #76, its best ever, in the edition released in September 2022 (New College).

In January 2023, Gov. Ron DeSantis appointed new trustees. Richard Corcoran took over as president the next month (WFLX). The next edition dropped New College 24 spots to #100 (Tampa Bay Times via Yahoo). It has fallen in every edition since.

Not just the big list

New College has also dropped among public liberal arts colleges, a list of fewer than 40 schools. It went from #5 in the 2023 edition to #16 today, including a fall from #10 to #16 this year alone (Florida Phoenix; Creative Loafing Tampa). In 2006 it was #1 (Tampa Bay Times via Yahoo).

Chart sources: Higher Ed Heist (overall); USA Today via Yahoo, Wikipedia, Florida Phoenix (public).

[FTIC vs. spending chart goes here]

What alumni and insiders are saying

“New College's ranking has fallen from 76 to 150. At this point, alumni are saying that the College's governing board has a duty to react.”
— William Rosenberg, President, Novo Collegian Alliance, via Higher Ed Heist

Higher Ed Heist laid out the five-edition slide the day the rankings came out, with statements from Novo Collegian Alliance leaders. Read the report →

Nathan Allen was New College's vice president for strategy from 2023 to 2024 (WUSF) and now writes about the college on Substack. “New College Responds to U.S. News Rankings Collapse” →

Novo Collegian Alliance is an independent New College alumni group that works outside the New College Foundation (The Catalyst). Reports →

Five editions. Five drops. 74 places.

All Good Here

An embarrassing mascot can’t be helping

UWF Public Comment 9/17/2026: Variance

Hi, I’m Mike Sanderson. My full comment is at mikesand.com.

Some of you know me from my involvement with the Board of Governors. This is my fourth comment to this Board of Trustees.

I’m commenting about carryforwards. As you know, this is money left over at the end of the fiscal year that universities can “carry forward” to the next fiscal year to spend on new projects. I have attached the Board of Governors Carryforward Terms Definitions.

The word of the day is not carryforward-specific. It’s “variance.” A budget variance is the difference between planned and actual.

$60 Million Planned. $16 Million Spent.

A year ago you started with $60 million. After the 7% reserve and encumbrances, you could spend $39 million. Here’s the thing: jump down to line L. You only spent $16 million.

That’s what the projects sum to in actual expenditures. To confirm, jump ahead to Page 91 of your packet, last year’s actuals: $16,095,637 exactly.

And you might say, well, commitments. But setting aside the definition of commitments, I pulled the plan that was approved by the Board of Governors, by statute and regulation. It has a column for actual planned expenditures in the last fiscal year. You planned $23.2 million. You spent $16.1 million.

So I Made the Variance Columns Myself

I’m a software developer. I gave Claude the current packet and last year’s packet, and I said: make me a spreadsheet of the variances. It did a line-by-line comparison. The biggest dropped ball is Strategic Initiatives, Academic Program Investments. If I were the Board of Governors faculty trustee, I would be unhappy.

And that leads back to the definition of commitments. It is not the government accounting definition, it’s the business one: nothing. You can read the BOG definition yourself.

Be aware that Page 89 and Page 91 are the two most important pages in this packet, and the two most important financial pages of the year. That is the estimated budget and the actual spending. Neither one has a variance column. So I made one of those, too.

Where Was the Finance Committee?

Then I pulled the third-quarter modified update from the May packet. That was the last time your Finance Committee met. Your Finance Committee didn’t handle the operating budget and didn’t review carryforwards. At what point does the Finance Committee not meeting become willful and wanton disregard?

Maybe you’re too busy reviewing the stadium, which has increased to $50 million and is now based on $45 million of internal loans. But you’re not getting updates on that either.

The administration should be providing variances already. But it’s moot. It’s a new world for getting data out of these packets, and I hope that trustees, journalists, and the public use it.

FAU Public Comment 9/1/2026: Audit Plan

Hi, I’m Mike Sanderson. I’m commenting on the Audit Work Plan. My full comment is at Mike Sand dot com. You may remember me from previous comments to the Board of Governors, or from my previous comment to this Board, which, fittingly for today’s agenda, led to a complaint.

In June of 2025 I commented on the annual budget, and during the meeting I noticed the budget document presented was not the same as the budget document posted earlier in the week. I mentioned it in my comment.

After the meeting I established the agenda had been edited eight minutes before the meeting start time, and that the new document would spend five million dollars more on athletics. And so I filed a complaint.

