As New College of Florida builds out a new communications team, it continues to rely on conservative media figures.
James Miller, a former executive director of the Republican Party, joined the New College staff in June as vice president of Communications and Chief Marketing Officer, according to his LinkedIn. More recently, the school named Will Witt, a conservative author and controversial online influencer, as Chief Social Media Officer
The high-profile hires continue a high-profile conservative makeover at the historically progressive Sarasota-area school. Trustees hired Richard Corcoran, a former Florida Education Commissioner and Republican House Speaker, as University President, which has prompted an exodus of longtime students and staff.
Several local members of the school community privately embraced Miller’s hire at the university to bring communications on track.
Miller, a Sarasota-based consultant, has recently focused more on business issues and community building. That included more than three years as director of Business Competitiveness Initiatives at the Economic Development Corporation of Sarasota County, where he worked on issues like setting up a satellite engineering program for the University of Florida in Sarasota, as well as on bipartisan issues like establishing the Legacy Trail and maintaining a penny sales tax. He has also worked with the Midnight Pass Society II and with the Bay Park Conservancy.
“I’m known for being involved in long-term transformational projects,” Miller said. “I’m very good at it. When Richard first came to town, I met with him and liked where his vision was heading. We’ve had a couple conversations, and it just turned out the timing was right for him, the college and for me. I think people are happy because I’m known as a collaborator in our community.”
Witt, former editor-in-chief of The Florida Standard and long associated with the conservative Prager U, has proved to be a more controversial choice. The school already announced his hire internally.
“Located in the communications department, Will will serve as a collegewide resource for all social and digital media efforts,” an internal announcement said. “We’re looking forward to the expertise, vision, and insight he brings to this important role.”
Witt is a bestselling author, most recently of the 2023 book “Do Not Comply: Taking Power Back from America’s Corrupt Elite.” Witt currently has more than 147,000 followers on X, 370,000 on Facebook and 489,000 on Instagram.
Private message boards on campus have already taken note of Witt’s social media activity. He, as recently as July 8, publicly questioned FBI findings that Florida financier Jeffrey Epstein committed suicide while in jail on sex trafficking charges. He also regularly challenges vaccine use.
Miller, though, said it was Witt’s background building an online following for institutions that mattered most to the university.
“When we are building a communications team, you want people who have some success, and Will falls into that,” Miller said. “Whatever you think of him, he has had success at this.”
Regardless of the receptions, the hires affirm that the Sarasota campus has leaned into the narrative it wants to be known as a conservative haven.
New College of Florida President Richard Corcoran, a former Florida Education Commissioner and House Speaker, spoke this weekend at the Florida Freedom Forum, a gathering held by the Republican Party in Orlando, on the conservatives’ education agenda.
He described New College as the “most progressive liberal public school in the country” and compared protests at Trustee meetings to Seattle’s autonomous zone in the 2020 riots, but promised to change the culture.
“At New College, we had about 96 professors when I got there; 42% are gone. Just to put it in perspective, we are one of the 12 universities in the university system. That would mean at the other universities you are getting rid of upward of 3,000 professors,” Corcoran said.
“But if you don’t do that systemic change — and it’s not just the professors. It’s with your personnel business policy. If you don’t get the right personnel on a day-to-day basis — and you can’t get in the office and micromanage them — you have to get … the right people and put them all over the place so that you know that the mission and the vision is being followed.”
But Miller said the goal of New College remains to become a premier liberal arts college that embraces all points of view in discussion. He pointed to the Socratic Stage series, which has paired well-known representatives from opposing views, such as a discussion of climate change with Bill Nye and Michael Shellenberger or an installment on gender studies in academia with Judith Butler and Stanley Fish.
“We’ve brought in some very conservative voices but also some very not-conservative voices,” he said.
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