Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ proposed budget, released this week, contains a plan to transfer the University of South Florida's Sarasota-Manatee campus to neighboring New College of Florida, an idea that sparked outcry among USF alumni and supporters earlier this year.
The deal would hand over 32 acres of land, new dormitories, classrooms, a new STEM lab under construction, and office space to New College. The public liberal arts university is headed by President Richard Corcoran, who is pushing to overhaul higher ed and eliminate "woke" teaching on Florida campuses.
In exchange, New College, which is about a mile away, would take on the debt which USF incurred building its new dormitories, and take advantage of a much larger space to grow its offerings.
Some 2,000 students and 300 faculty and staff are based at USF-SM. A USF spokeswoman said the dormitory debt amounts to $53 million.
“We don’t control the outcome,” USF Board of Trustees chair Will Weatherford said Thursday.
“This is the very beginning of the process when the governor makes his recommendations. The legislature will be meeting for at least the next 60 days starting in January, perhaps longer. So, a lot of ball to be played, as they say," he told a board of trustees meeting.
Weatherford, however, gave no indication that USF would fight it, saying “it's not something we dictate or control, and we won't be necessarily opining on every day as it as it ebbs and flows over the coming weeks and months.”
The wording in the governor’s budget mirrors language in a bill that USF drafted earlier this year and sent to New College for approval, according to public records obtained by WUSF.
Emails showed both New College and USF were working behind the scenes toward a transfer, but nothing appeared during last year’s legislative session.
New College did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday.
Corcoran said in August “everyone is on board again” with the handover idea. New College is growing its student body, and under Corcoran’s leadership has moved in a more conservative direction, with “classical” educational offerings that emulate the Christian private school known as Hillsdale College in Michigan.
However, critics point to a major disparity in how much a degree at New College costs compared to other schools in the Florida state university system.
A DOGE report released in November showed New College far outspends other state universities, while its graduates get fewer jobs and make less money.
A degree at New College costs $494,715 to produce, compared to $72,252 at USF, or seven times less, in large part due to more administrators per student and high salary costs at New College.
Those efficiency issues are expected to come up in future Florida Board of Governors meetings, especially if New College is taking on even more debt by acquiring USF-SM.
The handover language in DeSantis’s budget was released a day ahead of a Board of Governors meeting to confirm a new president at USF.
Former USF business college dean Moez Limayem, currently president of the University of North Florida, is expected to succeed USF President Rhea Law, who is retiring.
Alumni, members of the business community and former leaders of USF Sarasota-Manatee rallied against a handover of the campus earlier this year, and are now organizing once again, one campus leader said.
Weatherford said USF students and faculty would be protected in case of any handover.
“I want it to be heard loud and clear that students of USF are our students, and whatever commitments we've made to them, we will fulfill. And faculty and staff who work for the University of South Florida, regardless of what campus they work on, we are going to work with them, protect them, and make sure that there's minimal impacts if and when they do come,” he said.
