Karen Holbrook said she prefers to think of the USF Sarasota-Manatee and New College of Florida merger as just another rumor.

“I hope there’s no real planning for it,” Holbrook said. “The two don’t really fit.”

In December, Holbrook retired as USF Sarasota-Manatee’s regional chancellor after 14 combined years of contribution to the school — six of them serving the Sarasota-Manatee campus.

Holbrook said her biggest concern is the future of the USF community. If a merger with New College does happen, she worries students will have to transfer.

“They want a degree from a major research university, a well-known university,” she said. “They didn’t sign on to get a degree from a different university.”

After rumors of a takeover swirled for weeks, WUSF reporter Kerry Sheridan received emails and a press release through a public records request. 

The records described the plans for “New College taking ‘full stewardship’ of USF Sarasota-Manatee,” according to Sheridan’s article.

USF spokesperson Althea Johnson told The Oracle that those documents are “several months old” and were “prepared by New College.” 

Johnson said Board of Governors Chair Brian Lamb asked USF and New College in September to look at how the two institutions could “identify additional synergies in their partnership.” 

“Since then USF leadership has been in discussions with New College,” Johnson said.

Johnson did not clarify what specific partnerships the two institutions are discussing.

Related: OPINION: USF Sarasota-Manatee should not merge with New College of Florida. Here’s why.

Because Holbrook retired last year, she is not in the “midst of the discussions” and does not know if USF Sarasota-Manatee is in fact considering merging with New College.

But she does not want a takeover to happen. 

Holbrook said Sarasota-Manatee’s identity and mission couldn’t be preserved under New College leadership “at all.”

“New College has wanted to build a very unique identity that is very different from a research university, and that’s fine,” she said. 

Gov. Ron DeSantis appointed Richard Corcoran as New College’s interim president in spring 2023 as an “experiment in conservative higher education reform.”

Corcoran has been trying to get his hands on more land in the Sarasota-Manatee area, including the Sarasota Bradenton International Airport and The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art. So far, neither of those takeovers has happened.

Instead of a merger, Holbrook said USF Sarasota-Manatee and New College could work on more collaborations.

“I think that would be very valuable. I see a lot of opportunity for sharing in different things,“ she said. “That would take a lot of work, but it’s not impossible.”

Related: USF Sarasota-Manatee is housing New College students for roughly $1M 

Holbrook said conversations regarding a merger with New College were not brought up to her during her tenure.

In fact, Holbrook said she talked to USF President Rhea Law and gave her a retirement date “probably” twice—which got extended each time.

WUSF cited Law as one of the people “overseeing” the merger along with Corcoran, USF Board of Trustees chair Will Weatherford and Brett Kemker — USF Sarasota-Manatee’s interim regional chancellor.

Holbrook is now a regional chancellor emerita, which means she is still connected with USF in an “unofficial way” — largely through email. 

Holbrook said USF “has worked very hard” to make Sarasota-Manatee a local “high-caliber” university. 

Students have many opportunities there, such as “valuable” nursing, business and hospitality programs, she said.

Related: New Nursing/STEM building at Sarasota-Manatee campus in final design stages

These programs won’t cease to exist if New College takes over Sarasota-Manatee because they are offered at all three USF campuses.

However, Holbrook said these programs “shouldn’t go” to New College. 

“It doesn’t make any sense,” she said. “New College has a very different background than our programs.”

Holbrook said a New College takeover would remove a “great” research university — part of the Association of American Universities — from the area. 

“We really designed programs that we felt benefited the community,” she said. “So, in my mind, it would be an enormous loss to the community.”

Holbrook worries the merger would mean some students would leave USF for good.

“I’d love to be able to say to people, ‘Don’t worry about it,’ but I think we’re all in the same boat,” she said. “We are just sort of on pins and needles waiting to see what happens.”