New College should clarify incentives in chief’s contract

According to the contract of New College of Florida President Richard Corcoran, Jan. 30 was the deadline for the school’s Board of Trustees to pay him up to $200,000 in incentive compensation.

Corcoran is not automatically entitled to anything in incentive compensation; to get the money, he must achieve certain goals. If the board is pleased with the president’s work, it can give him the whole $200,000. If there are problems, the board can give him less. And if the president has really botched things up, the board doesn’t have to give him anything at all.

Basically, then, it’s a question of whether Corcoran has earned the equivalent of an extremely generous tip – one as high as nearly 29% – on top of his $699,000 base salary.

Corcoran’s goals, duties

So what goals must Corcoran achieve to receive this incentive compensation? According to Section 8(a) of the president’s contract, the goals involve:

● Increasing fundraising for New College.

● Increasing campus life inclusive of improvements to student housing, food services. adding sports programs and maintaining membership in National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics.

● Re-envisioning the campus master plan.

● Increasing campus safety and security.

● Faculty additions with growth and excellence (which sounds both vague and confusing).

● Increasing enrollment growing to 1,200 by the end of Year Five.

● Enriching academic programs and offerings. Increasing second-year retention metric growing to 85% by Year Five.

The contract also says the board may also request that Corcoran “revise or create additional goals from time to time.” These goals are anything but arbitrary: Corcoran’s contract says the goals must “reflect the duties set forth in Section 3 above.” And, according to Corcoran’s contract, here are the four “duties” that Section 3 calls for him to carry out:

● Ensure an enriching educational experience for the student body.

● Ensure New College has an engaged and highly qualified faculty.

● Ensure that there is transparent, accurate and timely communication with the board.

● Ensure there is overall positive student enrollment growth.

So what did the Board of Trustees say about whether President Corcoran met the goals and fulfilled his duties? How much did it give him?

Unfortunately, the board neither said nor did anything by the Jan. 30 deadline. In fact, as of this writing, the matter of Corcoran’s actual incentive compensation is still pending.

Corcoran’s successes, failures

It is true that Corcoran can claim some successes as New College president.

The Florida Legislature has poured millions into New College since Gov. Ron DeSantis began taking a keen interest in the school in January 2023. Corcoran used some of that money to create new $10,000-peryear scholarships to give to incoming students – though not to returning students – at his discretion.

Meanwhile, New College’s enrollment has spiked upward, though the academic benchmarks of the Fall 2023 class were lower than those during the previous year.

And Corcoran did create an intercollegiate sports program at New College. Indeed, the school recruited more student baseball players than the University of

Florida, which is a much larger school – and despite the fact New College doesn’t have a baseball stadium on its campus.

However, Corcoran’s record as New College president is also rife with shortcomings.

During summer 2023, while the college was out of session, Corcoran reneged on previously agreed housing arrangements with returning students. After taking this step with very little advance notice, Corcoran moved the affected students into rented hotel space off-campus to give prime, oncampus dormitories to the newly recruited athletes.

Meanwhile, any consideration of campus security and safety must take into account that the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights received a formal complaint in August 2023 from LGBTQ+ students and others that documented allegations of hostile and discriminatory treatment by Corcoran’s administration.

Corcoran has also fallen short in adequately communicating with the board in a transparent, accurate and timely manner – and a recent incident illustrated that flaw. During the Feb. 22 board meeting, a trustee asked Corcoran if essays were no longer a required part of the school’s admissions application. Such an assertion, Corcoran replied, was “far from the truth.”

Minutes later, however, members of the audience were able to verify with their smartphones that New College’s updated online application clearly stated that essays were optional for applicants seeking admission for fall 2024. So why did Corcoran dismiss the trustee’s question? Was he unaware of what the application stated?

Corcoran’s greatest weakness, however, may well be his lack of a relationship with New College of Florida’s faculty: about a third of the school’s teachers left after the end of Corcoran’s first semester – resulting in a staggering loss of talented educators.

Moreover, almost every significant step Corcoran has taken to change academic programs and offerings – from pursuing a new Freedom Institute to partnering with the Ricketts Great Books College to creating a Center for the Study of Western Civilization and more – has disregarded the current collective bargaining agreement with United Faculty of Florida and the college’s faculty handbook.

Corcoran also recently appointed David Rancourt to the position of interim provost. However, Rancourt – a longtime lobbyist who originally joined the school in August as dean of student affairs – has no experience in academia other than his short time at New College.

So why is a political operative serving as Corcoran’s liaison with the faculty in all matters pertaining to the academic program at New College? And why is this political operative overseeing the offices that directly support the academic program?

When it comes to Corcoran’s incentive compensation, the most important thing may be how the Board of Trustees ultimately makes its decision on this issue. Will the trustees solicit input from students, faculty and staff ? If so, will they guarantee anonymity? Will they make the results of such a survey public? And, most of all, if a prevailing opinion emerges from the campus community, will the board actually act in accordance with it?

The issue of Corcoran’s incentive compensation should be an opportunity to hold the equivalent of a campuswide referendum on the first year of his leadership at New College. How the board handles this opportunity will say much about how it actually views its fiduciary duty to the honors college of Florida’s State University System.