Fight over New College of Florida records heading to court

A Florida open government watchdog now says it expects “a court date in early June” in its public records lawsuit first lodged against the New College of Florida and one of its new trustees, conservative activist Christopher F. Rufo. Court records show the Florida Center for Government Accountability later added the other members of the college’s Board of Trustees as defendants after they failed to respond to another records request for text messages and phone logs. 

The requests were sparked in part by the ouster of New College President Patricia Okker and her replacement by former state education commissioner and past Florida House speaker Richard Corcoran as interim president. Michael Barfield, the center’s director of public access, earlier told City & State “the public is entitled to know what records exist that might shed additional light” on recent changes at the college. 

The governor’s press secretary, Bryan Griffin, has said those changes, including the new trustees, address what he called a “skewed focus” at New College. “Unfortunately, like so many colleges and universities in America, this institution has been completely captured by a political ideology that puts trendy, truth-relative concepts above learning,” Griffin said.

The latest court filing says the center now has “14 pages of records,” which the school “took 51 days to produce.” It seeks an evidentiary hearing in Sarasota County, where the school is based, “to resolve any factual dispute about the reasonableness of that delay” and find out why other records weren’t produced. 

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