New College of Florida launches online degree program in collaboration with billionaire

New College of Florida is launching an online liberal arts degree featuring courses with material provided in collaboration with Ricketts Great Books College, a program created by billionaire Joe Ricketts, a Gov. Ron DeSantis mega-donor.

New College President Richard Corcoran announced the program during a press conference on the college's campus Thursday with Ricketts in attendance. The courses, available worldwide, launch at the beginning of the 2024 spring semester with New College's classes starting on the same day, Jan. 29, according to the release.

The program will initially have three courses: Euclid’s Elements, Plato, and History of Ideas Part 1. The History of Ideas course will have eight parts. The courses also include live video seminars and discussion groups for the content spanning from ancient Greece to the modern day.

The program offers students the opportunity to earn a bachelor's degree, an associate's degree or a one-year certificate from New College. After earning an associate's degree, students have the option to finish their more advanced degrees at New College's campus or finish online, according to the release. It wasn't immediately clear how many students would be in the program, but applicants must still be accepted through New College's admissions process, according to the program's website.

Corcoran said the impact of offering distance learning opportunities worldwide could reverberate across the state and change lives.

"You're transforming people's lives, not just the individual. Then that individual ends up having a family and then those children are afforded a whole different panoply of opportunities because of that one degree that that one initial person was able to get anywhere across the world," Corcoran said.

Other Florida public universities also offer online degree programs. The University of Florida's online programs are ranked as the best in the country by U.S. News and World Report.

At the press conference, Corcoran noted Rickett's purchase of the Chicago Cubs and how the franchise won a title shortly after for the first time since 1908. He joked that Rickett would help revitalize New College as he did for the Cubs.

"The restoration of a storied, wonderful baseball team, and he's here helping us do the same thing. A restoration of a wonderful, storied college at New College," Corcoran said.

New College has been the subject of much public scrutiny following a conservative overhaul launched almost a year ago by DeSantis, who appointed a new board majority to recreate the state's public honors school in a classical image.

Corcoran has spearheaded initiatives to drive up enrollment numbers by establishing an athletics department at the college, which increased first-year enrollment to a record figure. However, increased enrollment came with a decrease in overall grade point average and test scores, which had historically helped the school earn a national reputation as a top public liberal arts college.

Rickett also pledged scholarship funding to the program through the New College Foundation, according to the release. With the scholarship, eligible students would pay $12,000 for a four-year degree from New College.

"So you can come from a poor country, and have as good of an education as somebody that comes from a very rich, first-tier school," Rickett said. "It's gonna change the world."

He said he reached out to Christopher Rufo, a conservative activist and a member of New College's Board of Trustees, to connect with Corcoran and get the program off the ground.

New College's online program will be overseen by David Harvey, who was recently appointed as the inaugural dean of the Center for the Study of Western Civilization and has been at New College since 2000.

Follow Herald-Tribune Education Reporter Steven Walker on Twitter at @swalker_7. He can be reached at sbwalker@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: New College of Florida launches online liberal arts degree program