New College's Interim President Paid Double The Former Leader At $699K

SARASOTA, FL — Richard Corcoran, tapped by Gov. Ron DeSantis to serve as the interim president during his conservative overhaul of Sarasota’s New College of Florida will earn more than double what the previous president earned, according to multiple reports.

Florida’s former education commissioner will earn a base salary of $699,000 annually, according to the Sarasota Herald-Tribune.

That’s on top of his benefits package. Corcoran will receive an $84,000 annual housing stipend, a $12,000 vehicle stipend and $104,850 put toward his retirement each year. He could also earn a bonus worth 15 percent of his annual salary each year.

New College’s recently ousted president, Patricia Okker, earned $305,000 annually as her base salary with a $40,000 housing stipend and an $8,000 vehicle stipend, according to the Tampa Bay Times.

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The college’s Board of Trustees approved Corcoran’s salary and benefits Monday at a meeting.

The only board member to vote against it was Grace Keenan, a student trustee who expressed concerns about possible Sunshine Law violations, Florida Politics reported.

Because Corcoran’s lobbying firm announced his hiring at New College before the board ever met, this “gives the impression” that trustees were doing business outside the public eye, violating state law, she said.

Last month, DeSantis announced his plans to reshape the college, which previously operated under a progressive philosophy, as a conservative school focused on the classics.

The governor’s six new appointees to the board are:

• Christopher Rufo, a conservative activist known for challenging critical race theory and gender ideology,
• Matthew Spalding, a professor and dean at Hillsdale College, a conservative Christian college in Michigan,
• Charles R. Kesler, a government professor at Claremont-McKenna College in California, where the conservative movement in America is among his areas of expertise, and the author of several books, including “I Am the Change: Barack Obama and the Crisis of Liberalism,”
• Mark Bauerlein, an Emory University English professor who once described himself as an “educational conservative” to Reason magazine,
• Debra Jenks, a New College alumna and attorney, and
• Jason “Eddie” Speir, founder of Inspiration Academy, a private, Christian, sports academy in Bradenton.

New College, a public honors, liberal arts college, touts itself as an institution that educates “free thinkers, risk takers and trailblazers,” according to its website.

It tells prospective students, “Your education. Your way. Discover a public arts and science education driven by your curiosity, career aspirations and individual learning style.”

Each student creates an individualized degree plan with an emphasis on hands-on learning.

But the DeSantis’ administration hopes to eradicate concepts such as diversity, equity and inclusion, as well as critical race theory from the classroom at New College and other higher education institutions.

"It is our hope that New College of Florida will become Florida's classical college, more along the lines of a Hillsdale of the south," Florida Education Commissioner Manny Diaz said in a statement, according to the Sarasota Herald-Tribune.