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.

Public Comment UCF 7/16/26: Spooky Ghost Stories

Hi I'm Mike Sanderson. Some of you know me from my comments to the Board of Governors and otherwise.

This is my first time speaking to the UCF Board of Trustees— and my standard intro speaks directly to the legislative budget request. My grandfather Herbert Sanderson was born in Orlando in 1920 and was the first person from Orange County public schools to go to MIT, and in the 1950s the first person hired by Martin when it came to Florida, as he had previously worked for Martin in Baltimore. Martin was the largest employer in Florida before Disney.

My great uncle Carl Langford was elected Mayor of Orlando 4 times in the 1960s and 70s, when UCF was in its first decade as Florida Technological University under Charles Millican, but Charles Millican shows up in 1950s Martin materials when he was at UF.

Central Florida Future, Vol. 08 No. 01, September 26, 1975 (Source)

I was born and grew up in Miami, and was in high school when the Blair Witch Project came out, so for many years I associated UCF with spooky ghost narratives. People do love spooky ghost stories.

At the University of West Florida, last year a trustee said the legislature's intention was to remove the space program from general ed. That trustee, from out of state with no connection to Florida, has since been rejected by the legislature for the second time.

At Florida Atlantic, I am still waiting for President Hasner to say what someone would do with an on-prem quantum computer, and I assume taxpayers are picking up the $20 million price tag.

I went to New College, where in recent years Richard Corcoran has received tens of millions of dollars more every year and squandered it — he has built nothing of value. This has nothing to do with the stated intentions. In 2023 I spoke in favor of eliminating DEI. In 2023 the three most popular majors were Environmental Studies, Computer Science, and Economics. Nobody wants to go drop their kid off at a school that made its brand culture war antagonism and is staffed by the President's unqualified buddies.

If New College is the tragedy, Florida Poly is the farce. A UCF engineering degree is worth more than a Poly degree, and its President uses the average to directly assert otherwise. The students there are miserable, the administration has almost no one with any STEM background, and it's a PR machine whose concern is pushing out photos of people sitting side-by-side signing documents. Florida Poly is soaking up tens of millions of dollars and pumping out embarrassment.

https://mikesand.com/blog/2026/6/2/bar-complaint-2-millikins-merit

https://mikesand.com/blog/2026/5/24/52626-ilya-shapiros-hot-mic-misdemeanor

https://mikesand.com/blog/2026/5/18/watch-disastrous-board-meeting-at-florida-university-that-hired-unqualified-anti-abortion-lobbyist-to-replace-general-counsel

☆☆☆☆☆

Before I end, Trustee Jeff Vahle is retiring as head of Walt Disney World. I was going to offer — if the UCF archeologists who mapped Greenwood Cemetery, where 8 of my direct ancestors are buried, want to go digging for Sanderson family relics on Disney World's forbidden island, which we used to own. My grandfather could lead the project to accelerate a missile at 100Gs to hit an incoming Soviet ICBM, but he still got tricked out of my birthright by a wiley mouse. I have more to say about that. People do love spooky ghost stories.

A group of 14 couples including Herbert and Jean Sanderson owned Bay Lake (left) from 1955–1965

Article appears in the Mouselets video at 3:47; Douglas Root is great-uncle by marriage to great-aunt Martha Sanderson Root.

Public Comment Florida Poly 6/30/26

Good afternoon. I'm Mike Sanderson.my full comment and more is at Mike Sand dot com.

To the feedback I received from the board on my previous comment, “it was so disjoint,” and “he sent me some long convoluted thing,” I take responsibility for communicating clearly verbally and in writing.

I know you're talking about me during the recess. I blame the Teams interface— was Microsoft the low bidder or something? I think you could sole-source a Zoom license.

First a follow up to last meeting, and then to the packet.

About my comment that it’s illegal to spend nonrecurring expense over several years, the following week I called the office of the house budget committee in Tallahassee, spoke to Billy, and was told , pretty authoritatively, that while for normal agencies this would be not allowed, the universities can do it as part of the carryforward process. Ok, that makes sense.

I stand by my comment it's not a good practice to have a $19 million presidential discretionary fund, 27% of the E&G budget. There are still rules for carry forwards, by the way. A big problem here is the administration has destroyed its credibility.

Can an LLM Replace the Board?

On to the meeting packet, I’d like to recall something— Trustee Otto. Cliff? Do you remember when you were Chair, we met and chatted for a few? At breakfast, in Orlando at the Board of Governors meeting in November 2023? I mentioned I am a software engineer, and I was experimenting with LLMs. Do you remember what I said? I said it would be possible to have an AI replace the board of governors.

Well that day has finally come.

I have Anthropic’s Claude Cadillac plan so dropped the packet into and said, “I’m a on the board of trustees, give me some things I should ask.” And it did. Then I gave it last years packet too and it found even more. All pages are in the PDF.

The Budget

The first thing it said about the budget was the line “Contingencies & New Initiatives is down by $7 million.” Both that it’s down, and that’s 17% of the budget this year, that’s a lot to be in big ol black box. Utilities increase by 252%. Chemistry gets added. Why is your police under your IT budget line? I heard the VP of IT went to Colorado to receive a prestigious award from your vendor. And the award from your vendor came with a cash prize, is that right?

Other changes:

• Civil Engineering ×~4,

• Industrial Engineering ×~3,

• International Relations ×~4

• LIbrary: ×~1/2.

In fact, took a different session and dropped this pack and last years packet and asked it to find stuff.Then it said, that “presidential discretionary"got renamed probably after somebody started asking questions.

A bunch of other stuff is renamed without notes. It even noted moving General counsel into presidents office and reducing its budget threatens the independence of the legal function.

First thing it said, what's with that $19 million presidential discretion fund? It's renamed to contingent funds

Capital Spending

The Claude AI also reviewed the capital spending. About the Student Center, it noticed the $12,001. Then it zeroed in on “professional services.”Claude asked how a building spent $5 million on professional services already. And on proposed Academic Building 3, it asked why that’s spending $4 million on professional services in its first year.

Around this point also, AI said, you know your CFO is interim? How’s the search for a permanent CFO going, while you’re

The Legislative Budget Request

The legislative budget request was the most amazing. The AI caught that on the bottom of Page 18 you say 2031 will have “4,107 FTE” but then the next page you say headcount of 3,462 by FY31.

The year-to-year caught stuff from the metrics. Post grad earning declined, and percent employed declined, but you raised the goals for both. Classic Florida Poly.

And then, AI caught, ironically, $1.5 million for AI? 15,000 staff hours redirected or avoided? Where’s this coming from. Maybe the more expensive AI will tell you what the more expensive AI is good for.

Workaday Sole-Source

And finally, they all caught the last item, asking the president to sign everything on a $3 million increase for a contact you signed a year ago.

You’ll never guess who the presenter is telling you to give the President authority to spend another $3 million as he sees fit.

And on the subject of sole-source, I see the document has been pulled down so I reposted it. Single-Source-Justificaiton_Barbar-Associates.pdf

Conclusion

I appreciate the questions about the Presidential Yacht. I did note President Stephenson went on a junket to Barcelona to get some fake award. I don’t care about the money, I care about the fake award. It’s embarrassing. And I would add, is this the Theranos Board of Governors? Fancy technology, no expertise to see if it is actually working. So is the fact that Florida Poly is essentially no different in marketing from a Silicon Valley hype machine or a trade school.