Monday, April 24, 2023

Sasse’s semester of selective silence

Public Gainesville appearances remain limited

By Alissa Gary Alligator Staff Writer

Since UF President Ben Sasse took office in early February, he’s been selective about his public appearances. But behind the scenes in Tigert Hall, his first semester in Florida has featured a complicated state legislative session, a potential graduate campus in Jacksonville and meetings with faculty leaders.

16 and again April 20.

UF Faculty Senate Chair Amanda Phalin has been in regular contact with Sasse, she said, and sees him in Tigert Hall in early mornings.

UF President Ben Sasse makes an appearance at the Orange and Blue football game Thursday, April 13, 2023. This is one of the few public appearances in Gainesville Sasse has made since taking office Feb.

On Sasse’s second day on the job, he traveled to Jacksonville to announce plans for a new graduate campus in partnership with the city of Jacksonville, which is expected to cost $100 million divided equally between UF and the city. Sasse also made two appearances at Faculty Senate meetings: once as a surprise Feb.

She and 10 other faculty senate leaders attended a dinner with the president and his family at their house March 21. The group had a good conversation about challenges and opportunities at the university, Phalin said.

“I don't think that he's someone that's just going to speak about plans for the sake of speaking about plans,” she said.

While acclimating to Florida, Sasse has been paying attention to higher education reforms in the

MID-18TH CENTURY - 2023

By Ella Thompson

Alligator Staff Writer

UF’s first resident wasn’t a person, but a tree. Sprouting before the university was founded, a longleaf pine near Keene-Flint Hall has watched UF grow into what it is today. In April, the tree was declared dead.

The tree, which has been called both the Bicentennial Tree and the Anthropocene Tree, is estimated to have sprouted around the time the Declaration of Independence was signed, around 275 years old, according to UF forestry experts.

The most concrete marker of the tree’s age is a 1976 Alligator article, which reported that UF Forestry experts set out to find a tree as old as the Declaration of Independence to celebrate 200 years as an independent country. At the time, the article said the tree was estimated to be one of the only longleaf pines still standing at such an age.

“It's a valuable opportunity for us to reflect on all the non-human life that surrounds us on the campus all the time,” said Terry Harpold, a UF associate professor of English who focuses

on the environmental humanities.

UF says goodbye to oldest campus tree UF continues searches for directors, deans and provost

When the tree was designated as UF’s Bicentennial Tree, special measures were put in place to protect it. UF’s landscape superintendent worked with the forestry department to place a lightning rod in the tree for a price of $150, as tall longleaf pines are susceptible to lightning strikes, The Alligator reported.

They also installed a plaque, which still stands there today.

Harpold’s office window overlooks the tree, he said. In January, he noticed the tree wasn’t sprouting new needles, but attributed this setback to a freeze.

However, the freeze might not be the culprit, he said, and the actual cause won’t be revealed until the tree comes down in May. Though the tree’s exact cause of death isn’t clear, Harpold thinks it could be old age, and the freeze was the last straw. Longleaf pines can live to be 300 years old, but some can be as old as 500, according to Augusta Georgia Parks and Recreation.

“Longleaf pines grow in these networks of trees and at some point in its life, it was accompanied by other trees of the same size, the same age,” Harpold said. “Those trees were

SEE TREE, PAGE 5

LEADERSHIP VACANCIES AT UNIVERSITY EXPLAINED

By Allessandra Inzinna, Alissa Gary & Sophia Bailly Alligator Staff Writer

Over the past year, UF has found itself in a period of transition, including a new president appointed in February, the search for a new provost beginning in the Spring, a new UF Honors Program director to be announced within the next month and searches for a new dean of the Levin College of Law and Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering.

As UF finds itself at the center of controversies and discussions on what education in the state should look like, how the university decides to fill these positions will indicate the direction of Florida’s flagship university for years to come.

Provost

Provost Joe Glover announced Jan. 27 he’d step down after nearly 15 years in the position. He’ll remain at the university as a senior adviser to UF President Ben Sasse.

The provost search committee is collecting faculty and student opinions on goals and priorities for the position. Community members who attended the April 18 and April 21 online meetings mentioned academic freedom, support for students and UF-to-Gainesville connection as top priorities for the incoming provost.

Once it has gathered information, the search committee will look for candidates and conduct interviews. The new provost should be named by late summer, a search committee member said in the meeting April 21.

UF Faculty Senators approved the Provost Qualities Resolution at the April 20 senate meeting. In the resolution, faculty senators agreed on eight traits the next provost should have, including administrative experience at a university. The resolution also ensures candidates will be committed to academic freedom, which allows faculty to express academic and professional views.

“UF has a responsibility to recruit and retain a top-notch Provost candidate with a strong academic background,” the resolution writes.

SEE SEARCHES, PAGE 5

SPORTS/SPECIAL/CUTOUT

Story description finish with comma, pg# UF

@FloridaAlligator

professor details impacts of climate change on Indigenous communities Michael Heckenberger spends months in Brazilian Amazon, pg. 4 OPINIONS: Alligator editors, reporters say goodbye Members of the Spring 2023 staff reflect on the semester, pg. 6

Reagan Walsh uses bond with father to fuel Gators career Walsh dreamt of playing at UF before her arrival in Gainesville. Read more on pg. 11.

Ryan Friedenberg // Alligator Staff

6.

