New College of Florida’s finances could be a point of discussion at this week’s Board of Governors meeting, due to a new audit from the state’s Department of Government Efficiency.
Gov. Ron DeSantis had ordered the audit of Florida’s State University System to eliminate unnecessary spending and investigate diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. The report does not include any analysis of those programs, but instead compares student success measures like graduation rates with spending at each of the state’s public universities.
While concerns over New College’s finances aren’t new, the report, which draws from publicly available data, highlights how the university diverges from others in the state.
The university’s expenditures nearly doubled between 2021 and 2023, and it had the highest average pay for noninstructive staff in the state system last year, according to federal data.The university’s former alumni association chairman resigned in March because he was concerned that New College’s administration was mismanaging the university’s endowment.
DeSantis, who has authority over the state DOGE office, has touted New College’s academic and cultural identity, which he has said embraces classical Western thought, as a success.
The report found New College of Florida’s starting salary for graduates and percentage of students graduating each year to be lower than that of most other Florida public universities.
It also found the university’s spending and operational costs much higher than the other public universities, according to some metrics. New College’s operating expenses per student last year surpassed$83,000, nearly double the University of Florida’s.
It costs nearly half a million dollars to produce one student’s degree at New College, according to the report. The cost at other schools falls between more than $150,000 at UF and about $46,000 at the University of Central Florida.
Part of this disparity may be explained by the number of administrators at New College, which employs 33 administrators per 100 students. UF, which has a much larger undergraduate enrollment, employs about 27 administrators per 100 students.
New College also employs about 11 instructors per 100 students, more than any other Florida public universities.
The report also found that UF produces the most research-related revenue among the state’s public universities at over $2 billion. The University of South Florida comes in second at about $600 million.
The report recommends that Boards of Trustees require their administrations to track key, unspecified metrics “to enhance financial transparency and accountability and move towards managing universities as enterprises.”
The Board of Governors, which oversees Florida’s state university system, will receive a report on the audit at its meeting Thursday in Tampa.
A New College spokesperson did not immediately provide a comment.