Originally Posted to: mindthecampus.org

By: David Rancourt, PhD & Mariano Jimenez Jr.

Beautiful Game

There has always been something special about college football. From the passion to the pageantry, this game exemplifies the true spirit of America—a force so powerful it can unite total strangers and divide close families. Tribal to its very core, football fans of all ages perform rites and rituals, embrace their team’s icons, and hope and even pray for victories.

Despite all its fanfare, what is most special about this game has always been its effect on the men who play it.

As young boys from all walks of life join local leagues to learn fundamentals and tactics, coaches and players alike will agree that football, more than anything else, is about the development of character, understanding each man’s role on a team, and learning to make the sacrifices necessary for success.  Players also learn that in this brotherhood, the only color that matters is that of the jersey on your back.

Football makes America better and stronger by instilling great values in the men who play the game.

Virtue Lost

Though purity remains in the youth and high school ranks, the virtue of the game is being destroyed at the college level.

Words like dedication, commitment, loyalty, team, sacrifice, and hard work have been lost for short-term gains of money and fame.  Recruiting has morphed from “what a better man a boy will become by playing for Coach Integrity at State U,” to nothing more than a bidding war.

Today’s talent auction pits the checkbooks and desire to win of D1 schools against one another to pay unproven and often ridiculously demanding 18-year-olds to sign what are now single-season letters of intent.

Of course, everything is temporary, no matter how good or bad the player turns out to be. At any time during the season, if things get difficult or coaches bench a player for well-deserved reasons, the player can simply quit, enter the transfer portal, sign a new deal elsewhere, and be celebrated again at the arrival of their next school.  Even great players in seemingly perfect situations are fair game for bidding wars. The unlimited transfer portal represents the essence of America’s tragic obsession with immediate gratification, eliminating virtues like commitment and resilience, teaching short-term gain over long-term development.

This is emblematic of a society that embraces shots for weight loss, pills for pain relief, and celebrities who are famous for nothing other than being famous.

What Caused This Mess?

As much as Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) and the Transfer Portal have been detrimental to the game, watch as unionization, salary caps, and administrators clamoring for state funds to pay players further erodes all that makes the game special. NFL style management structures and private equity have now also entered the equation, proving that college football is little more than a minor league for the NFL.

Though unfair, it would be easy to blame the players for their newfound greed and selfishness. However, after decades of everyone else making money off their backs, must we wonder where student-athletes developed their thirst for money and fame?  The blame lies squarely, emphatically, and precisely with the leaders of our universities who allowed and enabled all of this to happen.

Though no single person or entity is to blame for this decades-long escalating arms race, all parties involved bear some burden of responsibility, one of these authors included. As higher education in America has come under harsh review for many deserved reasons, the popularity of college football allowed it to escape critique, preventing a meaningful evaluation of how tepid, weak leadership and the siren’s song of greed and victory created this football monster.

Exploited for years by shrewder, better-informed agents pitting schools against one another for the services of overpaid coaches, university presidents and trustees were blinded by the adulation brought by victories. Few athletic directors possessed the experience necessary to evaluate the risk of complex multi-year contracts and buyouts properly. Colleges abandoned decades-long conference affiliations, aligned by academic and regional interests, to lure more money from big television payouts from other conferences. This created national mega-conferences that were great for television but terrible for traveling fans, student-athletes, and budgets.

A Better Way

Fans who long for a purer version of college football have options.

The Ivy League still has amateur student-athletes playing exciting, competitive games. These student-athletes don’t have tutors spoon-feeding them and typically attend in-person classes with their peers. The Ivy League does not pay players, has no affiliated collectives, and has no athletic scholarships. It also requires student-athletes to meet high admissions standards and earn meaningful degrees.  National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics member colleges also have high-quality intercollege sports, played by student-athletes who typically expect to turn pro in something other than the sport they play.

Principled leaders must take a stand and call for an end to collectives and all other monetary payments from universities to student-athletes.