‘Ava’s Law’ could expand protection for pregnant women after Gainesville tragedy

FLORIDA HOUSE, SENATE STILL NEED TO APPROVE BILL

By Aidan Bush Alligator Staff Writer

A bill with roots in a Gainesville controversy could delay arrested pregnant women from being placed behind bars until after they give birth.

Florida Senate Bill 730 — referred to as “Ava’s Law” after the child former inmate Erica Thompson lost after giving birth in the Alachua County Jail in August 2021 — would allow women charged with felonies to request to delay their sentence until after they’ve given birth.

While the Senate version hasn’t been voted on yet, its House equivalent, Florida House Bill 779, passed through its last committee April 19, 19-1. It hangs in the balance as the Senate considers when it will put the bill on its committee agendas, and the House waits to schedule two floor votes.

One of the House bill’s sponsors, Dianne Hart, D-Tampa, said Ava’s Law will prioritize the wellbeing of mothers throughout the state. After visiting 50 prison facilities and multiple pregnancy wards, she saw firsthand the conditions weren’t suitable for childbirth, she said.

“I promise you,” Hart said in a hearing, “that is not a place we want our babies to be born.”

If passed, incarcerated women would be offered the option to take a pregnancy test. Pregnant women could then petition to defer incarceration until 12 weeks after the baby’s delivery or the pregnancy’s end – whichever occurs sooner – in order to receive prenatal care and deal with postpartum issues.

Some UF students felt the leg-

islation was a starting point for more adequate women’s health care in the criminal system.

Pooja Manjakandy, a 20-yearold UF political science sophomore, also studies communications, social justice and public policy. The issue meets an intersection of poverty, criminal justice reform and health care concerns, she said.

“This bill seems to be trying to build some kind of … baseline care for these women,” she said.

Care needed to be focused on mothers just as much as the children, she added, as maternal mortality rates rose nationwide about 9 percentage points between 2020 and 2021 according to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study.

Ava’s Law was initially filed in Florida in response to the arrest of then-25-year-old Erica Thompson in 2021. When in Alachua County Jail, she went into labor and delivered Ava three months prematurely. Ava died after Thompson was transported to the hospital.

Thompson said her continued screams for help went unanswered. The Alachua County Sheriff’s Office disputed her claims with time-stamped images showing the department checking on her and an internal investigation showed no misconduct.

The jail later changed its health care provider from Corizon Health to Wellpath February 2022, according to a Main Street Daily News report. Corizon Health has settled over a thousand lawsuits in the past five years for alleged misconduct.

Zeba Rias, a 19-year-old UF political science and psychology sophomore, said she felt the bill was positive but didn’t fix the root issue. Prenatal care and health care as a whole within prison systems, she said, need to be im-

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proved.

“There has been a history of neglect when it comes to giving health care to women,” Rias said.

Deferring their incarceration, she added, places the burden of quality health care on the mothers and their individual insurance rather than the jails.

The bill was initially filed last year as Florida Senate Bill 630; although the Senate unanimously approved the measure, its companion bill never reached a floor vote in the House. This year’s version remains largely the same, this time specifying a felony conviction to defer sentencing.

To become law, the House and Senate versions of the bill must both pass through any assigned committees, pass the House or Senate floor and then be signed into law by Gov. Ron DeSantis.

The House bill was placed on a calendar for its second floor reading. The Senate bill’s committee hearing isn’t yet scheduled as of April 23.

Aaron Wayt, the legislative chair for the Florida Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, said the bill should’ve passed last year. The Senate should reach the bill quickly, he said, to allow it to come into effect.

“We believe that this bill represents a positive step towards a more humane and equitable system for all Floridians, and we are proud to support it,” Wayt said.

@aidandisto abush@alligator.org

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Living in the CO2 Capitol: UF professor studies Indigenous issues in the Amazon Indigenous Kuikuro at forefront of climate change

By Peyton Harris Alligator Staff Writer

When he entered a house in the Kuikuro village, Micheal Heckenberger was greeted by a smell medley of smokiness, traditional Xingu cooking and excess body paint. Moving through the house was a sensual experience in itself, he said, adjusting to the open circular spaces and side-by-side hammocks.

“You're as likely to hear a flute in the middle of the night as a car honking its horn,” he said.

A UF anthropology professor for over two decades, Heckenberger has authored several books on Amazonian Indigenous peoples as a result of living with the Kuikuro tribe in Brazil for two years.

He was committed to researching the Brazilian Amazon before he even began graduate school, he said. After meeting with indigenous leaders of the Kuikuro — an indigenous group from the Xingu region of Brazil — in 1991, Heckenberger sought to understand their culture and the differences between Latin America and the U.S.

“I was very taken by the place of Indigenous people in the modern world,” he said. “Obviously, ‘save the Amazon’ has been a theme that’s been around for quite a long time.”

The Kuikuro currently inhabit three villages — Ipaste, Ahukugi and Lahatuá. They number 500 in total, and Ipatse is the most populous with 300 people.

Heckenberger’s research primarily focuses on mapping the Xingu region and transcribing Kuikuro history. However, it also highlights the prevalence of climate change’s effect on Indigenous peoples in the Brazilian Amazon.

The Kuikuro, after facing numerous health challenges amid COVID-19, are now living through the “Amazon tipping point” — a term used to describe the point when the rainforest will no longer be able to bounce back from destruction and extreme weather. The Amazon rainforest has long been used as a marker for global climate change — it absorbs an estimated 1.5 billion tons of carbon dioxide a year, serving as a “net carbon sink.”

