John Oliver on New College’s Maga takeover: ‘More about political posturing than students’ lives’

“Calling it a ‘cancel cancel culture center’ is pathetic,” said Oliver. “It sounds like the headquarters of a cult founded by Russell Brand – which is barely even a joke given he was invited to be guest speaker at New College on the topic of ‘thinking without permission’.”

Corcoran set about making changes including changing the New College mascot to a banyan tree with a face. “It looks like Groot if he hulked,” said Oliver. “If Samantha from Sex and the City saw that tree, she’d say, ‘Shiver me timbers, talk about some hard wood.’”

While Corcoran promised that the New School would “encourage debate” under his leadership, Oliver noted that he “got rid of its gender studies program, with Rufo bragging they had closed a “massive” and “radical” department that “indoctrinates students”.

“In reality, it had a budget of $7,000 for projects and expenses, and a part-time office manager,” said Oliver.

Amid the changes under Corcoran’s leadership, more than a third of professors were fired, took leave or voluntarily resigned from their positions. Instead, Corcoran brought in “presidential scholars in residence”, including Bruce Gilley, author of the book The Case for Colonialism. (“It argues that European colonialism was actually a good thing,” Oliver said.)

New College managed to increase enrollment, with an incoming class of 328 students for the first full academic year of Corcoran’s tenure. But Oliver said that statistics may not tell the full story. “Former admissions office employees have claimed that the school boosted enrollment by sharply lowering standards,” the host said, adding that one admissions essay was apparently a phone screenshot with multiple spelling and grammatical errors.

Rufo aimed to change the “hormonal balance” of New College’s predominantly female community, and called the fact that two-thirds of students were women “wildly out of balance”.

In Corcoran’s first year, the male student population grew by over 23% after the administration offered scholarships to “a fuckton of male athletes” including 70 baseball players, no matter that the school did not have a baseball field at that time.

“They were just bringing in ball players and expecting one to magically appear, like some kind of reverse Field of Dreams,” Oliver joked.

“Money has seemingly been no object when it comes to this project,” he continued. “A state audit last year found that the public cost to produce a degree at New College had swelled to nearly $500,000, dwarfing what has been spent per student at any other public university.”

Administrative costs at New College have sharply risen, with one major expenditure being Corcoran’s own salary of over $1m a year, including perks and bonuses.

“The whole New College experiment has been a complete shit show,” said Oliver. “In researching this piece, we talked to so many students, and one big takeaway is that …the school’s administration seems to care much more about political posturing than it does about their actual lives.

“The stated mission of those behind the takeover of New College wasn’t just to recapture an institution, but to provide a model for red states to then replicate,” added Oliver. “But if this is that model, it fucking sucks.”