New College Foundation seeks to dissolve school’s alumni association

New College of Florida officials are seeking to dissolve the college’s nearly 50-year-old alumni association, a group that has criticized the school’s conservative overhaul, and replace it with a new committee overseen by its foundation.

The proposal, obtained by Suncoast Searchlight, calls for the creation of a new “Alumni Engagement Committee,” the elimination of the current association chair’s voting seat on the New College Foundation Board and greater oversight of alumni engagement by the Foundation.

The Foundation’s board is scheduled to vote on the changes Wednesday, and if approved, alumni leaders will convene to seek potential legal action.

The alumni association has emerged as one of the most vocal opponents of New College of Florida’s transformation under Gov. Ron DeSantis’ appointed trustees and college President Richard Corcoran, criticizing changes to the college’s governance, academic mission and direction.

Some alumni members say the restructuring plan is an attempt to marginalize critics, while college officials say it is intended to strengthen alumni engagement and better align the group with the college’s mission.

“We will continue to play a steadfast role in its future, regardless (of) what the New College Foundation may do, and their high-handed attempt to direct and control what we do has only brought energy to our effort,” said Chris Van Dyk, chairman of the New College Alumni Association.

New College Vice President of Communications Jamie Miller confirmed the restructuring amendments, noting the change reflects a broader mission emphasizing “meaningful alumni participation, lifelong learning, student engagement, philanthropy, and community building, while strengthening coordination between alumni leaders and Foundation staff in support of the college’s mission.”

The motion was unanimously passed by the Foundation’s governance committee on Tuesday and will be considered at the upcoming foundation board meeting, Miller said.

Van Dyk said he was told earlier this week that the New College Foundation Board would consider a motion involving the alumni association at its July 29 meeting but was not provided details. After attending the July 21 governance committee meeting, where he said he was denied briefing materials, Van Dyk obtained the proposed bylaw amendments from the college’s vice president of advancement, David Rancourt, and shared them with alumni association members and Suncoast Searchlight.

The next day, July 22, the alumni association held its regularly scheduled engagement committee meeting, where several members spoke against the proposal, arguing it would sideline alumni voices, weaken their ability to challenge the college’s current direction and erode protections over how alumni donations are used.

Rancourt said in a statement to Suncoast Searchlight that the new alumni engagement program is an opportunity to create an alumni community “that not only celebrates the college’s history but also plays an active role in its future.”

“This new committee is designed to create more meaningful ways for alumni to stay involved throughout every stage of life — whether through mentoring students, participating in intellectual programming, strengthening professional networks, supporting philanthropy, or helping shape the future of the college,” Rancourt said.

If the Foundation approves the amendments, Van Dyk said the alumni association will seek legal action, arguing the Foundation failed to provide proper public notice before voting on the changes.

“If they want to work constructively with us, this provides them that opportunity, and it gives time for all parties to reach an amicable solution,” Van Dyk said. “We are not obstructing, for the sake of obstruction. We would welcome instructive conversations.”

How a 2002 agreement became a point of contention

The New College Foundation and the alumni association have operated under an affiliation agreement since 2002, when the then-independent alumni association merged into the Foundation after New College separated from the University of South Florida’s Sarasota-Manatee campus.

Former Alumni Association Chairman Mike Campbell, who is now a psychology professor at the University of the West Indies, said the agreement was intended to strengthen collaboration between the organizations while preserving the alumni association’s voice in college affairs.

“There was general consensus that the alumni association and the Foundation should work more closely together,” Campbell said. “Therefore, we, after quite a bit of conversation about how to do it, both within the Foundation boards and the alum association boards, executed an affiliation agreement.”

The agreement made the alumni association president a voting member of the Foundation board, required major disputes to be resolved by “cooperative and negotiated consensus” between the presidents of both organizations, and transferred the association’s fiduciary and financial responsibility, including its current fund balances, to the Foundation.

Campbell said the association transferred about $200,000 in assets to the Foundation when it was folded into the New College Foundation and later raised more than $250,000 for a pair of endowments.

At the time, the Foundation was a private nonprofit organization whose mission was to support “the unique program of New College and to generate resources that would continue the honors program and the unique curriculum,” Campbell said.

But five years after the affiliation agreement was signed, the Foundation became a direct-support organization for New College of Florida, which brought legal restrictions on how the Foundation operated and restricted the alumni association’s operations.

University of Florida IT Director Stuart Clarry, who was an alumni association chairman until earlier this year, said the Foundation appears to be operating under the belief that the 2002 affiliation agreement is no longer valid.

Alumni members had discussed in the past whether the association should separate from the New College Foundation, Clarry said, but the idea was met with several concerns.

In Clarry’s opinion, if the alumni association became independent, it likely would still be designated by the Legislature as New College’s direct-support organization, and the college president would retain authority over its board, including the power to remove members.

An independent — and therefore unofficial — alumni association also could lose its ability to enact real influence on the college’s decision-making and impacts on students and alumni.

There also would be nothing stopping the college from simply creating a new “official” alumni association to take its place, Clarry said. Even if many current alumni would consider the new association illegitimate, over time, that new group would become the de facto recognized alumni voice.

Restructuring could offer ‘golden opportunity’ for more diverse alum representation

While some association board members and alumni fear the prospect of a restructuring, Clarry said he’s hedging on the side of optimism.

“My hope would be for them to assemble an alumni board that is representative of everybody involved,” Clarry said, adding that it could be an opportunity for the Foundation to connect with the “silent majority of alumni” — those who graduated from New College and never really looked back.

He noted that alumni engagement over the years has been critically low, even before 2023, when DeSantis announced the “hostile takeover” of the liberal arts college. Clarry said this could be an opportunity for Corcoran to recruit people who will engage with not only the up-and-coming graduates but graduates from decades past who haven’t been as engaged.

“I don’t know if he’ll be successful, but I think that’s the golden opportunity is to bring in a plurality of alumni voices,” Clarry said, “and for New College’s current leadership, obviously, there’s an impetus to start to get some type of cohesive alumni body, and I do think there’ll probably be a greater focus on more recent graduates and up-and-coming graduates.”

Gabriela Szymanowska is a contributor for Suncoast Searchlight. Email her at gszymano20@gmail.com.