With time, the tipping point could lead to a downward spiral, in which the rainforest would be destroyed and pour around 90 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

Indigenous peoples like the Kuikuro have experienced the effect of global temperature changes already, Heckenberger said. The Xingu region is one of the most heavily deforested areas in the Amazon, and the forest has become more flammable.

“It is at an ecological transition between the humid tropical forest and the moist tropical forest where things like global changes and temperatures have a very immediate pronounced impact,” Heckenberger said.

However, research shows Indigenous people can provide solutions to remedy a warming world. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Association found these communities to have a sustainable and selfsufficient approach to life, contributing little to climate change, yet experiencing its immediate and profound effect.

Heckenberger described the first time he observed these sustainable practices with campfires along the bank of the village.

“It was my first moment where I really felt like, ‘Wow, this is a different world,’” he said. “People actually building campfires for something other than roasting marshmallows.”

Managed for centuries, the Kuikuro’s ecological practices are in danger due to the increasing problems climate change poses.

With the increasing drought and forest fires, the Xingu region as a whole will have to adapt more fire management practices.

For Heckenberger, the solution lies partly in bridging the gap between Indigenous and U.S. understandings of climate change.

Connectivity with institutions like UF is crucial to building relationships with indigenous interests, he said. He collaborated with partners and the Kuikuro to develop mapping software across the Xingu region.

“Creating common tools … not to say, ‘OK, well this works at the local level, what's going on at the global level,’ but to address global participation, institutional, national and local in the same dialogue in the same process,” he said.

Heckenberger brought the Kuikuro Nation leader, Chief Afukaká Kuikuro, to UF in February to discuss collaborations between Indigenous peoples and the U.S.

Kenneth Sassaman, a UF anthropology professor, described Heckenberger’s work as

All schedules still not released

SASSE, from pg. 1

Florida Legislature, like House Bill 999 and Senate Bill 266, Phalin said. Despite a busy legislative session, she thinks Sasse has met the moment.

“He's doing a lot of work with regards to all the legislation,” she said. “And I know that because I’ve seen him in Tallahassee doing the work.”

Sasse is scheduled to speak to Phalin’s international business class April 24. He’ll spend 20 minutes answering questions

about his time on the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.

“Students can actually hear from somebody who's been working in this space, creating laws and policy in this space,” Phalin said. “It connects directly to all of the concepts and key studies that we've looked at in our class throughout the semester.”

However, Sasse is a different type of president. Compared to former UF President Kent Fuchs, Sasse has been less interactive with students on campus.

“The way that they are

personality-wise and interacting with folks is just a very different style,” Phalin said. “Neither good nor bad, but very different. And I think it's a big change for people to get used to.”

Sasse hasn’t spoken with The Alligator or other news sources despite multiple email requests and phone calls. During a tailgate before the Orange and Blue football game April 12, he told an Alligator reporter he wasn’t speaking to the press. After he spoke at the April 20 Faculty Senate meeting, he slipped out before an Alligator

groundbreaking.

“Mike's redefined the way that modern Western scholars think about the Amazon and think about the history of people in the Amazon,” he said. “He's changed the narrative in a very good way — in a way that respects and honors the Indigenous history which goes back thousands of years.”

In the current climate crisis, Heckenberger envisions Amazon’s future to be largely negative.

“Everything south of the Amazon River is probably not going to be …. really intact, large blocks of tropical forest,” he said. “The only place it's going to be is in indigenous areas.”

The Kuikuro’s technologies are crucial to reversing the trajectory of climate change, Heckenberger said, as well as protecting their tribe.

The first time he entered the village, he said, he floated down a river rich with vegetation and lined with small fires.

“Everywhere the light hits, the conditions are perfect — it just gets green,” he said.

@peytonlharris pharris@alligator.org

reporter could approach him.

Brenda Sanchez, a 22-yearold UF biochemistry senior, has noticed less tangible evidence that Sasse has been on campus, she said. She recalled that Fuchs once ate at the Reitz Union with his family — an example of activities she expects from a university president.

“Any sort of faculty connection with students is really important, but I feel like there's a certain additional aspect of it if you are the president,” she said. “I feel like you are the face of the university. It is a key responsibility to have that connection with the student body.”

Other students have also

noticed the difference.

Ren Price, a 19-year-old UF zoology sophomore, hasn’t seen Sasse on campus this Spring semester. As well as interacting with the student body, Price said, they expect the president to protect campus from potentially harmful legislation, particularly in the case of transgender students.

“I would expect them to give updates,” Price said. “What are they doing? What are they like? What are their plans for the coming semester? Are they going to raise tuition? No clue. I don't like radio silence.”

Courtesy to The Alligator

A tree that predates UF

TREE, from pg. 1

probably cut down, or perhaps they died — something happened to them.”

When those trees came down, someone took a ring count or a core sample, he said, which allowed for an age estimate. However, the records on this tree are still incomplete. Doing anything to the tree before it comes down could pose a threat of infection or insects, Harpold said.

Commemorating the tree properly is important, Harpold said. Thomas Schlick, UF groundskeeper, is working with Harpold to take the tree down in a controlled manner and use the wood for something on campus.

“The tree is not a danger to anyone right now,” Harpold said. “It is tall, straight vertical and the branches in the upper canopy are still in pretty good shape.”

Schlick wanted to wait as long as possible past the end of the Spring semester, so there would be less foot traffic in the area, Harpold said. The tree, although vulnerable, has shown no sign of a pine beetle infestation, but an internal infestation is possible.