NIL may be the law of the land, but if colleges prohibit NIL payments as conditions for playing at a specific school, then the market will sort out who is worth what at no cost to institutions.  The transfer portal must be reformed so that there are limits and consequences to transferring. Four-year eligibility limits must return along with an admissions mandate that all student-athletes fit within reasonable academic tiers met by all other admitted students. The academic standards don’t need to be those of the Ivy League, but there should be higher standards and demands for in-class learning so student-athletes can receive an education comparable to their non-athlete peers.

Until leaders of National Collegiate Athletic Association universities develop the courage to find their intended purpose again and say enough to this madness, they will continue to shine as beacons of shallowness and hypocrisy, sadly advancing the belief that all that matters in this world is winning, money and fame, ignoring their mottos, mission, purpose, and obligation to society to educate students to be prepared to take on the world, not the NFL.

 

 

 

Politico published an excellent spotlight on the successful growth of classical education across Florida and how it can serve as a model for the nation.

Excerpts of the article, including New College’s role in providing classical education at the university level, appear below.

…

Classical schooling in Florida has support from significant names such as Erika Donalds, the wife of GOP Rep. Byron Donalds, who leads a nonprofit organization dedicated to expanding classical education. And, in another shift orchestrated by DeSantis, Florida overhauled the state’s only publicly funded liberal arts university — New College of Florida — to implement a classical curriculum under the charge of former state education commissioner and state House Speaker Richard Corcoran; Corcoran’s wife also founded a classical, liberal arts charter school.

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Florida, at the same time, became the first state to require its colleges and universities to accept the Classic Learning Test for admissions, putting it on par with the SAT or ACT. More than 120,000 Florida students have taken the CLT college entrance exam in the year since the policy was enacted. Students also can take the CLT to qualify for Florida’s massively popular Bright Futures scholarship.

When asked for comment on this story, DeSantis’ office directed POLITICO to Corcoran. The university leader said in a statement that “the growth of classical schools in Florida and our unrivaled support for parents that elect to home school needs to be represented in our higher education admissions process.”

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Read the full article at Politico.com.

 

Welcome to the new NCF.edu! New College was named the top public liberal arts college in America by Washington Monthly in 2023. Our rigorous classical education and robust environment of student life, intercollegiate athletics, and support systems for college success and career development make New College an ascendant choice for success-driven students. Learn more about your future at New College. Visit NCF.edu/Admissions today!

SARASOTA, Fla. — New College President Richard Corcoran proudly announces that esteemed entrepreneur and philanthropist Joe Ricketts will be the commencement speaker at this year’s graduation ceremony on Friday, May 17, 2024. Ricketts will deliver his address to a valued assembly of graduates and their families amidst the serene backdrop of the Sarasota Bayfront, adjacent to College Hall and the Historic Ringling Mansion.

A titan in the business realm, Ricketts boasts over 35 years of experience in building one of the largest brokerage firms, TD Ameritrade, recently sold to Charles Schwab. His visionary approach to recognizing market opportunities in the deregulated discount securities market, coupled with innovative technologies and distinctive marketing strategies, propelled TD Ameritrade into a global financial juggernaut after its inception as First Omaha Securities in 1975.

Beyond his illustrious business achievements, Ricketts is also celebrated for his family’s ownership of the Chicago Cubs, culminating in the end of the franchise’s century-long title drought with a historic World Series win in 2016. However, his impact extends far beyond the financial sector and realm of sports, as evidenced by his dedication to philanthropy and entrepreneurship.

Earlier this year, Ricketts embarked on a groundbreaking venture in Sarasota, announcing New College as the first institution in the nation to adopt a distance-learning curriculum from Ricketts Great Books College. This innovative initiative enables students worldwide to access a rigorous liberal arts education, with many eligible for scholarships that will allow them to graduate with little to no debt, thanks to Ricketts’ generous philanthropy.

“Joe Ricketts believes in the kind of education we hold dear at New College, a liberal arts education exploring the good, the true, and the beautiful,” Corcoran said. “Graduates of New College leave with the indelible lessons of how to think critically for themselves and not what to think by others. It has been a marvelous experience working with Joe over the last several months to provide a platform for students everywhere to learn timeless lessons from some of history’s greatest thinkers. We are honored to have him address our graduates this May.”

