EDIT: USF acknowledged my request for public comment and never followed up with dial-in information.
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.