Harpold is crossing his fingers, he said. An infestation is usually evident through sap or the tree falling apart, with big, open cracks.

The key takeaway, Harpold said, is that we live in a more than human world. Oftentimes, UF students walk under or within visual distance of the tree but rarely stop to view it or hear its leaves bristle.

“We live in a world in which there's a lot going on around us that we don't often attend to, and that implicates us in many ways. We're invested in it,” he said. “We're yoked to it, literally, by the air we breathe and the water that we drink.”

Brooke Whitaker, a 23-year-old UF secondyear English doctoral student, focused her un-

dergraduate thesis on the tree’s history and significance. When she started on her thesis research in late 2020, the state of the tree wasn’t good, she said. It could’ve died the next week or lived another 50 years — there was no telling.

“Regardless on the scope of its lifetime, it was getting towards the end of that,” she said, “and I wanted to put together a project that didn't necessarily inspire that kind of doom and gloom.”

Whitaker used the tree as a focal point to encourage a larger conversation about other forms of life on UF’s campus, she said.

“To encourage looking at other trees that we have on campus, or other forms of nonhuman life that exist all around us,” she said. “[They] have their own unique stories and agency that's present all over campus and beyond.”

The tree’s unique story and long history resonate with community members both in UF and Gainesville. The tree’s legacy should be carried on through an exhibit or the preservation of the stump and stone, she said.

“Something about this tree really connects with people,” she said. “Even though it's unfortunately died in this case, it still has that potential to keep on inspiring that connection.”

Jack Davis, a UF history professor, is another instructor who oversaw Whitaker’s thesis. He also has a personal connection to the tree, he said.

Over the 20 years Davis has been at UF, he’s used the tree as a reference for historical events. He’s lectured under the tree, he said.

He told Harpold he’s been lecturing under the tree since 2003 when he started at the university. For Davis, it’s been a teaching tool.

The tree survived the timber industry which destroyed around 98% of longleaf pine trees in

the southeast, he said. But it bore witness to major historical events — the Second Seminole War, the first Earth Day and hundreds of protests over the years on UF’s campus.

“It's probably known the Spanish and Indigenous peoples, of course, and enslaved people,” he said. “It has seen the first students arrive at the present campus of the University of Florida, and all the demonstrations on campus on the Plaza of Americas, particularly in the ‘60s and ‘70s with the anti-war demonstrations and civil rights demonstrations.”

Davis would like to see the wood used to make a dedication to the tree, he said, but agrees with Harpold and Whitaker about preserving the trunk.

“Even dead trees still standing are ecosystems,” Davis said.

Davis is into woodworking, he said, and

Committees search for next leaders

SEARCHES, from pg. 1

Dean of the Levin College of Law

Laura Rosenbury is leaving her role as the dean at UF’s Levin College of Law to become Barnard College’s ninth president in July. She served as dean for eight years. As dean, she is responsible for the advancement of her college, including in education, financial and administrative matters.

Provost Joe Glover said he is in talks with UF President Ben Sasse on finding an interim dean at a Faculty Senate meeting April 20.

Rosenbury was chosen in 2015 after a nationwide search by a committee of students, faculty and administrators. The committee chose 10 candidates to interview for the position of dean. After shrinking the candidate pool, four finalists then met with the UF president, provost and law school faculty, as well as attended law school student forums. Rosenbury was then named the dean.

Dean of the Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering

Forrest Masters was appointed interim dean of the Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering in January. He was appointed after the search committee tasked with finding a permanent dean couldn’t reach an agreement about the outcome of the search and decided to pause it in order to discuss the matter further with then-incoming UF President Ben Sasse.

Masters previously served as the assistant vice president for strategic initiatives at UF Research and is a professor of civil and coastal engineering. As interim dean, Masters is responsible for the advancement of his department, including in education, financial and administrative matters.

A search team will create a candidate pool in May, but it will not engage with the candidates until September, Provost Joe Glover said at a Faculty Senate meeting April 20.

Chief financial officer Chris Cowen will leave his po-

sition as chief financial officer July 1. He spent three years overseeing campus finances and serving on the Board of Directors at UF Health. He’s moving onto a similar role at Cornell University.

Cowen has 30 years of experience in investment banking, including at Bank of America and Goldman, Sachs and Co. As CFO, he planned for UF’s portfolio of operations and developed long-term and short-term fiscal strategies.

It’s unclear when or how the search for a new CFO will begin. Cowen hopes his successor will get involved on campus.

“We're all here because we want to improve the University of Florida and do the right thing,” Cowen said in an interview. “That's what we all want to achieve.”

Senior director of academic advising UF is searching for a senior academic advisor who will serve as the primary point of contact for all undergraduate professional advising at the university, according to the job listing.

many of the items in his house are made out of repurposed longleaf pine tree wood. He hopes to collect a small amount of wood from the tree to make his own dedication, he said.

The UF community only has a few weeks left to say goodbye to the Bicentennial Tree. But while the tree, in all its glory, is soon to come down, its legacy will live on through UF students and American history.

Harpold, who also oversaw Whitaker’s thesis, had a personal connection with the tree. He used to sit under the tree and watch hundreds of people walk by every day, he said.

“This tree was our neighbor,” Harpold said. “This tree was a Gator.”