Some of Ricketts’s other notable ventures in entrepreneurship and philanthropy include Opportunity Education Foundation and Quest Forward Learning, The Cloisters on the Platte Foundation, Straight Arrow News, Village PieMaker, High Plains Bison, The Ricketts Conservation Foundation, and The Ricketts Art Foundation.

Ricketts is a native of Omaha, Nebraska, and a graduate of Creighton University. He resides in Little Jackson Hole, Wyoming, with his wife of 60 years, Marlene.

New College’s commencement ceremony remains an exclusive affair, reserved for graduates and their invited guests.

For further insights into the transformative collaboration between New College and Ricketts Great Books College, please visit NCF.edu/Worldwide.

Associate Professor Sherry Yu teaches economics at New College and says she never imagined the sea change in student interest she is experiencing this semester.

“I’m seeing a complete difference in last year to this year,” said Yu, who has been at the College since 2014. “Definitely the largest (class) I’ve ever taught. It’s a totally different feeling for teaching right now.”

She says she now has dozens of first year and transfer students who are digging into their economics coursework, a huge surge at a small school where 25 students in a course is considered large. “It’s all going in the right direction,” said Yu who credits the new administration with positive improvements like adding full time tutors and an athletics program. “A lot of entering athletes are interested in economics.”

Compared to previous years, Yu says this semester’s incoming and transfer students exhibit more active participation in class, self-discipline and a desire to improve the campus culture.

“It used to be a clash of culture here,” said Yu. “Economics students were viewed as money makers having an adverse effect on our society.”

Yu says she had reached the point where she seriously considered leaving New College. She watched class sizes dwindle, motivation plummet and students complain that the ideology of some of their peers made them afraid to take her classes.

While 55 students are now enrolled in Principles of Economics, only one student graduated with an area of concentration (major course of study) in economics last semester. “I was very saddened by that,” said Yu who believes bullying was part of the problem. “Some students suggested that income inequality or climate effects were all because of capitalists and that businessmen were the reason for agonies in our society.”

Yu is adamant that a difference of opinion should not become a license for ridicule or labeling. “It’s the opposite of open mindedness,” Yu said.

She understands the value of respectful discourse better than most. Yu was born in China and grew up in Canada.  “I was not comfortable being a critical person,” said Yu.

But while studying finance at the University of Toronto, she mustered the moxie to push back on a professor who blamed the market collapse in 2008 on the actions of the Federal Reserve. Determined to seek out answers for herself, she pursued economics and earned her PhD from Boston University.

“I’m glad I was able to criticize something I was told and turn that into a profession,” Yu said.

She started her teaching career at New College and never left. Yu embraced its educational model that attracts curious thinkers and measures student performance with narrative evaluations rather than grades. She says an environment where students are free to study what they wish fosters the kind of critical thinking it took her years to embrace and express. Earlier this year, Yu and colleague Tarron Khemraj had inflation research published in the Eastern Economic Journal, a feat rarely accomplished in liberal arts schools.

“Every discipline should be appreciated, we value that as a society,” said Yu.

Yu is glad to find more of balance in viewpoints among her students. She sees a bright future ahead for the school and a rewarding experience for students who are choosing the course of study she also happens to love.

SARASOTA, Fla. — New College of Florida will host a Socratic Stage Dialogue Series Event: “Free Speech, Academic Freedom, and Political Expression” on Wednesday, April 10, 6-7:30 p.m. at Sainer Auditorium, 5313 Bay Shore Road, Sarasota. New College Trustee Dr. Mark Bauerlein will interview Presidential Scholar in Residence Dr. Stanley Fish on timely questions relating to academic freedom and political expression on college campuses. The event is free and open to the public, but advance registration is requested. Online registration is now open.

Among the important questions that will be discussed include:

“Mark Bauerlein and Stanley Fish are giants in the field of academia, and their conversation will be a can’t miss event within our community,” said New College President Richard Corcoran. “Dr. Bauerlein’s leadership on our Board of Trustees over the last year and Dr. Fish’s presence in the classroom this spring have been great assets for advancing New College on the path to being America’s number one liberal arts college.”

