NCF needed more students. The freshman class has 350 students, the biggest entering class it has had. 100 are ‘recruited athletes’ and they may not have chosen NCF without the athletics (however rough those teams will be) but without those 100 the school would be in even more financial trouble.
Many schools give on campus housing preference to freshman and sometimes upperclassmen have to live off campus or have to shuttle to campus like NCF students do this year because of unplanned for shortages.
“It’s a couple of days now before kids are moving in, and kids are finding out they’re dorm isn’t habitable" and their reporter doesn’t know the difference between their and they’re !!!
For the record, I think there is space for a niche public college that would be a mix between Hillsdale&StJohn’s.
It’s not going to attract a lot of students but if well thought-out it could be a serious competitor for conservative students who want Hillsdale but cheaper and/or by the beach rather than the Michigan toundra.
It would require a well thought-out core curriculum - but 1 week from the start of classes nothing has been published.
That would have to combine with courses for various majors -but with almost half the faculty gone, many upper class courses are missing.
And 40% students they recruited are athletes who want to play but were clearly not admitted anywhere else in Florida, which is a double mismatch since the college doesn’t have athletic facilities and most athletes with an Act 22 typically aren’t super interested in a “classical education”.
The housing issues are just cherry on the cake, sort of:
The fact they ignored the May report indicating some dorms are “unhabitable”&has to be renovated immediately + kicking the jr/sr out from apartments to place them in a hotel 1 mile away via a non walkable highway, and where they’re prohibited from cooking.
= it doesn’t feel ready to open-- are they going delay back to school?
Are the athletes training already, if so, where? (That’d show one issue, that of athletic facilities, has been competently dealt with).
I feel bad for the seniors - though, apparently, all jr/sr can transfer to Hampshire for the same tuition as they paid at NCF, and the offer is still good.
But many have ‘Florida only’ scholarships like Bright Futures or the many scholarships that NCF added. That money will not follow them to Hampshire so while the tuition bill may be the same, the OOP will not be.
The Hampshire offer is that a given student pays their current tuition costs they are paying at New College, which will be different student by student.
Hampshire College is pleased to offer admission to any New College of Florida student, matching their current cost of tuition.
To date, 88 students have moved to Hampshire, or 12% of New College’s students (other schools also made offers to New College students)
“We’re offering automatic admission to any student at New College, because, you know, they’re obviously really strong students,” Wingenbach said. "It feels like it’s our responsibility that these students not be punished or burdened by the actions of the state government.
“It’s obviously somewhat expensive for us to match in-state tuition for Florida students, but it would have been hypocritical to offer that admission and then not make it possible for them to come,” he said.
To date, 88 students – more than 12% of New College’s student body – have transferred to Hampshire or are in the application process, officials said. Twenty-five of them will join 40 other transfer students and 265 freshmen in Hampshire’s Fall 2023 class.
Maybe they are also matching Bright Futures and other local scholarships that can only be used in Florida, but that is not what this says:
“Hampshire College will determine a financial aid package for each student using its typical packaging formulas to bring the student’s net tuition for 2023–24 at Hampshire to an amount equal to the student’s current cost of tuition billed by New College of Florida in 2022–23. Students applying for or receiving need-based assistance must complete the 2023–24 Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA).”
The amount BILLED to students by NCF would be the tuition (instate or OOS ). The school would then get an amount from the BF agency and apply it to the bill as a merit scholarship that is not transferable out of Florida. It is not need based financial aid. This happens about 3-4 weeks after school starts because the student has to qualify for BF every semester by enrolling for the at least 12 credits, by having a qualifying gpa, by making adequate progress). Maybe they are doing it differently than I experienced, but my daughter’s bill was for her full tuition and then BF was applied after the bill was issued with her other scholarships and grants.
It is still likely that an instate Florida student will be paying significantly less than other Hampshire students for tuition, although fees and r&b might be significantly higher.
40% professors have quit.
The administration itself admits it is still hiring - 2 days before the start of school.
Logic indicates Interim President Corcoran’s words to be wishful thinking.
His statement seems improbable on the face of it. If 40% of professors left and some programs were eliminated, then by definition not everyone could take any class they want. Seems like a tricky answer as he could say if challenged that they can take any class eventually offered this year which may be far fewer classes than previously.
How do we know that that faculty member (and dept Director whose program just got eliminated) is not lying? Both have a vested interest to shade the truth.
Part of the allure of NCF is that if a class isn’t offered, you design your own.
As the title of this thread states, Desantis’ goal was to transform NCF, and it appears he’s done that. It isn’t the same school. About 100 students have transferred. About 85 graduated. About 350 incoming freshmen who don’t have the same educational goals as those who have left.
That is incorrect. (36 vacancies out of ~100 faculty)
*As a result of retirements, scheduled leaves of absence, and only six resignations, New College expects to be without 36 faculty members from the 2022-2023 school year. Again, as it’s important to include in your story for context only six of these departures are the result of resignations, and additionally, only roughly 25% of the total departures followed the changes in the New College Board of Trustees. Just as we are welcoming a record incoming class of students, we will complete record hiring to fill the 36 vacated positions and more to meet the needs of our growing enrollment. As we have consistently stated, the full roster of classes will be available to our students this fall.
Sorry, I meant “gone”, not "quit"as in resigned -my bad, that was poorly worded.
That’s 36 in early July. More left between that date and mid August.
A professor who had found another position (perhaps prior to the changes) had offered to remotely teach her advanced class, which no one was left to teach, sth her new institution had agreed to, but weirdly in August New College refused --so the class isn’t offered.
Considering the state of the academic job market, if there wasn’t a problem, would the president advertise 14 positions on Twitter in August?
It’s simply not believable that with way fewer professors and more students, all previously scheduled courses can be offered, especially at the upper level, for graduating seniors.
Entirely possible the departed program director is exaggerating or grinding an axe. Also plausible (I would argue likely) that Corcoran is very carefully choosing words to minimize some of the upheaval. 36 out of about a hundred faculty do not normally retire, resign or take leaves of absence in any given year, and saying that only a quarter of them happened after the board changes took effect implies that no one saw the writing on the wall a year ago and took earlier action. And how many of the “retirements” were unplanned and/or coerced?
Regardless of the causes behind turning over almost 40% of faculty in a short period, the results might reasonably include some combination of (i) not having the same number of faculty for the Fall academic year start (as evidenced by the statements that they’re still hiring), (ii) seeing a dropoff in quality of faculty (especially in light of the fairly openly hostile environment in regards to academic freedom, tenure, etc.), (iii) not including a number of previously taught courses in this year’s catalog, (iv) increased class sizes in some areas of study, and/or (v) some faculty taking on heavier teaching loads. None of those are great.
I wouldn’t be surprised if the missing end of the sentence “Every single student will be able to take the courses they want” to be “…as long as we’re offering that course this year, and possibly with 2x as many fellow students in their lectures as in years past.” Denial of classes being “canceled” is not quite the same as saying “Every class offered last year will be there this year, with just as much professorial attention per student.” He could just be relying on “cancel” as implying something was initially offered and then pulled, rather than “discontinued.”
My sense is that in the best of worlds, NCF has lost a significant portion of its best students and professors and replaced them with (more) new students of a lower academic profile and professors of lower academic profile, some of which will be the equivalent of community college instructors. Even if they’ve made a conscious decision that they can afford to alienate a lot of upperclassmen whose majors have been eliminated, and that they’re OK with driving off professors they think are too liberal, they’re taking an immediate step back in general reputation and quality of education. Less qualified students taking classes from less qualified professors in larger, less personal settings. And living in a hotel next to an airport.