@elladeethompson

ethompson@alligator.org

It’s a position under the recently created UF Student Success department, a unit within the Office of Undergraduate Affairs. The role will include responsibilities such as being a member of the Advisory Council for Undergraduate Affairs, overseeing UF websites relating to academic advising and maintaining easy access to degree audits and the undergraduate catalog.

An offer has been made to one of the finalists for this position. UF spokesperson Cynthia Roldan didn’t clarify who received the offer or for how much.

The current finalists are Nigel Richardson, the current UF assistant director of New Student Transitions; Andrea Evangelist, Santa Fe College director of college-wide advising and career exploration; Sara Ellison, assistant dean of advising for the College of Agriculture at the University of Kentucky and David Dearden, assistant dean of advising and undergraduate education at the University of North Carolina Charlotte.

The anticipated start date for this role will be May 1.

A search committee headed by Lynn O’Sickey, associate director of the Academic Advising Center, last met March 19 to review applicants.

Beyond120 director

UF is looking to hire a new director of Beyond120, a career readiness program that offers modules for students to take through Canvas.

The director will be responsible for setting and meeting goals for the program, overseeing five full-time faculty members and developing and teaching courses, according to the job listing.

Ryan Braun has served as director of the program for more than three years and is now moving out of the area. A search committee headed by Glen Kepic, associate director of the academic advising center, is reviewing the applicants as information is received.

Ella Thompson contributed to this report.

@ainzinna ainzinna@alligator.org @alissagary1 agary@alligator.org @sophia_bailly sbailly@alligator.org

Caia Reese // Alligator Staff

An estimated 275-year-old tree sits in front of UF’s Keene-Flint Hall Sunday, April 23, 2023. The tree will be taken down in May.

If walls could talk

Acareer at The Alligator is one hardly measurable in semesters, editions or manic episodes.

When I think back to taking copy editing calls on my 15-minute dinner break as a freshman working at the campus dining hall, chasing down conservative pundit Katie Hopkins as she left the bathroom at an Alachua County Republican event, skipping class freshman year to rush to the scene of a sinkhole devastating a neighborhood, sobbing putting together an obituary about someone I never got the chance to meet, running around Plaza of the Americas getting the best angles of TikTok evangelist Sister Cindy, staring with gaping eyes and mouth at a hoard of protesters storming Emerson Hall to protest Ben Sasse — all I can do is grin.

Because it’s not the time spent, but the lead, supporting and featured characters in my story I’ve crossed paths with that mean the most.

Some, I’ll remember fondly. Others, not so much; there’s no feeling like getting reprimanded by a student newsroom superior who’s neither older nor wiser than you.

If the sterile, white walls or tattered, well-loved couch and Edgar Allen Poe mask that’s there for some reason in our homey Gainesville Sun office could talk, I wonder what they’d say.

Maybe they’d tell you about when I came into the office for the first time on the Fall 2020 election night — bright-eyed and riding the high of watching doting residents welcome their newest County Commissioner-elect.

Or perhaps the hesitancy I felt walking into our new office

wing I had the pleasure of transitioning into as editor, seeing yet again another example of what I’m told is a dwindling industry. But those walls, too — of what was once the Sun’s old publisher’s wing — know a thing or two now about what makes The Alligator special.

Those walls, though some now covered in mold, know The Alligator’s newsroom isn’t for the weak. It’s a pressure cooker of immensely talented, highstrung 20-somethings trying to launch a career in a field where you’re told to do cartwheels for pennies.

Dealing with big personalities comes with the territory of editor-in-chief. Editing with compassion was always my goal, but often the top job required me to do what I thought was best for the newsroom, not my reputation.

Leading The Alligator’s newsroom felt like 116 years of editor-in-chiefs were breathing down my neck, watching my every move. I could feel the pressure of Ron Sachs, the editor who solidified the paper’s independence from UF in the ’70s. Or that of Kyle Wood, the editor who hired me in 2020, who told me I had a real shot at making it to the top of The Alligator food chain one day.

Spoiler alert: Running a student newsroom wasn’t as easy or breezy as Rory Gilmore made it seem. I had one shot to upkeep its legacy, and it’s safe to say I didn’t blow it.

This semester, my staff has produced content I’ve been proud to support. In commemoration of Women’s History Month, we put together “Florida Woman,” profiling and celebrating the lovely ladies of UF and Gainesville.

Dear diary, saying goodbye sucks

When you’ve kept a journal for 13 years, you rack up a lot of entries you don’t remember writing.

Some are nicer to reread than others — a post-party haze of pure euphoria or blurry recollections of a dream you don’t want to forget. Others, less so.

The point is: I enjoy looking back on emotions I don’t fully remember feeling, which is why I’ve obsessively documented them for so long. There’s something indescribable about a page of forgotten prose written in your own handwriting.

On April 18, 2021, I walked into The Alligator office for my first last print night. The next morning, like clockwork, I rolled out of my dorm bed and wrote just over 35 lines about it.

At the end of my freshman Spring semester, I was already scared of saying goodbye. I imagined all the editors and reporters I had grown to revere tossing their caps into the air and leaving me behind. I thought about semesters fading away, ushering in a never-ending revolving door of new staffers over and over again until the room was filled with strangers.

I pictured how I would feel walking out of the newsroom doors for the last time, and then I immortalized the scene in crisp blue ink.

Well, here we are.

I got a lot of things right in that initial journal entry: The Alligator did in fact become “something I have to say goodbye to,” and it is “astonishing, and terrifying, and exciting, and terrifying again” (I don’t think goodbye columns go through copy, but trust me that those are verbatim quotes).

