Bill would abolish Sarasota-based New College as independent school and make it part of FSU

A bombshell university consolidation bill that would abolish New College of Florida and Florida Polytechnic University as independent entities has been filed in the Florida House.

The legislation targets the two youngest members of Florida’s university system. New College became the 11th member of the system in 2001, while Florida Polytechnic became the 12th in 2012.

New College would become part of Florida State University under the proposal, while Florida Polytechnic would become part of the University of Florida. Each school would cease to exist as an independently accredited academic institution, with their properties transferred to FSU and UF.

The legislation is scheduled to be heard in the House Education Committee Wednesday at 10 a.m.. lt is sure to generate strong reaction, especially in the Sarasota region, where New College is located, and in Lakeland, home to Florida Polytechnic University.

House leaders spearheaded a similar university consolidation effort in 2018 that stripped the University of South Florida Sarasota-Manatee and the University of South Florida St. Petersburg of independent accreditation and made them satellites of the main University of South Florida campus again.

Florida Polytechnic also once was a USF satellite before it became independently accredited.

New College was a private liberal arts college before becoming USF’s honors college and then striking out on its own as an independent public liberal arts honors college.

Florida State University has had a presence in Sarasota since 2000, when the Florida Legislature placed the stewardship of The Ringling under the university.

New College of Florida’s campus is near The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art.

The Ringling is operated as part of the FSU College of Fine Arts.

Students enrolled in the college’s master’s program in Museum and Cultural Heritage Studies complete eight museum and art history courses in Tallahassee during their first year and spend their second year gaining hands-on experience at The Ringling.

The Ringling campus, one of the largest college arts complexes in the country, houses the Sarasota Ballet, Asolo Repertory Theatre, ad the FSU/Asolo Conservatory for Actor Training.

Consolidation is being pitched as an effort to increase efficiency and to more effectively use limited resources.

“We have an obligation to taxpayers to generate degrees at the lowest possible cost. Unfortunately, degrees earned from Florida Poly and New College cost an order of magnitude more than they do at the other 10 universities,” state Rep. Randy Fine told the Florida Politics website, which first reported the consolidation effort.

Fine, chairman of the House Higher Education Appropriations Subcommittee, said the legislation is an outcome of the committee’s interest in cutting spending in higher education.

“We have talked about ways to curtail higher education spending,” Fine, a Brevard County Republican, told the Tallahassee Democrat Tuesday evening. “These two colleges cost an extra zero versus the other 10 in the (state university) system.”

He added, “if a taxpayer can pay $20,000 for a degree at USF, why would they pay $200,000 at Florida Polytechnic?”

Fine also said the state allocates $7 billion a year to fund the state’s 12 public universities and 28 state colleges.

“The problem with Florida Polytechnic and New College is they are so small,” he said. “There are not a lot of students to spread these expenses around.”

Fine said he speaks to FSU President John Thrasher frequently but has not a chance to discuss the proposed committee bill with him. He said the goal was to pair Florida Polytechnic and New College of Florida with the state’s two premier universities.

“It’s a great opportunity for Florida State to pick up the Honors College (New College of Florida) of the state,” he said of New College’s mission. “I think it’s very good for FSU to leverage its infrastructure and its low administrative expenses.”

Fine said the bill is a committee bill, which shows it has support: “I’m optimistic we’ll be successful, but we have a long way to go.”

But both New College and Florida Polytechnic have strong supporters in their communities, and New College has a 60-year history that would come to an end if the legislation is approved.

The two schools make up a tiny fraction of the Florida University system’s total enrollment.

New College had just 724 students at the start of the academic year, which is small even for a liberal arts college.

The school has been trying unsuccessfully to grow enrollment. Instead, the student headcount has dropped in recent years despite state lawmakers allocating millions in recurring funds to hire more professors and expand academic programs in an effort to boost the student body to 1,200.

Tallahassee Democrat senior writer Byron Dobson, who covers higher education, contributed to this report.