A better question might be why did the school’s administration and faculty not address the issue successfully? Did they just not care since the state was paying?
Seems to me, the only thing that’s changed is that the state is willing to pay even more to make it into a quasi-religious college.
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Perhaps that is anticipation of selling it.
They’ll be lucky to get back the real estate value.
So, every source, and every individual, gets an unlimited number of chances to be credible and worth your time to listen to? I understand this as an ideal, I guess, but in real life, we don’t have an infinite amount of attention to devote to those who have already proven they don’t deserve it. Nobody can listen to everybody, so throwing good time after bad with a Scott Atlas, even if it’s harmless, is coming at the expense of something more valuable and informative. (And not every source is harmless; in fact, not every source even intends to be harmless.) And all that said, I agree with what others are saying about the function of a commencement speaker as uniquely centered at a moment of celebration, not just one of many sources to be considered and evaluated. It’s one thing to challenge the student body, and another to tr*ll them.
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Sort of seems like, in your view, the school could do no right while the state can do no wrong.
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Per Wikipedia, it hasnt been around very long. It was a private college from 1960-75, then merged into USF from 1975-2001 receiving the same state funding per student as USF, then independent since 2001, when the costs skyrocketed. I think Florida taxpayers would approve a sale for land value. Far better to sell than to convert to another type of school-any other kind, really. There are plenty of good public choices already in Florida; no need for this facility.
Maybe it could be assisted living. Or a senior community.
Yes. Back in the day, we called many of them “teachers colleges”.
So, basically - and according to Wikipedia - this whole thing started as an administrative aberration: when NCF’s enrollment was tucked inside USF’s, it’s cost per student was reasonable, but once it was bracketed out separately, it became a punching bag.
Not sure punching bag is the metaphor-it used to be funded at the same level, proportionally, as USF ( it used private funds for any excess over that level). Starting in 2001, it was independent and taxpayer costs ballooned to $250k per student educated to degree, far above the USF level of $50k per student educated to degree.
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I wonder if the sale proceeds could fund more bright horizon scholarships
It’s not unusual for different branches within a university system to cost more per student than other branches. I’m pretty sure engineering costs more than the English department, even at USF. I think what happened was the actual costs became apparent once NCF decided, for whatever reason, to declare itself separate from the rest of the university.
Yes, but costs for a liberal arts college would be expected to be lower, not 5X the amount, of a university which includes engineering, etc
That’s one of the surprising things about per capita expenses. In any event, things looked pretty collegial back in 2001:
Class standing (upper level costs more) and delivery (online costs less) also affect cost of education.
Sometimes, these different costs are (partially) reflected in different tuition rates.
UF has different (lower) tuition for UF Online. But it does not appear to have different tuition by undergraduate major (like UIUC and Michigan) or undergraduate class standing (like Michigan). USF does not appear to have different tuition based on these factors.
Of course, very small colleges like NCF may have overhead costs that are not that dependent on size, so they are at the wrong end of economies of scale. In addition, the minimum size of each department needed to offer a major in the subject may mean an overall instructional staff count greater than a reasonable overall student-to-faculty ratio may suggest. Changing it to a politically right-leaning emphasis will not change this factor, unless that causes it to attract more students.
They tried to make it work. First it was a stand alone, then part of USF, then back to stand alone but a public school. In the 1970s when the school was gifted to the state, schools could be smaller and it didn’t cost so much to run them. Things are different now. According to Wikipedia, there are only 4000 graduates of NCF, and I think that counts back to 1960. That’s not very many in 60 years. NCF was to receive the same funding per student as USF students when the state took over. I don’t know when that became 10x as much.
The state also has to consider if those needs can be met by other schools in a more economical way, or if they are already being met by other LACs. Florida has honors colleges at the other universities, has smaller universities (U of West Florida, U of North Florida) for students who want a smaller experience. There are a lot of LACs in Florida like Florida Southern, Rollins, Eckerd and Florida residents can use their Bright Futures, Fl-SEOG grants, local scholarships at private schools. The state could take the money it is putting into NCF and set up private honors/exploratory studies/art scholarships and send those who would have gone to NCF to private LACs and still save money. It won’t be the same style of education, but there is no guarantee that a state will provide the perfect school for any student.
I have no problem with NCF continuing to operate and do it with 700 students if they can do it on the same per-student budget as all the other public schools in Florida.
DeSantis could have just cut the budget, not put in a new board. It may have been a faster death because I don’t think anyone is trying to save NCF.
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Yes, the point is - and this is my understanding - for $7000 a year, a Floridian had access to one of the most distinctive educational experiences in the United States, and, now they won’t. I’m not a Floridian, so the same experience would have cost my kids $30,000. My nose isn’t the one that’s being cut to spite my face.
SOME Floridians have that access, and the rest of the state pays for it because it doesn’t cost $7000 to educate them like NCF is. It’s all subsidized.
What if 400 Floridians wanted a world class music school or a theater school that taught using the Strasberg method only? Should Florida pull money from other schools to give these 400 students what they want? Public education has to be designed for the masses.
I wish each student in the world could have exactly the college experience he wants to have. All for free. And take your time because no need to get out in 4 years. But that’s just not realistic. There really have to be budgets, and limits on enrollment at some schools, and requirement to keep the scholarships.
Other states have an honors style/LAC school too like Geneseo (NY), St. Mary’s (MD), Ft. Lewis (CO) and UM-Morris (MN). None of those are so small or get so much more of the state education budgets as NCF. Evergreen State (WA) is probably the most like NCF and it has 2000 students, more than 800 of them freshmen last fall. It saw the need for more students and the faculty and board made that a goal, to get more students (and now to keep them).
IMO, it’s a numbers game. NCF needs more students to stay alive, and they need to find a way to spend less.
One of the many things that made New College unique is that it had a lot of MH staff for the small size of the school, so it was a great place for the quirky smart kid who wanted the opportunity to be creative in their personalized academic experience, have unique programming and faculty access, and a lot of MH support if they were in need of that. The “new” New College will obviously no longer attract those kids.
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Candidly, I am not sure any college wants to be especially attractive to students with mental health issues. Such issues are difficult and costly to address, treatment is not always effective, and the risk to the college is substantial. Many colleges feel their core mission, and competency, is education not the provision of serious medical services.
Per Wikipedia, the student demographic there is white, female and affluent. They have other choices
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