In other ways, though, I’ve also surprised myself.

Two years ago, I thought I would stick with The Alligator right up until graduation, but

sometimes finish lines come sooner than expected. I never wanted to be a name on the masthead, but sometimes cards just fall a certain way.

To Alan and Aurora: If I was ever going to do it, I’m glad it was with you guys. I’ve come a long way from the girl who was rejected from news positions twice before finally finding herself on the arts and culture desk, and I mean it sincerely when I say The Avenue is my favorite thing about this paper. The writing made me realize four years in Gainesville wasn’t a death sentence — and the people made me realize it might even be a miracle.

To Kristine, Luigi and Anushka: I know we never spent a night in the newsroom together, but Ave Fall ‘21 continues to thrive. To Heather: Thanks for still hanging out with us even though we made that semester hell. Also just for being you.

And to Averi and Lauren: Thank you both for spreading the “just a girl” agenda with me.

The most honest thing I could tell you all is that I really, truly enjoyed print nights. All of it — the long hours, the spontaneous Wawa trips, the collective nervous breakdowns. Floating between the designated metro and uni rooms, I found myself forgetting the deadlines and instead getting lost in conversation.

I don’t need to go on about how everyone at The Alligator is an amazing reporter who will one day do amazing things, but I do want to point out that they’re also wonderful people.

I enjoyed spending the past 16 weeks — or, for some, two years — with you all. I hope you feel the same.

Veronica Nocera was the Spring 2023 Engagement Managing Editor of The Independent Florida Alligator.

I also made my interest in covering the environment everyone else’s interest, too, with “Where We Stand,” a collection of stories everyone worked on for several weeks assessing how climate change is and will continue to ravage UF and Gainesville.

What’s most important, though, are those I’m leaving behind. Putting in the amount of effort required to be an editor for four semesters was a task I didn’t take for granted.

When I looked out at the doting faces at my staff meetings this Spring, I saw boundless potential. I’ve been in rooms with future Alligator editor-in-chiefs who will do the job better than I ever could have. I’ve edited stories written by journalists who will with no doubt land themselves careers at the most prestigious newspapers when the time comes.

Everything must come to an end, and there comes a time in every Alligator staffer’s life where they transition from the ghost of Alligator present into the ghost of Alligator past.

Thankfully, I see my hard work reflected in the ghost of Alligator future.

I can safely say I’ve lived a thousand lives these past three years inside the confines of our haven nestled in the Gainesville woods off Southwest 13th Street. And it’s time to say a tearful goodbye.

I hope the walls will remember me. I’ll never forget them.

Six semesters here equates to hundreds of people who believed in my worth as a journalist. To be frank, it’s difficult to imagine my life without the community I’ve found at The Alligator.

But when I do, I feel pride.

Alan Halaly was the Spring 2023 Editor-in-Chief of The Independent Florida Alligator.

The Alligator kept me sane

The Independent Florida Alligator is a choice. You either make it fully conscious of how much it will demand from you or maybe because you’ve heard it’s what you’re meant to do.

But sometimes you’re just lucky. Sometimes you don’t think you’re deserving of a place, yet you try and get it. That was my case in Summer 2020 and again in Fall the same year. I didn’t think I did my best or enough. And I genuinely never thought I’d come back.

A couple of years later and with a few more experiences to draw from, I gave it another shot. I wanted to edit. I wanted to be there for people in the same way others had been for me. Even when the opportunity to rejoin as the paper’s university editor came to me, it was only after April Rubin told me I could do it, that I decided to take it — I wanted to give back.

Thank you, Makiya Seminera, Isabella Douglas and Alan Halaly for taking a chance on me. And thank you to the fantastic humans on my desk for making every single Sunday not less exhausting but definitely much more fun.

Two semesters later I couldn’t be any more fulfilled. You are the ones to judge how good of a job I’ve done, but I’ll give myself credit for doing it despite how much 19-year-old me thought she never could — despite how many times my blood sugar was too high or too low to let me think clearly, despite how many times I mispronounced words and feared I wouldn’t be taken seriously, despite how many times I needed to check the AP Stylebook because I forgot health care is two words.

Believe it or not, The Alligator has kept me sane. Not everyone shares the same experience, but the paper became my safe space. It is a constant team effort and while we don’t all face the same challenges, somehow we look at each other’s eye bags and relate.

During the past six years, I’ve gotten used to

walking into spaces and feeling out of place, but The Alligator wasn’t it. Maybe it’s because we’ve all been misfits at some point or because I’m kinder with myself now, but it feels such a privilege to work and be surrounded by people who inspire you, who support you and for whom your existence makes a difference.

I look at every single member of our staff — from the past and present — and see beyond their bylines. I see incredible humans, all driven by dreams, passions and one too many societal expectations, but also full of stories and interests of their own, those that make every minute spent together more meaningful.

I might be ready to stop responding to messages, sleep a little more and go back to caring about my classes, but I can’t say I’m ready to let go of my bagel dates with Alan Halaly and Veronica Nocera, Christian Casale’s sometimes justifiable stubbornness, Siena Duncan’s healing hugs, Alissa Gary’s expressive eyes, Claire Grunewald’s infallible schemes, Jiselle Lee’s unmatched energy and all the different hats one can wear under the same roof.