Dr. Mark Bauerlein is Professor Emeritus of English at Emory University and an editor at First Things magazine. In 2003–‘05, he served as the Director, Office of Research and Analysis, at the National Endowment for the Arts. He is the author or editor of 11 books, including Negrophobia: A Race Riot in Atlanta, 1906 (2001) and The Dumbest Generation: How the Digital Age Stupefies Young Americans and Jeopardizes Our Future (2008). His essays have appeared in Yale Review, Partisan Review, Wilson Quarterly, PMLA, and Philosophy and Literature. Apart from his scholarly work, Dr. Bauerlein publishes in popular periodicals such as New York Times, Wall Street Journal, The Weekly Standard, The Washington Post, TLS, and Chronicle of Higher Education. He has been interviewed by media outlets more than 500 times, including spots on CNN, Fox News, NPR, BBC World Today, CBS News, Nightline, PBS Frontline, and 20/20. Bauerlein earned his doctorate in English from UCLA.

Dr. Stanley Fish brings more than 60 years of scholarship with him to New College, where he serves as a Presidential Scholar in Residence. His incredible career has included teaching stops at Duke, Johns Hopkins, and Cal Berkeley. There is a dedicated library archive of his work at the University of California, Irvine. He has held the title of Davidson-Kahn Distinguished University Professor and Professor of Law, Florida International University since 2005, and Dean Emeritus of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at the University of Illinois at Chicago. The Chicago Tribune named Fish was Chicagoan of the Year for Culture in 2003. In the past thirty years, there have been some two hundred articles, books, parts of books, dissertations, review articles, etc., devoted to his work. Fish earned his undergraduate degree at the University of Pennsylvania and his master’s and Ph.D. at Yale. Professor Fish has published more than 20 books. His latest is Law at the Movies, Oxford 2024.

For more information, visit New College Office of Public Policy Events webpage.

SARASOTA, Fla. — New College of Florida welcomed principals and headmasters from esteemed private and public charter schools on February 22-23 for a transformative two-day engagement centered around the essence of classical liberal arts education. The event served as a platform for meaningful dialogue on the ethos of traditional liberal arts and its significance in shaping future leaders.

The two-day gathering hosted K-12 educational leaders on New College’s Sarasota Bay waterfront campus and embraced discussions on the challenges and opportunities inherent in contemporary learning paradigms and the future of higher education.

“It was a privilege to host academic leaders from diverse educational institutions and showcase firsthand the vibrant intellectual community happening at New College,” remarked President Richard Corcoran. “One of New College’s priorities is to nurture intellectual inquiry and personal growth for our students while preserving the critical thinking that a classical liberal arts education provides.”

The event featured members of the New College administration and guests, including Jeremy Tate, founder of the Classic Learning Test (CLT). Discussions included New College’s academic landscape, its world-class faculty and curriculum in Data Sciences, Marine Mammal Sciences, Economics, and Psychology, along with personalized educational opportunities, financial aid initiatives, and campus enhancements.

Highlighting recent milestones, New College marked its largest incoming class in 2023 and expects to exceed all admissions goals year on year. Additionally, New College is pioneering its distance-learning program and the introduction of a classical great books degree program in collaboration with Ricketts Great Books College. Notably, the Board’s approval of the Master’s of Marine Mammal Science program for 2024/2025 underscores New College’s commitment to excellence in graduate education.

SARASOTA, Fla. — New College of Florida has hired Bruce Gilley, Ph.D as a Presidential Scholar in Residence for the 2024-2025 academic year. Gilley is a distinguished professor of political science who will be on sabbatical from Portland State University in Oregon. He is one of the foremost scholars of democracy, political legitimacy, public policy, and global politics.

“Students have the opportunity to learn from some of the most brilliant minds in their fields when they attend New College,” said Richard Corcoran, President of New College. “Dr. Gilley’s scholarship in political science and public policy is exemplary, and his willingness to engage challenging and controversial topics in his work is welcome in the academic environment of free speech and civil discourse at New College.”

“New College’s commitment to academic freedom, free speech and civil discourse is exciting,” said Gilley. “I’m looking forward to joining New College and setting the example for how higher education can and should work in America.”

An author of four university-press books and dozens of scholarly articles, Gilley is perhaps best known for writing ‘The case for colonialism” in 2017. Originally published in Third World Quarterly, the publication later withdrew the article after hostile feedback that included threats of violence against the publication’s editor. It was republished the Spring 2018 issue of the National Association of Scholars’ journal Academic Questions.

