International students can contribute greatly to a college campus, both in cultural exchange and in paying tuition.
But as questions over New College of Florida’s excessive spending continue to grow, state leaders should be asking why taxpayers have been giving millions of dollars to attract international students to the school.
The latest Common Data Set figures released in the New College Fact Book show New College’s escalating generosity to international students.
Just look at the soaring amounts of institutional aid New College of Florida has awarded to U.S. nonresidents in recent school years:
- 2022-23: $371,000 (awarded to 22 U.S. nonresidents).
- 2023-24: $468,000 (awarded to 27 U.S. nonresidents).
- 2024-25: $2 million (awarded to 109 U.S. nonresidents).
- 2025-26: $2.8 million (awarded to 132 U.S. nonresidents).
That's an increase of 110 international students receiving institutional aid compared with 2022-23.
Over the same period, New College grew from 669 undergraduates
to 869.
Incredibly, that means those 110 students account for more than half of the 200-student increase in New College's student body.
Huge sums for international students
Even more amazingly, many of these international students were charged the same in-state tuition as Florida residents.
This was because of a now-discontinued statewide policy called the "Latin American and Caribbean Scholarship" program. It allowed students from certain countries to pay in-state tuition, which at New College is just$6,724 a year.
That's noteworthy because that the average international student award is around $21,000, which would leave more than $14,000 available for such students to use for room and board or other expenses at New College.
Of course, there’s nothing wrong with being an international student.
And, of course, these students have done nothing wrong in taking the money from New College.
They’re just kids who were in Mexico. Or Brazil. Or Ghana. Or France.
And then suddenly an American athletic coach told them that he was from a tiny state university in Florida – and that he was ready to give them $20,000-plus scholarships paid for by the government.
Wouldn't most of us say "yes" to such an offer?
In fact, wouldn't it be a no-brainer decision?
No, it's not the international students who have a duty to be accountable for funds spent by the state of Florida.
That is the responsibility of New College's administrators, the school's Board of Trustees, the state Board of Governors and the Florida Legislature.
And all of them should be asking what New College actually did with the money.
Why spend money needed for housing?
One of the largest taxpayer-funded items for New College in the past three years has been housing.
In 2024, the Florida Legislature approved $10 million for temporary housing on the condition that the Board of Governors approved a business plan from New College.
In asking for the release of this money, New College of Florida President Richard Corcoran told the board in 2024 that because of the school's "massive spike in enrollment," it lacked enough housing for students.
As a result, Corcoran said, New College had to resort to paying nearby USF Sarasota-Manatee to use 100 beds in that school's student dormitory.
(Ironically, earlier this year, the Legislature approved New College's proposal totake over the USF Sarasota–Manatee campus, including its student dormitory.)
But in addition to previously renting out rooms in another school's residence hall, New College has also been forced to put students in hotels, with taxpayers paying two-thirds of the cost.
The obvious question is this:
Why did Corcoran give so many scholarships to international students when he knew he would need millions more in state subsidies to house them?
And this is the obvious answer:
Corcoran has touted this "spike in enrollment" as evidence of his success as New College's president while also using it to justify asking the Legislature to keep pouring millions into the school.
Are students academically prepared?
Here's another of the many questions we should be asking New College:
How many of the recently arrived international students are prepared for college-level coursework?
For one thing, international students are well-represented on the rosters of New College's sports teams.
And the rosters are huge: for example, at one point the New College women's soccer team had close to 50 players on its roster – and nearly half of them were international student-athletes.
Now it's possible New College has tapped some secret source for finding academically advanced international student-athletes.
But questions about the academic preparedness of many international students are validated by a new course offered by New College that's titled “English for Academic Purposes: Economics & Finance.”
The course is a standard "English as a Second Language" class, which leads to an unavoidable question:
Why is New College admitting international students who don't appear to be ready to perform at the college level?
Florida taxpayers deserve answers
This is where publicly accessible data for New College runs out – which means the only way to settle the question is for an office with authority to examine the international students’ admissions files and report back to the public.
Were these students qualified?
If not, why did they receive scholarships from New College?
Ultimately, it will be up to Floridians, who are paying more and more each day for basic necessities, to ask their lawmakers whether spending $4.8 million over two years to attract international students to New College is money well spent.
Mike Sanderson is a writer and computer programmer. He is a New College of Florida alum. You can find more of his work about the State University System at mikesand.com.
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This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: New College isn't America First when spending our money | Opinion