And in all honesty, I’ll probably forget which stories we worked on, but I won’t forget how much I grew. I’ll treasure every time we shared laughs and tears, every time you asked me for advice, to be your reference or listen to your dilemmas. I’ll treasure more every time you listened to my silly stories, talked me out of going to nursing school and encouraged me to keep trying.

Thank you for giving meaning to my existence — for allowing me to be my best, my worst and everything in between. I’m looking forward to seeing all the worlds you’ll conquer.

Aurora Martínez

was the

Spring 2023 Digital Managing Editor of The Independent Florida Alligator.

Alan Halaly @AlanHalaly ahalaly@alligator.org

Veronica Nocera @vernocera vnocera@alligator.org

Aurora Martínez @AuroraCeciliaM amartinez@alligator.org

I am so tired

The thing about working at The Independent Florida Alligator is that it sucks. It sucks a lot. The only semester at UF I didn’t work at The Alligator, I got straight A’s and my professors liked me.

“This’ll all result in a job eventually, right?” My father, his MBA diploma hanging on the wall of his office, will ask me when I explain it’s okay that my grades are bad.

“Yeah, it’s guaranteed,” I’ll lie.

Cosmic dominoes fell when I was in preschool: Some creep in a Harvard dorm created Facebook, it destroyed local news and maybe American democracy, and now a bunch of barely-20-year-olds are responsible for the most important media organization in a 50-mile radius.

No pressure, kids.

We work out of a decrepit, moldy building that is now just the graveyard of what used to be a thriving local newspaper. Decades-old mold gathers on the ceiling and flies spawn out of nowhere.

It could be worse, I’d sometimes tell myself, you could work for WUFT.

I could say I put in all this work to serve the UF and Gainesville communities, which would be noble. I could say I did it all for the clips and for a career after graduation, which would be cynical, but understandable in this dying industry. But neither is exactly true.

I did it because the people around me were doing it.

If I had to do it alone, I would have waded long ago into Lake Alice in the middle of the night, slathered in barbeque sauce for the alligators to put me out of my misery.

But I didn’t have to do it alone - and that’s why I wouldn’t trade my three semesters at The Alligator for anything in the world.

I’ve watched other student journalists take zeros on assignments, cancel dates and go a night, maybe two, without sleep to finish a story that, at best, would earn them a crisp $6 direct deposit, and at worst, a very angry message from an unhinged person.

I’ve seen them break down, recover with wild eyes, then break down again. But every Sunday morning they came back.

Maybe the members of my University Desk during my final semester as editor — Alissa Gary, Ella Thompson, Sophia Bailly, Sydney Johnson, Peyton Harris, Alessandra

Inzinna and Amanda Friedman — would from time to time drive me a little insane.

But I can also tell you there was nothing I looked forward to more on a Monday morning than reading their stories in ink.

As much as I would bicker with Claire Grunewald every print night, who else would I complain with about anything and everything throughout the week, because each of us knew exactly what the other was talking about?

What was better than sitting at 11:30 p.m. during flat edits with Jiselle Lee or Emma Behrmann or Jackson Reyes and Kyle Bumpers (they were always together) and laughing maniacally in a sleep-deprived delirium?

And I can’t emphasize how funny it was to text Aurora Martínez that I would get to work right away on a draft she needed and then immediately take a nap.

The memory of every painful night, grueling edit and needless argument will wash away. What will remain is all the work I’m proud to have below my byline and all

the time I was lucky enough to spend with some truly remarkable people.

In a week, I’ll have left Gainesville — the end of a very strange college experience. I’ll begin a new life and career, make new friends and manufacture new feuds with new bosses. But honestly, all I can think about is how excited I am to see what my friends at The Alligator do.

The younger reporters still have a few years in that moldy newsroom to make their mark at a university and a state that now more than ever needs an honest press on their asses. The other graduates, about to begin their professional careers, will branch off to different parts of the country and do truly incredible work.

And I plan on reading every word.

Christian Casale was the Spring 2023 University Editor of The Independent Florida Alligator.

Christian Casale @vanityhack ccasale@alligator.org

Minca Davis // Alligator Staff

Minca Davis was the Spring 2023 Graphics Editor of The Independent Florida Alligator.

THEATER ‘Silent Sky’ shares universal story of womanhood in science

PLAY WILL RUN AT HIPPODROME THEATRE APRIL 21 TO MAY 7

By Loren Miranda Avenue Staff Writer

Anchored between the crevices of the universe where time and space exist, the play “Silent Sky” shines an honest light through the timeless story of an empowered astronomer flourishing in a space dominated by men and their science.

In her time working as one of Harvard University’s first “computers” in the beginning of the 20th century, American astronomer Henrietta Leavitt discovered over 1,777 stars.

Now, Leavitt’s brilliance, likeness and discovery are all being replicated to be shared with an audience. In a tale about women in science and the human spirit, the play “Silent Sky,” which debuted at The Hippodrome State Theatre April 21, fixes viewers in a realm where exploration and tenacity take flight.

“We don’t always reach out for the new,” said Stephanie Lynge, the Hippodrome’s artistic director. “If we don’t explore and learn, we’re shrinking instead of expanding … The world needs that excitement. The world needs to remember that maybe we’re a small part of something really amazing.”

“Silent Sky” will run at the Hippodrome Theatre from April 21 to May 7. In addition, the Hippodrome will offer a $15 Wednesday deal April 26.

In honor of the venue’s 50th anniversary, an open house was held April 15 to open the doors and allow the public to see behind-the-scenes magic and how the productions get put together.

