There is only one guest graduation speaker.
My definition of education is probably quite different than yours.
Yes, I keep an open mind.
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It was a wonderful opportunity for some bright quirky, creative, nontraditional students and the fact that they had wonderful MH support services was an added bonus. Such services are greatly needed and sorely lacking at the large majority of colleges and universities. This is such a loss for these wonderful students. They recognized early on that wellness is multifaceted and provided resources for their students. Other schools should take note. Schools that donât recognize the MH needs of students will suffer in other ways.
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My definition of education includes learning to disagree respectfully. In this sense, Iâd have to agree that we differ.
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Perhaps colleges arent the best place to get serious mental health needs addressed. There are plenty of specialized facilities staffed by health professionals with expertise and experience in addressing such needs on both an outpatient and inpatient basis, in both intensive and occasional care, fortunately. I wouldnt expect a small liberal arts college to solve a studentâs physical disease, but to refer it out to an appropriate professional. Same with mental health. The minor and routine issues can be addressed; severe or chronic issues should be referred out
I wonder if that drove up the costs.
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Nope- had nothing to do with driving up costs AFAIK. They had a variety of MH resources but it didnât break the bank. No one is saying that the college is where âserious mental health needs â are being addressed. SImply said that New College has a good number of MH support services for their students. Your post makes it sound like New College was some intensive outpatient or partial hospitalization facility !!!
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Thatâs interesting. I guess since Florida has one of the most regressive tax systems in the country, thereâs some justice in making their wealthy, white, females attend college in Vermont.
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Or perhaps they could attend the many other public universities in Florida, as most of their high school classmates do.
I notice you didnât say, âpublic LACsâ.
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They could apply to USF-Sarasota/Manatee, which is listed as a public liberal arts college in Florida with a better ranking and higher stats students than New College. Presumably at least some would get in.
Or those with that generous Bright Future scholarship could apply it towards tuition at a private Florida LAC like Eckard or Rollins
Oh, is that the one where Gov. DeSantis is spending $42 million - nearly equal to NSFâs entire budget - for a new student union?
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You are correct! Well, they shouldnât build that center either, in my opinion. I disagree with a lot of spending items.
Iâll bite, since youâve elided taking an actual position in favor of generalities in every single post on this thread. What is your definition of âeducation?â
You keep saying bland things about âkeeping an open mindâ and âlistening to all sidesâ and whatnot, but you steadfastly refuse to engage on the actual substance of any of the responses you get. Atlasâs positions and his actual commencement speech are out there. Theyâre documented. Whatâs your take on them?
Your pushback to aqaupt here does not make the point you think it does. If hearing both sides of every argument is so important, then shouldnât there be more than one speaker? Why wasnât a rebuttal speaker slotted?
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Itâs still a numbers game. NCF has to have at least one of everything for 700 students, even if another school can have one ________ (fill in the blank) (title 9 officer, CFO, dean of students, mental health counselor, president/chancellor, head of the English dept) who serves 1500 or even 4000 students. There is an economy of scale that just canât be reached at teeny tiny colleges.
there are some small private schools that can run on a shoestring budget or that survive on endowments, but are there any other public schools that are this small and depend on huge per student funding from their state?
I think NCF-style school could work if it were a branch of a bigger university, if the students had to use the services of the bigger school (bursarâs office, health services, bookstore, title 9 officers, police) yet they got to be their own school (student government, activities, buildings, professors, graduation). I just donât see how the finances can work otherwise.
See the college closing thread to see all the schools that couldnât make the finances work, especially for small schools.
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Some New College updates:
Over a third of the faculty members have left. Many of last yearâs students are continuing their education elsewhere. Hampshire College, a small private liberal arts school in New England, has offered financial aid to New College students so they can transfer without tuition increases. Thirty-five plan to attend Hampshire this fall, and 30 more have inquired about doing so in the spring, a large number, given that last year New College had fewer than 700 students. Last week, New Collegeâs leadership announced that it was moving to abolish the gender studies department. Chris Rufo, the culture warrior whom DeSantis put on New Collegeâs board of trustees, boasted that it would be âthe first public university in America to begin rolling back the encroachment of gender ideology and queer theory on its academic offerings.â
As of July, New College had 328 incoming students, a record for the school. Of the group, 115 are athletes, and 70 were recruited to play baseball, even though, as Walker reported, New College has no real sports facilities and has yet to be accepted into the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics. By comparison, the University of Floridaâs far more established baseball team has 37 student-athletes.
