New College gave Richard Corcoran a $200,000 bonus. Here's how he can prove he deserves it.

Welp, fighting “woke” in Florida's colleges and universities sure ain’t cheap, folks.

What other conclusion can we reach from the “make it rain” spectacle that refuses to end at New College of Florida?

You know, the small, public Sarasota liberal arts school whose supposed stewards continue to shovel mounds of sweet, green cash into the gold-plated trough of President Richard Corcoran – apparently to ensure Corcoran has enough financial sustenance to keep his strength up as he goes about his tireless quest to completely transform New College from a nationally high-ranking institution with an eclectic and left-leaning reputation into a decidedly middling-ranked, classical-oriented, right-wing college that seems obsessed with coveting property, talking trash, instigating conflict, destroying inclusivity, ignoring homophobia, worshipping jocks, alienating educators, avoiding transparency, denying tenure, making questionable hires  and adding dubious courses.

Yes, that New College of Florida.

Recently, the school’s Board of Trustees voted to award Corcoran – who became New College’s full-time president last October after being abruptly appointed as its interim leader several months earlier – a $200,000 bonus as part of his annual evaluation.

Frankly, the school's contract with Corcoran didn't exactly set a high bar for the guy to clear in order to receive the $200,000 bonus: Corcoran pretty much just had to remain upright and spend the millions of dollars that Gov. Ron DeSantis and the Florida Legislature have lavished on New College since launching a conservative takeover of the school in January 2023.

More: One year later, New College's hostile takeover remains appalling

That said, Corcoran was clearly up to the daunting, Herculean challenge put before him – and he will now pull in more than $1 million in total compensation this year, making him one of Florida’s highest paid college administrators.

Which leads us, in turn, to offer both a sincere wish and a genuine request.

The sincere wish is for each and every one of us to have, find or keep someone in our lives who loves us just as much as DeSantis clearly adores Corcoran, who in less than six years has gone from a largely generic Florida lawmaker to a controversial state education commissioner to an extravagantly compensated university president – all while possessing little experience to hold any of these positions other than “largely generic Florida lawmaker.”

May we all be so blessed!

The genuine request, meanwhile, is for Corcoran to do the one thing he hasn’t done very often since arriving at New College – because it's the one thing he must do to really prove he deserves the extra $200,000 that's now been enthusiastically stuffed into his already overflowing pockets:

Show some humility.

Too often, with a refreshing exception or two, the public persona Corcoran has displayed since become New College’s president has been that of a smug, strutting little brother who feels enabled and entitled to do or pursue anything he wants, safe in the knowledge that his twin big brother bullies – in this case, DeSantis and the Legislature – are only a phone call away to handle any trouble he might start or obstacles he might encounter.

It's a persona that, fairly or unfairly, has also affected the public face of New College as an institution over the past year. And it’s a persona that Corcoran, armed with the security of a lucrative contract and a sycophantic trustees’ board that is little more than a glorified rubber stamp, has a responsibility to acknowledge and change.

Now more than ever, Corcoran would be wise to embrace a paraphrase of the immortal words uttered by Dean Vernon Wormer, the  cold and imperious college administrator in “Animal House,” the legendary movie classic: “Arrogant, haughty and high-handed is no image for a college president to project, son.”

In its rush to place yet another bag of crisp cash at the feet of Richard Corcoran, New College has – yet again –happily shown its president the money. It’s time for Corcoran to show the humility necessary to assure our community he's truly worth the expense.

This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: New College of Florida can't stop throwing money at Richard Corcoran