Swapping documents eight minutes before the gavel? It’s just basic good faith and fair dealing. And the risk is the embarrassment of getting caught. Your work plan talks about “Reputation and credibility with stakeholders” — the Inspector General can’t protect you from the reputational hit.

The complaint was that the President was misleading the Board of Trustees. I filed it with the BOG Inspector General, and it was forwarded to the FAU Inspector General, Mr. Iyamu. Of course the university-level Inspector General can’t handle a complaint that the President was playing games with the Board of Trustees agenda. He had no business forwarding that complaint down to the University.

It’s an environment of lawlessness across the system.

At Poly’s May meeting the livestream kept streaming during the recess. Since I was recording, that’s how I got a recording of the Chair of the Board and the Chair of the Audit Committee having a recess conversation about the complaint I filed with the Florida Bar against their University Counsel.

At New College, the single Chief Audit Executive and Chief Compliance Officer is now replying to complaints about himself. A Chief Audit Executive like that can issue the President a license to steal.

The Board of Governors Inspector General exists, by statute, quote, “to detect fraud and abuse within the State Universities.” Just in 2023 the Legislature gave the BOG Inspector General specifically the power of subpoena. We know from the 2023 investigation of the presidential search that it’s able to do an investigation if allowed.

Something has rotted to the core in the Turlington building. My parting words for this Board are, just be aware of this. No one’s minding the store. The cat’s away, the mice are at play. You can’t say you weren’t told.

New College's $4.8 Million Disloyalty: An Open Letter to the Inspector General

The following is an open letter to Inspector General Julia Leftheris, with a copy to the Florida Board of Governors via Chair Alan Levine and the New College Board of Trustees via Chair Ron Christaldi.

Dear Inspector General Leftheris,

In follow-up to my many complaints and reports since 2023, I wanted to bring my latest op-ed to your attention in the Sarasota Herald-Tribune: “New College isn’t America First when spending our money.” It is included by reference.

In FY 24-25 and FY 25-26 the administration of New College directed $4.8 million in taxpayer money to scholarships for non-resident international students.

Having offered taxpayer money and student visas to non-resident student-athletes in Brazil, Colombia, Europe, Africa, even Australia, Richard Corcoran then asked for millions more in taxpayer money — approved by the BOG in the 2024 Business Plan — to subsidize hotels to house them. Claiming this is the will of Florida voters.

Thanks to the BOG-mandated syllabus publication, we see the kinds of classes New College is offering its international students: the new “English for Academic Purposes: Business and Finance.” Specifically Business and Finance. New College now also offers Intro to Accounting and Portfolio Management — respectable college subjects, but it shows these international student-athletes aren’t prepared and they haven’t come to Florida to study the liberal arts.

Are there not 100 native Floridians who would benefit from $20,000 scholarships and whose families’ taxes are paying for it with pennies added to every dollar on their grocery bills?

—

This is disloyalty: Claiming the will of the voters to restore ‘classical liberal arts’ and then giving $4.8 million in Florida taxpayer money for scholarships to international students who need remedial English to take business and accounting classes — in order to mislead the legislature into allocating even more money — is disloyalty. The people who did it are responsible, and now that it’s public, anyone who acts to keep this information from the public is complicit in this disloyalty to the state and people of Florida.

This charade has now led to the liquidation of USF Sarasota/Manatee. Corcoran converted the main New College academic building into his exclusive office-and-entertainment space, turning classrooms into a lounge and building a dedicated podcast studio.

Now, under the guise of needing space for classrooms, the USF Bull statue has been hauled away, its empty pedestal still adorned with the plaques of past donors. More tax dollars will be spent to dismantle it, or maybe just to pry off the plaques.

Florida students aren’t enrolling in New College for reasons having nothing to do with the goals of January 2023. Florida students don’t want this because Richard Corcoran didn’t deliver the things he claimed he would — or that he claimed he already had. It is failed execution.

Adding, I long believed and have said that the goals of January 2023 weren’t a mortal threat to New College because the caricature of New College was so superficial and off-the-mark — the cure would be simple because the patient wasn’t as sick as the doctor had been told.

The sheer numbers of international student-athletes also harms the student-athletes from Florida, specifically the oversized rosters that deprive them of the opportunity to play they were promised, the lack of qualified athletic personnel and facilities, the constant fear of retaliation.

—

The Inspector General system has failed. It has failed spectacularly. It has failed specifically for the BOG, empowered in subsection 20.155(5), Florida Statutes:

(5) OFFICE OF INSPECTOR GENERAL.—An Office of Inspector General shall be organized using existing resources and funds to promote accountability, efficiency, and effectiveness and to detect fraud and abuse within state universities.

