The recent proposal by Gov. Ron DeSantis to transfer the 66-acre John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art from Florida State University to New College of Florida is just the latest in a series of attempted and successful land grabs by, and on behalf of, the school as it seeks to dramatically expand its footprint. 

It has been two years since DeSantis overhauled New College’s Board of Trustees and helped place former state Speaker of the House Richard Corcoran as its president. 

During that time, the new leadership has sought to transform the school from a progressive intellectual enclave into a conservative institution. From the dismantling of its Gender Studies program to the creation of a new intercollegiate athletics department, the administration has made significant moves to reshape the college’s identity, often drawing sharp criticism from students, faculty, and local stakeholders.

At the heart of their plans for New College is growth – both in terms of enrollment numbers and campus land holdings – but the acquisitions have fueled further tensions between the college and its neighbors, raising concerns over the impact on the region’s cultural heritage and university landscape.

Suncoast Searchlight examined Sarasota and Manatee county property records to document how these acquisitions have, and could continue to, alter New College’s campus from one of the smallest in the Florida State University System to a larger, more influential institution with a growing presence in the region.

Taking over the Powel Crosley Estate

When DeSantis and his allies on the New College Board of Trustees appointed Corcoran as president in Oct. 2023, the school boasted a full-time enrollment of 732 students who attended classes on its 110-acre campus hugging Sarasota Bay.

Almost immediately, Corcoran made clear his goal to boost both those numbers.

A 74-page business plan submitted that year to the Florida Board of Governors detailed Corcoran’s aspirations to increase enrollment to more than 1,200 by fall 2028, expand its new athletics program, improve campus facilities and amend academic offerings “through the careful study of the Great Works.”

The plan also called for the construction of athletic fields and facilities to support the new sports program, along with new campus housing to accommodate the expanded student body. 

Corcoran did not respond to several requests to his office for comment.

New College secured its first major land deal less than a month after Corcoran’s arrival when Manatee County bequeathed it 9 acres on the grounds of the Powel Crosley Estate located just north of campus and the Sarasota-Manatee county line. 

While the acquisition expanded New College’s footprint, it came at a cost to a neighboring institution – University of South Florida Sarasota-Manatee, to which the county had previously offered the parcel of land. USF Sarasota-Manatee’s campus is contiguous with the Crowley Estate parcel and sits squarely inside Manatee County, unlike the New College campus.

Corcoran touted the acquisition as proof of New College’s efficiency, while at the same time taking a dig at USF, in an early draft obtained by Suncoast Searchlight of his recently published memoir, “Storming the Ivory Tower: How a Florida College Became Ground Zero in the Struggle to Take Back Our Campuses.”

“[A]fter three years of questions from the USF Sarasota-Manatee board, they were tired of the delays to merely donate a piece of waterfront property,” Corcoran wrote, adding that the property would be used for dorms and classroom space.

But the donation did little to alleviate New College’s growing pains. 

At the start of the 2023-24 academic year, the school faced an influx of new student athletes with nowhere to put them – in part because of a mold problem rendering its historic dorms uninhabitable. 

Since then, New College has spent roughly $7 million to house students in nearby hotels and in temporary modular buildings set up on campus. The college also has relied on USF Sarasota-Manatee for dormitories. 

While it has not broken ground on new dormitories or other major projects since Corcoran’s appointment, the school has nonetheless sought to take control of additional parcels of land near and along Sarasota Bay.

Attempted transfer of airport land denied

Its second expansion attempt came in the form of nearly 31 acres it sought to permanently acquire from Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport in early 2024.

The land, which New College has been leasing from the airport, sits southwest of the airport and already boasts classroom buildings, dormitories and other facilities as part of its East Campus. 

But the lease will expire in 2056, and New College sought to purchase it outright before investing millions in improvements there.

Despite the airport’s approval of the sale in March 2024, the $11.5 million deal was scuttled by the Federal Aviation Authority, which argued that campus development would be improper land use given its proximity to the airport. The FAA suggested the airport had lowballed the value of the land by including an appraisal for less than 10 acres of land, rather than the full 30.

In a rebuttal, SRQ President and Chief Executive Officer Rick Piccolo said that the roughly 20 missing acres for the appraisal “got lost in the transferring of records from one office to another.”

New College and the airport authority ultimately backed away from the sale. 

In a Feb. 12, 2025 letter to Piccolo, the FAA went further, specifying that if the College intended to further develop the land they currently lease from the airport, the airport would be required to revisit the terms of its lease with New College.

