Rodrigo Diaz: An open letter to the New College Foundation Board of Directors

Dear Directors of the New College Foundation:

My name is Rodrigo Díaz. I graduated from New College in 1991.

I am writing to you concerning the decision of the Presidential Evaluation Standing Committee of the New College Board of Trustees to recommend that the full Board approve a payment of $200,000 in incentive compensation to President Richard Corcoran for achieving the goals and objectives of his contract during his first year in office.

The committee reached its decision in a virtual meeting on April 2, 2024. The full Board of Trustees will consider the Committee’s recommendation in a meeting in the Sudakoff Center on April 11, 2024.

It seems the Presidential Evaluation Standing Committee failed to take account of relevant and significant information in reaching its recommendation. According to Section 3.2.6 (pp. 23-24) of the “New College of Florida Faculty Handbook,”

the Faculty Appointments and Status Committee must carry out an annual evaluation of the New College president “around the middle of Spring semester.”

The Chair of the committee must then summarize the results of the evaluation and provide them to the Chair of the New College Board of Trustees. As required by the handbook, such an evaluation of President Corcoran was completed on March 15, 2024.

Debra Jenks, the current Board of Trustees Chair, is also chair of the Presidential Evaluation Standing Committee (as well as an ex-officio member of the Foundation’s Board of Directors). Chair Jenks did not mention the faculty evaluation of President Corcoran during the Committee’s April 2 meeting, and neither did any of the other Committee members.

There is also no reference to the faculty evaluation in the supporting materials for the Committee’s meeting. Apparently, the Presidential Evaluation Standing Committee discussed the President’s job performance and reached a decision regarding his incentive compensation without considering the faculty’s annual evaluation of him.

Clearly, this is problematic.

Did Chair Jenks have the summary of the evaluation in time for the April 2 meeting? If so, why didn’t she share it with the Committee? If not, why didn’t she postpone the meeting till she obtained the summary and provided it to the committee?

If she did not have the summary, then, at least, she should have informed the Committee and the members of the public who were observing the meeting via Zoom that important information bearing on the President’s performance was not yet available.

Additionally, it should be noted that the supporting materials for the April 2 meeting contain the following statement: “Board of Governors Regulation 1.001 University Board of Trustees Powers and Duties requires the board of trustees of each state university to conduct an annual evaluation of the president and to submit the evaluation for review to the Board of Governors. The evaluation must address the president’s performance and progress in achieving the goals established by the Board of Trustees.”

Any annual evaluation of President Corcoran’s performance to be submitted to the Board of Governors of the State University System ought to take account of the annual evaluation of the President by the New College faculty.

As of this writing (7:00 p.m. eastern time, April 7, 2024), the summary of the faculty evaluation of President Corcoran does not appear in the supporting materials available at ncf.edu for the upcoming April 11, 2024, meeting of the full Board of Trustees.

In light of the recommendation of the Presidential Evaluation Standing Committee, it seems likely that the Board of Trustees will vote on April 11 to approve President Corcoran’s incentive compensation payment of $200,000.

Subsequently, the New College Foundation will be asked to pay this amount.

However, given that the Presidential Evaluation Standing Committee and its Chair appear to have acted in a manner inconsistent with their full fiduciary duty in their April 2 meeting, I respectfully ask the New College Foundation to refrain from complying with any request from the New College Board of Trustees to pay President Corcoran’s incentive compensation unless, and until, the summary of the faculty evaluation of the President is made available to the members of the Board of Trustees and to the general public.

I also request that the Foundation’s Board of Directors ask Chair Jenks to release the summary to the members of the New College Board of Trustees and to the public in its entirety as it was delivered (or may be delivered) to her by the Faculty Appointments and Status Committee.

Finally, I request the Board of Directors to ask Chair Jenks for clarification as to whether the summary was taken into account somehow by the Presidential Evaluation Standing Committee and, if so, when and how.

I believe the members of the New College Board of Trustees, the New College community, those whose donations support the Foundation, and the tax-paying public have a right to read the summary of Richard Corcoran’s evaluation by the New College faculty.

Thank you for your time and consideration.