The New U
One Sarasota College offers a non-traditional education with no shoes, no grades and no problems
The college boasts its belief in student responsibility, demonstrated competence, depth of interest and joint learning between the professor and the student. To prove responsibility, students sign a contract with their professors at the beginning of each semester, stating their goals for the next few months. If the student follows the contract throughout college, they graduate.
Because of New College’s insularity, unique learning environment and contract curriculum system, not all students last long enough to get a degree without transferring back to a typical university.
“I think they portray a certain image, but once you get there you realize it’s something entirely different,” says Robin Lusk, who attended New College for three months before transferring to Florida Southern College.
Although admitted as an art major, Lusk claims there were no real art teachers. The “Your education is your own” slogan felt more like a lack of faculty interest, and Lusk hungered for more guidance.
Another problem Lusk found not typically addressed in the campus newsletter is what she describes as rampant drug use, especially marijuana.
“When you go to college you expect a certain amount of drugs,” Lusk says. “But at this school it’s like everyone is stoned all of the time. And if they’re not, they sure act like it.”
One place where drugs abound, Lusk says, is at The Wall, a social meeting area on campus where theme parties are thrown. Anything goes. It is not a bar or club on a main street, but instead, a gathering of students who just want to kick back and let off a little steam.
“Depending on the theme, costumes are always a hit,” Dawson says. “We love dressing up, wearing very few clothes, streaking, and skinny dipping is always a favorite.”
Sexiest male contests, Greco roman wrestling and kissing auctions also are popular events at The Wall, where sexuality is described as “wishy-washy.”
The Wall is just one side of the New College campus, a representation of laid back times that contribute to the educational experience of individual learning. It is indeed a world of its own, only allowing its top layer exposure to the outside world, the rest hidden among the students and faculty.