Some New College of Florida students have to live in a hotel four miles from campus

reporter Steven Walker Sarasota Herald-Tribune — Steven Walker. WMNF screenshot (22 Aug 2023).

New College of Florida has gone through a lot of changes in the nine months since Governor Ron DeSantis appointed a slate of conservative Trustees; the latest is that the school is sending students to live in a third hotel off campus, four miles from NCF.

It comes as there has been an influx of new students, including many student-athletes, who are getting on-campus housing.

On Tuesday Cafe, we spoke with Mike Sanderson, a new college alum and with Steven Walker, an education reporter at the Sarasota Herald-Tribune who has been reporting extensively on the Sarasota School Board and on this year’s quickly-moving developments at New College of Florida.

Listen to the full show here:

“Just things I’m collecting ahead of [a fully-reported article] now, it doesn’t seem like they [the college] have a plan right now. Like, they want to offer transportation but there’s no transportation plan right now.

“And specifically, that’s an issue for a lot of students who may not have transportation, and they’re going to be living four miles off campus, which is about an hour and a half walk, 30-minute bike ride, or pretty expensive Ubers every day to school if there’s no transportation.

“So that’s the current state is that there are three different hotels. The upperclassmen specifically will be, from my understanding, in the Hyatt Regency. There are first-year students who are not athletes in hotels, the Home2 and Hilton Hotels. And then you know, second years as well are up there. And specifically the on-campus are mostly freshmen, and athletes.”
– Steven Walker