Florida “state government officials chose to expand a college that does not have sufficient land to expand upon,” wrote John Schussler, a former Sarasota-Manatee Airport Authority administrator, in an email to Suncoast Searchlight. Schussler, who describes himself as a whistleblower, has written to the FAA on multiple occasions to raise concerns about what he sees as improper encroachment by the college onto airport land.

“They are now in an embarrassing situation,” Schussler wrote. “The FAA has ruled that New College can’t buy the airport land, nor can they do new construction on SRQ airport land while retaining their advantageous lease.”

In his memoir and in public statements, Corcoran has repeatedly stated that he aspires to grow the college’s enrollment numbers, revamp facilities and introduce student athletic programming. Yesterday’s New College, in Corcoran’s telling, was moribund – suffering from decrepit facilities and waning 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,” Corcoran wrote in a 2023 opinion column. 

But critics warn the college’s push to rapidly expand jeopardizes local green spaces and cultural institutions – from the Uplands Preserve to the Ca’ d’Zan and the Ringling Museum of the Circus.

In June 2023, New College evicted the Sarasota Classic Car Museum from its leased plot on the corner of US 41 and University Parkway to make way for a future baseball field  – aided in party by a gift of $1 million from Carlos Beruff, a developer, Republican politician and member of the Sarasota-Manatee Airport Authority Board.

In May 2024, the college tore down palms and pines in the Uplands Preserve along Sarasota Bay to make room for volleyball courts and a soccer field – a move that came with little warning to faculty or community members. 

Before, the Preserve, with its old trees and grassy clearings, provided habitat for birds, and a natural area for students to play Frisbee and hang out. Any changes to the area would historically have been made in consultation with the Landscape Committee, a group of facilities management employees, students and faculty with relevant expertise. 

“In general, as a sort of practical matter, whatever the Landscape Committee came up with was generally what would be followed,” said Jono Miller, the former director of the College’s environmental studies program and the former chair of the Master Plan committee, which was tasked with laying out the long-term vision for the college’s physical development. 

Communication between faculty, staff and administration “was a way to bring the expertise and concerns of different elements of the campus to bear on various proposals,” said Miller. 

Under Corcoran’s leadership, Miller explained, such mutual decision-making is no longer the norm.

Eyeing the Ringling Museum of Art

In his most recent budget, DeSantis suggested that New College commandeer the stewardship of the Ringling Museum from Florida State University, which currently supports the museum’s operations and funding. Such an arrangement would give New College oversight over the land that the Ringling sits on – including the museum’s sprawling green spaces and gardens. 

In a letter, opponents of the transfer, including seven former chairs of the Ringling Museum of Art Foundation as of March 6, wrote that the push amounted to an existential threat to the museum. 

“A takeover by an institution that lacks FSU’s resources, infrastructure, experience, expertise, academic programing (sic) and strategic plan would significantly harm The Ringling and FSU,” they warned. 

FSU’s relationship with the Ringling grants the students access to the museum’s extensive collections, archives and grounds, as well as academic programming and internships. FSU and the Ringling even share staff: According to payroll records obtained by Suncoast Searchlight, 230 FSU employees currently work at the Ringling, among them, curators, custodial workers, security guards and groundskeepers.

The Ringling, with its art museum, circus museum, the Ca’ d’Zan and Asolo Theater, is managed by a direct-support organization whose members are subject to approval by the university president. The administration of the center is limited by certain provisions outlined in John Ringling’s will, such as the requirement that the museum retain all artworks acquired before his death in 1936. 

The will contains no such provision to protect the museum’s gardens or landscaped lawns. 

Despite FSU’s role in managing the museum, Ringling stakeholders say curators have retained a high degree of autonomy.

“The Ringling’s current success is built on decades of professional museum practices, curatorial independence and trusted stewardship,” said Nancy Parrish, a former chair of the Ringling Museum of Art Foundation and a member of a newly formed group called Citizens To Protect The Ringling. Parrish was also a signatory on the letter of opposition. 

Parrish warned that a sudden administrative overhaul would jeopardize the museum’s curatorial independence and could spook off major donors. 

“Donors – significant donors – are calling those of us who are on the letter every day, worrying about needing to amend their agreements,” said Parrish. 

“In fact, (they’re) making moves to amend their agreements, thinking about whether they should pull their art.” 

Alice Herman is an investigative/watchdog reporter for Suncoast Searchlight, a nonprofit newsroom of the Community News Collaborative serving Sarasota, Manatee, and DeSoto counties. Learn more at suncoastsearchlight.org.

NOTE: This story was updated to clarify a statement made by SRQ President and Chief Executive Officer Rick Piccolo about the FAA’s decision to block the airports sale of land to New College.