This is what the legislature expects. This is what the public expects. I learned recently that in 2023 the Inspector General subsection 20.155, “Board of Governors of the State University System,” was modified specifically to give the BOG Inspector General subpoena power.

There is no level of functional or administrative control that allows for subverting the law and handing $4.8 million, at least, in scholarships to international students who need remedial classes, then millions more to house them and illegally subsidize their athletic program, so the president can cite the topline enrollment while lying about his success.

No one should have to beat plowshares into swords to fight tooth-and-nail through the governance and electoral system to try to get the systems of accountability to work properly, systems past leaders built, since secretly subverted.

I don’t know the full story, and make no moral judgment — but that doesn’t change what’s happened to New College, or to USF.

Mike Sanderson

USF Sarasota-Manatee

Sacrificed for the illusion of success.

DeSantis at New College Flashback 2023: "affordable education, even for people out of state"

Sarasota, FL — Ron DeSantis returned to New College on August 18, as statewide anger continues about his 2023 statements at New College that DeSantis wanted Florida public universities to attract more out-of-state students.

Ron DeSantis, May 2023: "What a great opportunity to get a high-quality yet affordable education, even for people out of state" [17:30]

In 2023 DeSantis also said, "I know that there's a lot of parents around the country looking for schools that have a strong mission and where they think that their kids can get a good education." [0:18]

DeSantis and New College President Richard Corcoran said they were keeping out-of-state tuition low and lavishing money on New College.

Richard Corcoran, May 2023: "$50 million is more money than New College has ever received from the state… at least 20-plus years." [30:55]

Timestamps are from DeSantis's 5/15/2023 appearance, on the Florida Channel: thefloridachannel.org/videos/5-15-23-signing-of-education-legislation

New College alum Mike Sanderson, who has been tracking the spending, said "New College is worse off than before they started. Corcoran has wasted tens of millions of state money building himself lavish offices with a podcast studio and lounge while the biggest dorm building hasn't been fixed."

"$20 million was spent on hotels, millions more on athletic scholarships for students from around the world."

2023: DeSantis predicted low out-of-state tuition would appeal to out-of-state parents

In 2023, DeSantis specifically cited the out-of-state tuition and bragged it compared favorably to other states' in-state tuition:

"Look at some of the parents out of state. What is it, $16,000 for out-of-state tuition, $16,000, $17,000 for out-of-state tuition?" DeSantis said. [17:15] DeSantis stated, "What a great opportunity to get a high-quality yet affordable education, even for people out of state." [17:30]

DeSantis was planning a presidential run at the time. Florida out-of-state tuition was not raised until 2025.

Richard Corcoran: "$50 million is more money than New College has ever received from the state"

New College's interim president bragged that the state had given New College more money.

Corcoran said in May 2023, "The governor mentioned we got $35 million more this legislative session. They gave us $15 million before the legislative session. That $50 million is more money than New College has ever received from the state as far back as we can see, which is at least 20-plus years combined." [30:55]

In 2022, in his first term, DeSantis vetoed funds to renovate classrooms in the historic 1960s Pei complex, which had been ranked the highest-priority project in the entire State University System.

NCF First-Time-In-College students vs. recurring state appropriations, 2011-2025.

NCF applications, freshmen, SAT scores down

DeSantis also said, "The more they find out that they have an opportunity to send their kids to Sarasota and be able to visit here in this nice place, I think you're going to see a lot more applications coming through the door." [0:27]

Applications, freshmen, and test scores are all down below 2022 (see below).

Applications for New College went up in 2023, but were down in 2024 and 2025 relative to the previous 2022 high, and in 2025 New College had fewer First-Time-In-College students than 2022. (NCF admissions funnel data)

SAT scores are also down below 2022 and any year before, despite spending tens of millions more. (NCF SAT score data)

NCF SAT composite scores by metric, Fall 2019-Fall 2024. Source: NCF Office of Institutional Research & Assessment.

Mike Sanderson is a writer and computer programmer. A Florida native and New College graduate, Sanderson has engaged with the Board of Trustees and Board of Governors to scrutinize illegal spending and waste. mikesand.com.

Public Comment FIU 7/30/26: CarryForwards

Hi, I’m Mike Sanderson. Some of you know me from my comments to the Board of Governors, including a great one at FIU in Fall 2024. My full comment is at Mike Sand dot com.

While I have so much to say about the legislative budget request, I have to turn to the quantum computer. Specifically how it’s financed— Carryforwards.