Gilley was a Commonwealth Scholar at Oxford while earning his master’s degree and a Woodrow Wilson Scholar while completing his doctorate at Princeton.

New College is rapidly expanding its faculty hiring ahead of the 2024-2025 academic year to meet the demand of growing student enrollment. This new contingent of faculty will join what is already an excellent assembly of top-flight professors in implementing the Logos | Techne curriculum and carrying on the tradition of exceptionally individualized education offered at New College. Initiatives that began this year, like the first-year course in Homer’s Odyssey and the distance-learning great-books program will grow and flourish as well.

New College statement regarding AAUP sanctioning:

The AAUP lacks the authority to sanction New College of Florida, or any college or university for that matter. The recent announcement from the AAUP is a headline grab, echoing the sensationalistic tone of their report issued over two months ago. President Corcoran provided a comprehensive response to the report upon its release, which I have included below for your reference. Their persistent targeting of New College for any change they disagree with is clear evidence that New College is at the forefront of reforming higher education.

 

December 10, 2023 Response by President Corcoran to the AAUP’s special committee report:

We acknowledge that our passion and stance for educational freedom will be criticized by those who hold different perspectives.

What many do not know is that for many decades New College has faced significant challenges including deteriorating facilities and declining enrollment. It became imperative to develop a plan for growth before the school went insolvent, even if not all decisions during the transition were universally embraced.

Florida has always valued educational choice and freedom, principles we proudly espouse. Reports such as the AAUP’s shed extreme light on the polarized landscape taking place in higher education, and our position on classic liberal arts and educational freedom is a stance on which we will not yield.

New College’s focus lies in the incredible opportunities ahead for our growing student body, faculty, and staff, and we remain diligently committed to this. As we go forward into 2024, I look forward to coming together as a collective community of educators, faculty, and students who have traversed beyond the sensational press, and focus our inspiration on the rich history of excellence that has always been the baseline of New College.

It is important to note that the AAUP’s report does not align with our vision for New College nor the support we experience from our faculty and students. We are committed to cultivating a growing environment that encourages free inquiry, expression, and academic rigor. Our aspiration is to redefine higher education, fostering an era where profound scholarship and purposeful education thrive.

We extend an open invitation to visit our campus and welcome collaboration in building a more promising future for New College and higher education as a whole.

SARASOTA, Fla. — New College of Florida applauds Governor Ron DeSantis for instructing Florida’s public colleges and universities, which collectively rank as the nation’s best public higher education system, to “waive certain transfer application requirements that would otherwise unnecessarily burden the transfer of Jewish students who have a well-founded fear of antisemitic persecution at their current postsecondary institution.” This directive is an important and necessary escalation from New College’s November directive by President Richard Corcoran to provide a haven for students “facing intolerance or physical danger” at Harvard University—or elsewhere.

“Governor DeSantis has made Florida a model for our nation, and the fervor with which he is standing up for the oppressed and those left behind by elitist university administrators is bold leadership,” said Corcoran. “New College is eager to welcome students from across America facing danger from the latest wave of identity politics. All students should feel comfortable being open and vocal about their identities without fearing for their personal safety.  We are proud to belong to a state and a university system taking the lead in protecting Jewish students amidst the disturbing rise of campus antisemitism—particularly given the abdication of leadership we all saw when the Presidents of Harvard, MIT, and the University of Pennsylvania testified before Congress.”

Governor DeSantis, State University System Chancellor Ray Rodrigues, and Commissioner of Education Manny Diaz, Jr. have offered the following support to Jewish students facing discrimination:

Governor DeSantis additionally urged colleges and universities, at their discretion, to use their existing statutory authority to grant out-of-state tuition waivers on a case-by-case basis for those students who may have a financial hardship when transferring from another state to a Florida postsecondary institution. New College will begin reviewing prospective cases on these terms without delay.

As we have stated before and will hold true in perpetuity: New College will not tolerate violence, intimidation, harassment, or threats against the Jewish Community, or any other group. Free speech and expression, with the goal of fostering civil discourse, are required at New College.