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New College of Florida faces ‘ridiculously high’ level of faculty turnover | Florida News | Orlando

Photo via New College of Florida/Facebook

Amid heavy turnover, New College of Florida officials are in the process of filling 36 faculty positions ahead of the fall semester.

New College has secured signed offer letters for 15 incoming visiting faculty members as it looks to address what Provost Brad Thiessen called a “ridiculously high” level of turnover compared to previous years.

A presentation given Monday to a committee of the New College Board of Trustees detailed reasons that faculty members will be “out for at least one semester.”

For example, six faculty members have retired, six have resigned and six took leave without pay.

Another 16 faculty members will be out for reasons such as being assigned research leave or being on family leave.

Also, out of seven visiting professor contracts that were up for renewal, five have been renewed, meaning that the school has two visiting professor slots that need to be filled.

Thiessen during Monday’s meeting pointed to the school being in the process of “negotiating offers” with six additional prospective faculty members.

“If this meeting were a week later, I think we would get up to 21 (faculty members hired),” Thiessen said.

The current vacancies would account for about a third of the small liberal-arts school’s total faculty, as the most recently published information on the New College website said the campus had 94 full-time faculty members.

Fall classes are scheduled to begin Aug. 28.

The school has drawn heavy attention in recent months as Gov. Ron DeSantis appointed a slate of conservative trustees who have made changes. That has included the ouster of former President Patricia Okker, who was replaced by interim President Richard Corcoran, a former Florida House speaker and education commissioner.

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