House Plan Shifts USF’s Sarasota Campus Under Control of Right-Winged New College

This year’s budget negotiations will entail negotiating the future of University of South Florida’s Sarasota-Manatee campus.

The Florida House Higher Education Budget Subcommittee Monday approved transferring the campus to New College of Florida on a party line vote, in line with Gov. Ron DeSantis’ budget proposal.

However, the Senate is not on the same page, leaving such a swap completely out of its initial budget documents. Since Senate President Ben Albritton and House Speaker Daniel Perez took their posts in late 2024, it has more often been the other way around, that the House and DeSantis are at odds.

“The rationale behind this policy is that USF’s primary campus is located in Tampa while New College is located in Sarasota, so transferring what is now currently the Sarasota-Manatee facilities to the institution that is already headquartered in Sarasota aligns governance with geographic proximity. It allows for more direct oversight, strategic planning, and responsiveness to regional needs as New College seeks,” House Higher Education Budget Subcommittee Chair Demi Busatta, R-Coral Gables, said.

Democrats voted against the bill, PCB HEB 26-01, in its first committee stop. Before it was presented, House Democratic Leader Fentrice Driskell said the prospect of the transfer “reeks of grift.”

“I know it probably comes from political negotiations and so forth because, from a clearly fiscal perspective, it is not a good policy proposal,” Rep. Anna Eskamani, a Democrat from Orlando, said.

Eskamani pointed out that the USF-SM student population is made up of more nontraditional students and the programs that operate out of that location are designed to fit workforce needs of that area such as nursing and elementary education.

Busatta said this move would be fiscally responsible and that none of the USF programs would be eliminated

“Current USF students would still be USF students, and current New College students would still be New College students, so the tuition, fees, all of that, would stay the same because we’re not transferring the student to USF from New College, we’re just transferring the facility,” Busatta said.

The campuses are just blocks away from each other on Sarasota Bay, near the Sarasota Bradenton International Airport.

The House proposed budget includes, if it and this bill were to pass, nearly $22.5 million to be shifted from from USF’s budget to New College’s. The transfer would have to be completed by Oct. 30 and would include transfer of debt for facilities.

New College, too, would have to pay USF-SM $166,617 per month until the transfer goes through in October.

“In plain English, we are considering putting a massive and impossible weight on an institution that doesn’t generate recurring revenue to carry it, then calling it reform. If this were a private transaction, the board would be sued for breach of duty before the ink dried,” Rep. Daryl Campbell, a Democrat from Fort Lauderdale, said.

According to a state-authored report, New College of Florida costs Florida taxpayers nearly $500,000 to graduate each student, by far the highest cost among the 12 state universities.

House Democrats did not forget that report when debating the land transfer.

“If we want New College to succeed, we should be voting for measurable cost controls, enrollment stabilization, and outcomes we can audit, and not a debt transfer that compounds risk and dares the Legislature to keep writing checks for forever,” Campbell said.

WUSF reported  earlier this month that student governments at all three USF campuses objected to the proposal to transfer land to New College.

“I do think that that the transfer would help with some of the challenges, especially like housing that students often face,” Busatta said.

New College announced it would house students in hotels in 2023 after mold was found in student dorms. The New College housing website lists a hotel as a housing option. The USF Sarasota-Manatee campus has a dorm.

Last year, DeSantis called for Florida State University to transfer its Ringling Museum and surrounding property located adjacent to New College of Florida, to New College. That deal did not materialize.

Since New College was put under different board of trustee leadership and Richard Corcoran was named president in 2023, the institution has been been made in a more politically conservative light, with DeSantis calling for it to become the “Hillsdale of the South.”

USF Board of Trustees Chair and former House Speaker Will Weatherford posted to social media Sunday a link to a Tampa Bay Times story about the land swap, writing, “With respect to the folks at the Tampa Bay Times, there is a zero percent chance that this will happen. Zero as in ‘0’,”

Board of Governors Chair Alan Levine replied to Weatherford.

More to the bill

The bill would give individual university boards of trustees power to set out-of-state tuition, a privilege now held by the State University System’s Board of Governors.

Additionally, the bill approved by subcommittee Monday would allow state funds to be used to support Title IX, funding things such as scholarships, administration, and more.

–Jay Waagmeester, Florida Phoenix