New College pushes upperclassmen to dorms with mold issues amid influx of student-athletes

New College of Florida is shifting returning students into housing in buildings with mold problems identified by an outside consultant to make way for student-athletes and other incoming freshmen who are part of a conservative transformation of the school launched by Gov. Ron DeSantis.

Weeks before the start of the fall semester, the college emailed returning students Tuesday to tell them their housing assignments had been changed at the last minute to accommodate an influx of student-athletes and freshmen. The new cohort would live in the apartment-style Dort and Goldstein buildings — which have historically housed upperclassmen — while returning students would be moved to other, shared-space dorms, such as the older I. M. Pei designed buildings.

Pei dorms, however, were considered virtually uninhabitable due to mold as of early this summer. Although New College housed students in the Pei dorms last semester, a May report commissioned by the school and obtained by the Herald-Tribune concluded that the Pei dorms "should not be occupied in their current condition" due to a systematic mold issue that would require a fiscal investment to repair.

Mold can cause symptoms such as stuffy nose, sore throat, coughing or wheezing, burning eyes, or skin rash, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. People with asthma or who are allergic to mold could have more severe reactions, and immunocompromised people could get lung infections from mold.

https://www.heraldtribune.com/story/news/education/2023/07/15/new-college-pushes-returning-students-into-dorms-with-mold-problems/70409258007/

Also from the article:

In addition to being given priority in housing assignments, student-athletes have been given preferential treatment in admissions and promised $1,400 laptops if they enrolled, a New College admissions official told the Herald-Tribune.