Thank you to everyone who has signed -- please continue to share to Facebook, Twitter, and elsewhere. 

The NAIA National Office did reply on May 31, the Director of Membership Sales and Service, with a two-line message:

"Thank you for providing this information. Until an actual application is made we do not have any involvement with New College and will not evaluate the situation." 

With all respect to the difficult position this puts the NAIA National Office in, we hope that this petition shows we need to stop the ongoing harm being done by the hostile takeover that involves partially setting up an athletics at New College, and the need to reject New College's potential application immediately.

The mascot discussion last week showed again this hostile, political takeover:

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At the June 1 New College Board of Trustees meeting, the Interim President revealed a never-before-seen mascot, a Banyan Tree, which the Board of Trustees voted on minutes later. Before this unveiling, there was one survey, open only to current students, with over a dozen options -- one mascot of which was ineligible, as it was already in use in the Sun Conference -- and the survey was apparently not secured and taken down early with no result. The mascot that Corcoran unveiled was suggested by a student, but had not been one of the options at all.

In Florida public universities, the student government president has a seat on the Board of Trustees), and NCSA President and Trustee Grace Keenan said that she was not objecting to the mascot, but the process: 

"This wasn’t not a process of determining what our mascot would be that was satisfactory to many in the New College community, the students, many of the faculty, many of the alumni.” [2:42:43]

Keenan then suggested “A solution that respects the students ... but still involves you all in the process.” [2:46:34] She proposed moving forward with the tree as the athletic mascot, but to have an inclusive process for the overall official New College of Florida mascot.

Chair of the Faculty Amy Reid, who also is a member of the board said of the tree, added this:

“It was presented very well, but as a coup d’étatre, that people weren’t aware of what was going on, I think that’s a sort of unfortunate optic. ... This [moving forward with an athletic mascot] is an opportunity to build consensus and support, and to make students feel that they are seen and respected and valued, it seems like an easy way to do that." [2:46:54]

Keenan then said,

“I can tell you there’s a lot of hurt and upset in the way this process has gone.” [2:49:24]

A few minutes later, Trustee Chriostoper Rufo, a conservative activist who was appointed in 2023, replied:

I think frankly, the language about harm and hurt feelings, to me is manipulative, and should be discounted heavily as such... [we have make a decision] not catering to the feelings of students -- perhaps, we don’t know this -- that are, you know, hurt by the banyan tree mascot.” [2:53:03] 

Mr. Rufo's comment is highly disingenuous because as was made clear, the hurt and upset was not from the tree, which had only been presented a few minutes earlier, but from the process.

The Board of Trustees then voted down President Kennan's proposal, voted down another proposal to table the mascot until the fall so students could participate, and then voted to make the tree the official mascot over the objections of the student and faculty trustees.  

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We continue to look at how the NAIA is organized and the roles of different members, to stop thin on. Please continue to share this petition to Facebook, Twitter, and to all your networks, and encourage anyone in the sports world or otherwise to share. Thank you for your support as we Save New College!