On a sunny spring day in April, Provost David Rohrbacher and this Old School Catalyst reporter sat down in Robertson Park next to College Hall to talk about his new administrative position at New College of Florida. The wind was blowing, reggaeton music was playing at the park as folks nearby enjoyed the warm weather at the end of Florida’s winter season. Sitting in the shade, Rohrbacher began with light-hearted teasing, riffing on a fictional history of the evolution of journalism and 1960s culture.
“One afternoon on Wednesday, we hung out listening to Bob Marley at Robertson Park. You gotta do that setting the stage stuff: ‘I had an eighth of ’shrooms before meeting with him, so that whole experience was really surreal.’ … That’s what your journalistic forebearers did, man. That’s how they opened up back in the ’60s and ’70s,” Rohrbacher joked.
This is characteristic of the person students know him to be, an easygoing guy with an affinity for dry humor and whose love for the serious study of antiquity and dead languages is at odds with his fun-loving nature. This spirit is emblematic of New College, a special school in southwest Florida where one of the mottos has always been, “Work hard, play hard.”
Rohrbacher, who grew up in Wilmington, Delaware, received his undergraduate education in Latin and History from Tufts University and his Ph.D in Classics from the University of Washington (UW). Before coming to New College he taught at UW, the University of Puget Sound and the University of Tennessee. He began teaching Classics at New College in 2000, and was appointed to the role of Provost on November 22, 2024.
Rohrbacher has two children, a 22 year-old daughter, a 14 year-old son and currently lives in Sarasota with his family. “I met my wife when we were in graduate school in Seattle, and we got married in Tennessee,” Rohrbacher said. “… She’s a professor of French, a medievalist at the University of South Florida.
When Rohrbacher met his wife, he said there was initial confusion.
“She was my Latin student. It’s funny because I mean, she’s like ten months younger than me, we were both graduate students, but whenever she was like, ‘Oh, I’m dating my Latin teacher, I have a crush on my Latin teacher’, the image of people’s mind of Latin teacher is some ancient guy, you know? And they’re like, really? Gross, your Latin teacher?”
Before coming to New College, Rohrbacher didn’t think his younger, undergraduate self would have been much inclined towards the school’s “radical” nature.
“I wasn’t super straight-edged, but I feel like I was pretty conventional as a student, even as a thinker to some extent,” he recalled. “… in my first year or two at New College, I thought, when I was 17 years old, there’s no way I could have come here with all the choices and opportunities and the self-starting that you need to be. And then a couple of years later, I thought, man, I wish I had come here at 17. I would have gotten it together, I would have just matured so much more quickly and really had a relationship with an idea that took me to graduate school.”
Ultimately, that uniqueness is what drew him to the college and led him to fall in love with more than simply the academic system, but all of its components, the faculty and the students.
“I remember really well at the convention, the classics convention where they did interviews back in the day and all of us on the market getting together. [They would ask,] what’s your number one pick for a job?”
When looking for academic positions, New College was his first pick. Rohrbacher said that this surprised some, but he knew he loved teaching, and was excited by the system of education. “From the first day I came, this was the place for me.”
“As Provost, [something] I’m always selling when new candidates for jobs are here, is faculty autonomy,” Rohrbacher explained. “You look around the world of higher ed and your typical school … there’s a curriculum committee and there’s the official classes, and to propose a new class at many schools takes literally years to be accepted. You’re completely constrained, and it just doesn’t allow for what we do.
“What do the students I have right now want?” Rohrbacher continued. “What do they need? What am I able to do? What am I excited about? What forms of knowledge can I bring together? And that leads to such creativity. So we take risks that way … students that were drawn to that kind of learning, they chose the college in order to get this kind of fundamental education.”
New College announced in an email that Rohrbacher had been appointed Provost and Vice President of Academic Affairs. “David is the perfect fit to guide our academic divisions as we implement the Logos and Techne Core Curriculum and expand our academic offerings,” New College President Richard Corcoran stated. “His wealth of experience within our academic program, the respect he commands among his peers, and his unwavering devotion to New College and our students have prepared him to take on this new role.”
Rohrbacher wasn’t enthused initially when offered the role of Provost. He turned it down. “My original reaction was ‘No.’ I will tell you that I love to teach. I’ve always loved to teach, to teach in the New College environment,” he said.
Ultimately, Rohrbacher said he thought he had something specific to contribute to the college as a potential Provost. Despite his love for teaching and the “challenge” of the new job, he said he believed that there was a gap to bridge between the faculty and the new administration.
“In talking to administrators and in talking to faculty, although there are real differences of principle sometimes, I learned, I really became confident that there was also just a lot of misunderstanding and paranoia on both sides, and both sides just were not happy with each other… didn’t trust each other,” he explained. “The reason I accepted this role is just that I knew that it wasn’t as bad as each side thought, you know?”
After sitting on the question, some convincing from Corcoran and his family’s input regarding the salary increase, he decided to take the job. While largely stepping back from his role as an educator, he did put in his contract that he will continue to work with his advisees and teach advanced Latin each semester, which he says is partly “to keep faith with the students that have stuck around with me,” but also to retain the pulse of the student body.
Regarding the new administration, Rohrbacher said that they are in support of the unique academic system at the college.
“I’m confident about it, and I wouldn’t have taken this role if I thought it was gonna be about fighting with them,” Rohrbacher said. “Obviously, they don’t come from the same position that I do. They don’t always understand or accept all the nuances, but also, look, there are always trade offs. … But I think at the end of the day, if we just standardize, then we’re nothing at all.”
Rohrbacher’s new job hasn’t been without tumult—positioned between an administration and faculty that don’t always see eye to eye. When asked if some regard this as “a stab in the back,” he said thoughtfully, “Yeah, probably, probably. It certainly is a different role for me and people will judge me differently for the role that I’m playing now. … I mean, it is what it is at the end of the day.”
In thinking about the political divide within the institution, Rohrbacher said he found himself in a mediatory role early on. When the “takeover” happened in January 2023, his “strategy” had been to preserve the academic system at the college.
“I believe in the New College program. I believe it’s not an inherently left-wing idea or right-wing idea or anything like that. It’s a form of education,” he said.
When asked if he feels as if he’s fighting to keep the college alive, he explained that the institution has always had its challenges. Whether it comes to financial aid, state regulations or “outside forces,” standardization has always been a threat.
“We have always fought against financial aid, [which] wants these things to be regular. The Registrar needs these things to be in this format. The state needs these regulations to fit with the courses that you’re taking. The credit hour has to equal this. So everything we do is in constant battle against outside forces, specifically at New College.”
Rohrbacher spoke positively about the future of the institution. “Anything could happen, and what happened two years ago is a sign,” Rohrbacher said. “I think we are poised for growth. … I think what we offer is great and I think people will recognize that. So I’m optimistic.”
The dedicated Classics professor said he misses full time teaching, but believes that someone has to do this valuable work as Provost.
“The work I’m doing is in defense of many, many teachers getting to teach the great students in their great way, and it’s just my turn to take on that role and try to keep that going.”
