Thank you for your excellent editorial: “The rest of a sad story at New College.”
It is a welcome antidote to the propaganda pieces the school has sponsored. As a New College alumnus, it makes me cry to see the vultures feasting on the carcass of my school.
It used to be a wonderfully weird, “Hippie, do your own thing,” school (in my father’s words). It absolutely encouraged exploration of whatever interested you. Bright and self-directed people could thrive, and as you noted, it produced outsized results.
It was chronically underfunded and enjoyed a certain neglect that made us “scrappy.”
Art classes were taught in a condemned Army barracks. The school made a virtue of its poverty. It would cite articles from U.S. News & World Report declaring New College one of the best values in public universities — an Ivy League education for the price of a good stereo.
My professors were slightly embarrassed by the thought of being the blue light special of higher education, but they loved teaching even in the genteel squalor.
Enter the surgeons. Gov. Ron DeSantis needed a showcase “anti-woke” project. He showered money on things nobody asked for. It makes me cry to think of how we used to beg for money to repair a roof, but now there are millions for a third-rate baseball program.
Soon the grifters will lose interest. The Legislature will pull the plug on the endless spending and the building contracts will dry up. The surgeons will excuse themselves, declaring the patient was “too woke to live.” The land will end up in the hands of a developer friend of the governor, and the vultures will fly away.
Curt Leimbach, Tampa
Wonderfully said
Please accept my heartiest congratulations on your wonderful editorial on New College. I hope it will be widely distributed around the state.
Jonathan Scott Perry, Tampa
The writer, speaking individually, is a professor at the University of South Florida Sarasota-Manatee and vice president of the USF Faculty Senate.
An insightful refutation
I am grateful to you for your clear and insightful refutation of the recent front-page New York Times article (of Dec. 28, 2025) about New College of Florida.
Each point that you make — from the administrations’ decision to dump gender studies books in the trash to erecting a Charlie Kirk statue that no one wants to prioritizing sports over academics to sweeping retention problems and plummeting rankings, overpaying less qualified leaders and on and on — clarifies for readers the true nature of the grift, mismanagement and poor outcomes that are the result of Richard Corcoran and DeSantis’ mismanagement of the honors college.
Thank you for continuing to respect the truth in an age of false narratives.
Hannah Onstad, Oakland, Calif.
Birds of a feather
Gov. Ron DeSantis appointed former University of Florida and Jacksonville Jaguars head coach Urban Meyer to serve on the board of trustees at the New College of Florida.
Like DeSantis, Meyer has a reputation of being a shyster. It’s probably why Meyer pals around with Donald Trump and worked for Fox Sports. Birds of a feather wallow in the gutter together.
So Look in the mirror, those of you who voted for DeSantis. What did I tell you about yourself?
Don Whisman, Stuart
The empty Epstein files
(Editor’s Note: This letter responds to one from Linda Ribner of Lauderhill, who criticized Republicans for refusing to fully release the Jeffrey Epstein files.)
My half of a functioning brain sees that Democrats had control of the presidency for four years and the House and Senate for part of that same time. If there was anything to the Jeffrey Epstein files, Democrats would have promptly released them.
You’re having a difficult time seeing the forest. The trees are blocking your view.
Thomas Kruse, Boca Raton
Please submit a letter to the editor by email to letterstotheeditor@sunsentinel.com or fill out the online form below. Letters may be up to 200 words and must be signed with your email address, city of residence and daytime phone number for verification. Letters will be edited for clarity and length.
https://www.sun-sentinel.com/2026/01/07/truth-telling-about-new-college-letters-to-the-editor/
