March 1, 2019 by The Independent Florida Alligator

www.alligator.org

We Inform. You Decide.

VOLUME 113 ISSUE 65

FRIDAY, MARCH 1, 2019 Published by Campus Communications, Inc. of Gainesville, Florida

Not officially associated with the University of Florida

FEATURE FRIDAY

UF women in science share stories of resilience and discrimination By Angie DiMichele and Hannah Beatty Alligator Staff Writers

Armed with knives, scalpels, microscopes and programming languages, women break through gender and scientiﬁc barriers. Women account for over 50 percent of the population. Yet as the overall female population grows, female students and fac-

ulty in science ﬁelds are under-represented. Despite being in the minority, these female professors and students don’t see themselves solely as statistics. They view themselves as valued contributors on equal footing with their counterparts. These are their stories.

• • •

Katerina Aifantis considered the halls of Michigan Technological University her playground. While her father scribbled en-

gineering theories in his ofﬁce, Aifantis and her brother, Elias Jr., ran around the hallways and slapped notes on the professors’ doors of the nine-story building. Aifantis is now a 35-year-old associate professor and faculty fellow of mechanical and materials engineering at UF. She is one of eight women of 62 mechanical engineering faculty. Aifantis studies how materials like sili-

SEE FEATURE, PAGE 3

Samuel Thomas / Alligator Staff

ACSO deputy accused of sexually assaulting girl SHE WAS 14 WHEN IT BEGAN By Josephine Fuller Alligator Staff writer

An Alachua County Sheriff’s Office deputy was arrested Thursday after he was accused of having a relationship with a 17-yearold girl for about three years. William Arnold Jr., 49, is a K-9 deputy and has served for about 13 years, according to the sheriff’s Arnold office. The girl told deputies that she and Arnold have been in a sexual relationship since she was 14 in eighth grade, according to a sheriff’s office arrest report. She spent time at his home over summer vacations. He made her feel that if they did not have sex she would not be allowed inside, the report said. There have been about 10 incidents during their relationship, most recently in January. In January, Arnold told her he wanted to kill himself, the report said. He asked to meet at a church in Alachua because he did not want his neighbors to see her car. They went to his house and had sex. She recently emailed Arnold saying she didn’t want to be in contact with him, the report said. Arnold told deputies he knew her for about three years and considered her a family friend but denied sexual activity, the report said. He said they would “horseplay” and sometimes get into arguments. Arnold was placed on administrative suspension, the sheriff’s office said. He was charged with lewd and lascivious battery and sexual assault, the report said. Arnold remained in the Alachua County Jail Thursday and will receive bail today.

Morgan Gravely, a 23-year-old UF animal sciences senior, works at the UF Meat Processing Center. Gravely is currently the only female employee at the center.

@JoFuller24 jfuller@alligator.org

Former UF professor loses defamation case against The New York Times The case is based on an article published in 2015 By Kelly Hayes Alligator Staff Writer

The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida ruled in favor of the The New York Times Wednesday in a defamation suit ﬁled by a UF professor. Kevin Folta, former associate professor for UF horticultural sci-

Gators look to rebound against Arkansas

ences department, ﬁled the defamation suit for an article he appeared in from 2015, according to court records. The article by Eric Lipton, later a defendant in the case, focused on the impact and the relationships of biotechnology and organics companies with public university academics, according to court

Trinity Thomas and the UF gymnastics team will go for the SEC title, pg. 14

records. In the article, Lipton uses Folta’s emails from his UF account, which are public records. The emails showed communication between Folta and representatives from Monsanto, the world’s largest corporate seed company. They detail agreements to promote Monsanto’s products.

Folta contested his emails’ use in the case, but the court ruled they could be used, according to the record. Folta was previously the department chairman, but he resigned from his position in May 2018 after receiving death threats from activist groups, according to a report from The Alligator. Folta denied comment at this time. Mark Caramanica, a lawyer for

Gainesville’s mayoral race is coming up See our candidate proﬁles and when to vote, pg. 8

The New York Times, wrote in an email the Times was pleased with the court’s decision. “This is a case that should have never been brought over an important story based on Dr. Folta’s own communications that shed light on public academics’ relationships with the food industry,” he said.

Diﬀerent ways to get into UF

Not everyone starts at UF as an on-campus freshman , pg. 4

@FloridaAlligator @TheAlligator_ @TheAlligator

@kellyrhayes khayes@alligator.org