MwfanâŠWhat? 70 baseball recruits? Did these kids know there would be 70 recruits when a typical team carries 35 students? Do they know that the NAIA hasnât yet accepted New College, nor do they have a conference to play in? Do they know the school has no athletic facilites?
Gift link: At a College Targeted by DeSantis, Gender Studies Is Out, Jocks Are In
Another article with details on the academic stats of the class and the athletes.
Overall, the average ACT and SAT scores for the incoming fall class at New College were lower than the previous year. The same groupâs overall GPA was also lower than in fall of 2022, according to data obtained by the Herald-Tribune and confirmed by the college*.*
Much of the drop in average scores can be attributed to incoming student-athletes who, despite scoring worse on average, have earned a disproportionate number of the schoolâs $10,000-per-year merit-based scholarships.
Establishing an athletic program from scratch within months has been a foundation of Corcoranâs plan to swell the Fall 2023 class, the first class under his guidance and a cornerstone in the Gov. Ron DeSantis-directed transformation of the school into a more conservative, classical liberal arts college in the mold of the Christian Hillsdale College in Michigan.
The combined GPA for student-athletes admitted to New College for the coming year was 3.61, compared with 3.7 for the overall population of 328 students enrolled so far. The student-athlete combined ACT score was 22 compared to 24 for the whole class. The student-athlete SAT score was 1097 compared to 1147 for the combined group of incoming students, according to records.
The average GPA of enrolled freshmen and transfers is 3.7 this year compared to 3.96 last year, records showed. This yearâs average ACT score was 24, down from 27 last year. The average SAT score was 1147, a drop from 1239 the year prior.
Mwfan: Seems calling New College an honors college is not accurate. AlsoâŠanother piece of support that high school grade inflation is alive and well, these are high GPAs with relatively low test scores (although they are above average).
New College hasnt been an honors college for many years. Lower grades and test scores than UF.
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The DeSantis attack on science and education is wounding the state at all levels:
I believe all 50 states now claim to have critical teacher shortages, which I would have expected the teachersâ union to know. Odd that they donât.
States with the most vacancies currently:
I dislike DeSantis, but the nationwide teacher shortage is largely not his fault.
Florida weighs honors courses +.5, AP/IB/AICE/coreDE +1. 3.7 is average for college going students, roughly a B average. UF and FSU expect 4.2-4.4, top students could have 4.5-4.6.
An issue the new NCF is quickly going to run into is that 1/3 to one half of the class is a poor match for âclassical humanitiesâ (if not more, depending on what they know about the curriculum.)
Hillsdale students know why they choose the college; itâs an alternative to Calvin, Hope, Grove City, Wheaton IL. The students WANT that curriculum.
I highly doubt mid to low-stats student athletes were even told about the curriculum - just as itâs dubious they know there are no facilities and no team against whom to play. These 2 factors could lead to a few (a lot?) exiting.
More worrisome, Hillsdale students are excellent academically. Most have had 4 years in all 5 core subjects, many come from âclassicalâ high schools or âclassical educationâ homeschool. Theyâve read and analyzed Greek and Latin texts as well as the Bible. 87% admitted students have an ACT 30-36 and top GPAs so what that curriculum entails is well within their ability in addition to being inherently interesting to them - lots of primary sources (especially historical), lots of reading&writing for instance.
A drop from 27 average ACT (Top 15% for Florida I think) to 24, with a large group around 22, is a big deal. Typically it means the average reader needs time to process and understand, may not analyze, synthesize or find implied meaning. In short, not the skills that work for a âclassicalâ curriculum.
Because athletes need a minimum GPA to compete and all students need a certain GPA to keep their financial aid, itâs going to be an issue.
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