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.
