From The News Service of Florida: The state university system’s Board of Governors on Wednesday approved a contract for Richard Corcoran to lead New College of Florida amid an effort by Gov. Ron DeSantis to reshape the liberal-arts school.
Corcoran, a Republican former House speaker and state education commissioner, is slated to begin his term as interim president Monday. The contract would allow Corcoran to remain as leader of the small university in Sarasota through September of 2024 if a permanent president isn’t selected before then. Corcoran will make a base salary of $699,000, a rate of pay that was approved by the revamped New College Board of Trustees earlier this month.
After DeSantis in January appointed six conservative members to the trustees board, the trustees decided on Jan. 31 to remove former president Patricia Okker, who earned a base salary of $305,000. The disparity between Corcoran’s base salary and Okker’s pay has sparked fierce criticism from opponents of Corcoran’s selection.
Another part of Corcoran’s contract drew pushback during Wednesday’s board meeting. Board member Jose Oliva, who also is a former Republican House speaker, balked at a provision in the contract that would allow Corcoran to earn 15 percent of his annual salary in incentive pay. Oliva suggested that the Board of Governors be given “greater oversight and participation on how bonuses are structured” and awarded. However, Oliva — who succeeded Corcoran as House speaker — said that his opposition to the contract was unrelated to his view of Corcoran as a candidate.
Oliva called Corcoran a leader who can “remove entrenched bureaucracies and fight the status quo.” Board member Alan Levine echoed Oliva’s praise of Corcoran, saying that the New College trustees “want to go in a different direction” with the school.
“There’s nobody who can help New College navigate this transition better than Richard Corcoran,” Levine said. Corcoran’s base salary was a point of contention during a meeting of the New College Board of Trustees on Tuesday.
“There’s been no other candidates considered. So I just don’t understand if the justification is that this is a competitive salary,” trustee Grace Keenan, who also is president of the New College Student Alliance, said. But Charles Kessler, who was one of DeSantis’s recent wave of trustee appointees, defended Corcoran’s salary amount.
“I think the justification for it is the expectation and the hope that the budget of the college will be growing in the next few years,” Kessler said Tuesday.