Nikki Cohen began her studies at New College in 1987. Originally from Philadelphia, she remembers being struck by the beauty of all the giant live oaks with hanging moss along the seaside campus.
"In that Southern Gothic kind of way, it was magic," she said.
In 1988, Cohen took part in a student protest to try and save a stand of oak trees on the college's east campus. Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport wanted to cut them down to make way for a parking lot.
The protest was called the Lorax Rebellion, after the Dr. Seuss character, The Lorax, who is the guardian of the forest and famously proclaims: "I speak for the trees. For the trees have no tongues."
"We had lawyers and we got an injunction against the airport tearing the trees down," said Cohen. "And they didn't care."
Some students camped overnight in the grove, on the eve of the tree removals.
ALSO READ: New College cuts down a grove of live oaks on Sarasota airport land. For what?
"They came with their bulldozers, and there were some students who had chained themselves to the trees and to the bulldozers, and they got arrested," said Cohen.
The trees came down. A parking lot was paved in their place. After that, Cohen was among the students who took matters into their own hands, and planted some new trees on other parts of the campus. Some are still there today.
"While on the surface this is about trees, it is absolutely not just about trees," said Cohen. "This was our home. This was an amazingly intellectual and progressive place. And the attempt is being made to replace it with this false story about how we were all radical leftists who sought the downfall of the country."
New College has gone in a more conservative direction since Gov. Ron DeSantis appointed a slate of new trustees to the board in 2023. It's part of his effort to get so-called "woke" ideology out of schools.
Part of the new push has been to recruit student athletes and build new ballfields. Next to a proposed baseball stadium is where the college cut down about a dozen old-growth oak trees a few weeks ago.
ALSO READ: New College's planned baseball field would overlap onto Sarasota airport land
"The city also wants to protect trees because it reflects the values of the community," said Sarasota's interim city manager Dave Bullock.
The city has an ordinance to protect what are called grand trees, like large live oaks. But there's a state law, Florida Statute 1013.30 that states: "Once a campus development agreement is executed, all campus development may proceed without further review by the local government if it is consistent with the adopted campus master plan."
In other words, universities are allowed do what they want, because they have their own master plans.
"When the state steps in and says, your zoning code or your other ordinances do not apply here, we have no authority to change that," said Bullock.
The airport didn’t take issue with it, either.
"After consultation with New College and the City of Sarasota, the development activities conducted by New College are consistent with the approved Campus Master Plan and Development Agreement. The airport has identified no issues or concerns," said Mark Stuckey, Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport executive vice president.
The New College master plan called for trees on another area known as the Uplands, to remain as part of a nature preserve. Some were a century old. But the college tore down more than 130 of them anyway, in 2024. Again, the city could do nothing to stop it.
"There was no consultation, no effort to even let anyone know in advance that this is going to happen," said Ben Brown, former chair of the New College Alumni Association.
He witnessed the backhoes ripping out the trees in the Uplands, and blasted the process in an editorial in the Sarasota Herald-Tribune.
"It was against the college's governing documents, and established procedures to do that. And so it was a completely new approach to land management that no one ever expected given the culture of the college up until that point." Brown said.
Jono Miller is the former head of environmental studies at New College, and has also criticized its master plan.
"We've seen this before, where the college acts to remove trees without considering all the angles," Miller said.
In Miller's view, the tree removals were "pre-emptive destruction," because the federal government hasn’t signed off on the development of the land New College leases.
In fact, the Federal Aviation Administration has said no new construction can begin — on a ballpark or anything else — until a new lease is negotiated. That hasn't happened.
The FAA issued a document in February 2025, which stated any improvements or expansion of existing facilities would face a series of regulatory hurdles, including first making sure those changes align with the airport master plan, and secondly, requiring an update to the lease terms.
For any sale of the 30-acres New College has leased for decades to be considered, a new fair market appraisal must be commissioned based on the new land survey, updated lease and redevelopment plan, the document said.
Asked for an update, the FAA said on Jan. 13 is has not received "any new construction proposals" for the area.
New College declined to answer specific questions about why the trees were cut. A spokesman said only the tree removals were to "address stormwater management needs."
This time, there were no protests to try and save them.
