New College of Florida plummets in national ranking amid DeSantis conservative overhaul

As New College of Florida undergoes a conservative transformation, the small public liberal arts honors school saw a dramatic drop in its national ranking, according to a newly released list.

New College dropped 24 spots in U.S. News and World Report's ranking of liberal arts schools, into a tie for 100th. The drop follows a trend in the rankings for Florida public universities, with the University of Florida falling one spot to No. 6, the University of South Florida dropping three spots to No. 45, and Florida State University falling three spots to No. 23 among public universities.

In a comment sent late Monday evening, New College Spokesperson Nathan March said the drop in rankings "prove the symptoms of decline that have been evident at New College for many years."

"All (ranking criteria) are items the new administration has actively set out to improve including metrics like graduation rate, first-year retention, graduate earnings, borrower debt, and faculty salaries," March wrote. "We’re pleased data backs the need for rapid change, and have and will continue to make positive changes to drive New College's rankings upward in the years ahead."

New College also ranked No. 6 among the top public liberal arts colleges in the U.S., down from No. 5 in 2022. In 2006, the college ranked first among public liberal arts universities.

U.S. News and World Report ranks colleges every year based on several criteria including graduation rates, graduate outcomes, cost, student-to-faculty ratios and retention rates. This year, the rankings weighed social mobility higher than previous years, which was based on graduation rates of low-income students receiving a federal Pell Grant.

The top liberal arts college in the U.S. was Williams College in Massachusetts, and the top public liberal arts college was the Naval Academy, according to the rankings.

Ahead of the fall semester, New College established an athletics department and aggressively recruited student-athletes to increase enrollment. But on average, the admitted student-athletes had worse grade point averages and scored worse than the freshmen class as a whole.

The combined GPA for student-athletes admitted to New College for the coming year was 3.61, compared with 3.7 for the overall population of 328 students enrolled so far. The student-athlete combined ACT score was 22 compared to 24 for the whole class. The student-athlete SAT score was 1097 compared to 1147 for the combined group of incoming students, according to records.

The launch of an athletics program has been a central element in the school's conservative overhaul, spearheaded by Gov. Ron DeSantis, who appointed new trustees tasked with shaping the small liberal arts school into the "Hillsdale College of the South."

Hillsdale College is a private, conservative Christian liberal arts school in Michigan. Hillsdale sat tied for No. 39 in U.S. News and World Report's liberal arts college rankings.

The school's leadership dissolved the college's diversity department, abolished the gender studies program, fired an LGBTQ librarian and denied tenure to five faculty members set to receive it. The board also dissolved the school's gender studies program in a vote at the end of a meeting on Aug. 10.

New students and student-athletes were given priority in housing assignments as the college shuttered dorms on campus due to mold issues. The influx of students combined with the restricted housing supply has caused a housing crisis on campus, pushing most new and returning students who aren't student-athletes into living at off-campus hotels.

The college is also the subject of two federal civil rights complaints to the U.S. Department of Education regarding discrimination on the basis of sex, gender and disability. The department opened the disability complaint for investigation and is still considering the other.

Amid everything, more than a third of faculty have left New College causing course cancellations and staffing vacancies for the fall semester. Also, about 125 students have left New College, according to a college spokesperson.

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 drops double digits in U.S. News school rankings