When Donal O’Shea became New College of Florida’s fifth president in 2012, he made it his priority to create better links between the liberal arts education students receive and their future careers.
Last fall, the college’s Center for Engagement and Opportunity opened on the Sarasota campus to help to improve this translation of the liberal arts degree into post-graduation careers.
New College of Florida saw a 5 percent decline in the number of its graduates employed and/or continuing their education further one year after graduation from the previous year, which contributed to putting the college at risk for losing more than $1 million of its funding. The State University System Board of Governors is withholding $1,080,377 from New College of Florida — $645,594 of its base funds and $434,783 of its performance funds.
Since New College did not score high enough in the Performance Funding Model, the school was not eligible to initially have a portion of its base funding restored and was not allocated any of the $100 million new funds in 2014-15.
But the college is hoping that its recent improvements in career services programs will impress the Board of Governors to restore its baseline funding.
“This is not just a response to the Board of Governors,” New College spokesman David Gulliver said. “We also believe this is a priority.”