This is money left over that universities “carry forward” to the next fiscal year and spend on new projects — With specific Board of Governors approval, by statute and regulation. Yet this document expects signing on August 4, Tuesday. Is Alan Levine calling a special meeting of the BOG on Monday?

Seperately there’s the payments from carryforwards in future years. You’re voting to, in coming years, budget too much money so there’ll be money left over.

Speaking of the future of quantum, it’s more future proof and flexible to use cutting edge quantum computing on the Cloud. This $25 million dollar hardware could be obsolete in 6 months.

And I know that you might say “oh it’s really half-off” — look at the schedule. You're committing $7.5 million now, from the flexible carryforward fund you could spend on other priorities.

And about carryforwards, this Board previously spent carryforwards on athletics scholarships. Ask your Chief Compliance Officer about the outcome of that complaint — specifically against the signers of the certification.

I submit this document’s brazen violations of statute and regulation are related to the fact that President Nunez didn’t sign the certification.

Look at the last page — the certification you rely on. She didn’t sign it! Is the Board of Trustees a delivery guy with a package, “I can sign for that.” It’s like you go to a deposition, “do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth…” “My assistant will be answering that question for me.”

USF Public Comment 7/27/26: Prayer

EDIT: This comment was not delivered due to a technical issue on my end.

I’m Mike Sanderson. My full comment and supporting material is at Mike Sand dot com.

Many of you know me from my last comment to this board on the metrics and my many appearances before the Board of Governors. I’ll start today, though, with an invocation. I’m serious. The ironic ridicule is coming, but, last night I prayed and asked God to help President Lemayem, the Trustees, the students of USF and of New College, and to help me make my points engagingly but realizing it’s actually a devastating situation. Amen.

You’re evaluating the president, and in 1999 was a student of New College of USF and I knew Judy Genshaft from when she was a presidential finalist. Judy is the yardstick, you could say, hey, in 2001 Genshaft lost the Sarasota Campus to New College har har har. No. Judy Gensaft lost New College. Judy Genshaft liked New College, she got it, she fought to keep it, she had plans for it. And when she lost it, in those first few years, by now I was editor of the student newspaper, Genshaft put a leader in place named Laurie Stryker. There’s someone who remembers Mike Sanderson after 25 years. There was this anthropomorphic bulldozer. Dr. Stryker was a bulldozer for USF, she fought tenaciously for years and got this beautiful green and gold campus built for USF Sarasota Manatee. And now, 25 years later, in order to turn the campus over Richard Corcoran, Dr. Stryker's work and the work of so many others is being liquidated.

I read the teach out plan. The goal is to protect your people. Keep in mind, the Sarasota Faculty and Staff have been adjacent to New College this entire time, they know what’s going on.

They hear New College needed classroom space, they know Corcoran took the main Academic building, converted it entirely to administrations, classrooms became office suites and lounges, and then “woah New College doesn’t have enough classroom space.” The latest line is that the campuses were neglected—the campus was extensively photographed in 2023. The governor was there in May 2023— “Beautiful New College” he said. The latest smear is backfill to retroactively claim spending went to those renovations that turned classrooms into lounges and a podcast studio.

Your Sarasota Manatee people know millions of E&G funds went to hotel leases. Corcoran got legislative permission for that, that money is gone. They know in three and a half years, he hasn’t broken ground on one building. Corcoran’s failure to do that work then justifies the taking of the buildings that USF fought to build.

Your Sarasota people know those athletics are paid for by diverting millions in E&G funds because instead of coaches dispensing athletic scholarships, it’s student recruiters dispensing merit scholarships. They know 40% of New College students are from out of state, that all the admissions statistics are worse, and those are just First Time in College. In 2024-25, according to the Fact Book, New College had more students from Brazil than from Miami Dade County.

Your Sarasota people saw the talking points that put words in the mouth of the USF president, and talking points stating that New College would be better able to attract out of state students. In May 2023 at New College the governor bragged he kept out of state tuition low so parents from other states.

I was served the video of Governor DeSantis in Bradenton justifying the transfer. Quote, “We do the stuff with New College.” The governor is coming to Bradenton, and justifying the liquidation of the USF campus by brazenly lying that New College hasn’t received increases in recurring funds, that the “nonrecurring” funds are capital improvements and lying that improvements done were necessary and that the necessary improvements were done.

All of this, and the transfer went through. I don’t know what the solution is, but I am praying for President Limayem, the trustees, the USF communities and for all the people of the State of Florida. Thank you.