It’s fitting this play is being put on during this particular anniversary because the courage of the characters mirrors that of those who opened the theater, Lynge said.

One of the most important parts was creating the believability of the bonds between the characters in the play, Lynge said. Leavitt was described as selflessly devoted to her family and work, and Lynge wanted to ensure humanity was awarded to her character’s adaptation.

“The more human we can make our characters on stage, the more

that the audience can connect with them,” Lynge said. “Why are you saying that line here? Why do you leave? Why do you come back?... It brings so many layers in.”

The play, published by playwright Lauren Gunderson in 2015, transports the audience into a limitless tale that tells the story of finding your place in the universe.

Leavitt was an astronomer from the late 19th century who suffered from the effects of hearing loss, cancer and the patriarchy. Despite eventually making one of the most important discoveries in astrophysics, Leavitt initially wasn’t allowed to interact with the technology at her workbase at Harvard because women computers weren’t permitted to use the telescopes.

Now known as “Leavitt’s law,” her observation of the Cepheid variable stars’ pulsing allowed her to map the distance between remote stars, which allowed future astronomers to calculate their distance depending on its period-luminosity relationship.

The discovery changed science forever.

During Leavitt’s time, it was taught that the sun and the Milky Way galaxy were the center of the universe. Her discovery clued into the fact that there are millions, if not trillions, of additional galaxies. Her observation established a standard that paved the path for other astronomers to remove galactocentric theory from scientific ideology.

She was credited as paving the path for future, more well-known discoveries, despite Leavitt originally not being recognized for her work.

Leavitt was initially an option to be nominated for the Nobel Prize in 1925, four years after she died, to celebrate her contributions to science but was not able to receive the nomination posthumously. An asteroid and moon crater are named in her honor.

Leavitt was described as seriousminded and hard-working, and for this reason, costume shop manager Erin Jester decided to add intricate detailing to Leavitt’s costume to solidify her personality. Straight lines and bold, confident colors are part of communicating Leavitt’s character to the audience, Jester said.

“Ultimately, all the design sup-

ports how the actors are telling the story,” Jester said. “The [acting] is the star of the show … but everything else is a piece of the puzzle.”

Jester, 33, has been the designer in residence at the Hippodrome since 2021. She said initial costume blueprints begin with the script, but her costume team is guided by historical knowledge and period-appropriate apparel to shape the silhouette. Although they may not be historically accurate to a tee, the dresses, in all their corsets, bustles and petticoats are meant to introduce the time period without anchoring it in one specific era, she said.

Nearly all the patterns used in this show are reproduced historical patterns, but Jester added her own special touch by implicating a subliminal color scheme to match the character’s personalities.

“[Leavitt was] very serious about her work, incredibly focused,” Jester said. “So I put her in a darker tone … extremely dressed, not fashionable, but not a hair out of place.”

“Silent Sky” translates Leavitt’s steadfast spirit, brilliant mind and intricate discoveries into an easily understandable and adaptable format, with relatable characters and an undeniably talented cast.

Before she was able to fully transition into her starring role as Leavitt, professional actress Elise Hudson knew she had to study.

“To make sure I understood exactly what it is she discovered was a wonderful and big part of our process,” Hudson said. “You can’t play a character and not know what they’re talking about. That’s acting 101.”

Although she might not hold a degree in astronomy like the character she portrays, Hudson, 33, graduated with her bachelor’s degree from Boston College and earned a Master’s degree in Fine Arts from Brown University.

Hudson has worked as a professional actress in almost every state in New England (with Maine as the exception), and she’s graced roles in hit streaming-platform shows like Spike Lee’s “She’s Gotta Have It” on Netflix and guest starred in an episode of “Law and Order: Special Victims Unit.”

Last season, Hudson starred as Marie Antoinette in the Hippodrome’s production of “The Revolutionists.” Still, she said Leavitt’s character holds a special place in her heart due to the relatability of her struggle to be understood and

recognized for her talent.

“I’ve definitely learned a crazy amount of interesting things about astronomy, measurement in space, about light,” Hudson said. “But you’re not coming to this play to learn about astronomy. You’re coming to this play to hopefully have your heart and your mind exploded just as much as Henrietta’s heart and mind exploded when she realized.”

Hudson cited her relationship with her on-stage sister, Margaret Leavitt portrayed by Savannah Simerly, as being one of the many bonds that audience members will be able to relate to and invest themselves in.

She hopes audiences won’t only be able to see themselves in the characters, but that they can also discover something about themselves, she said.

“I hope they leave with more knowledge, but also with their heart wide open from this story,” Hudson said.

Ticket prices range from $20 to $45 with student discounts available and they can be found on the Hippodrome’s ticketing website.

@LorenMiranda13 lmiranda@alligator.org

Sports Editor Kyle Bumpers reflects on his Alligator career He says goodbye after three semesters on The Alligator. Read more on pg. 11.

Michael A. Eaddy // Courtesy to The Alligator “Silent Sky” debuted at the Hippodrome Theatre April 21 and runs until May 7.

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NOTE: This newspaper assumes no responsibility for injury or loss arising from contacts made through advertising. We suggest that any reader who responds to advertising use caution and investigate the sincerity of the advertiser before giving out personal information or arranging meetings or investing money.

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Reagan Walsh guided by father as she pursues Florida dream

REAGAN AND JOHN: UNBREAKABLE FATHER-DAUGHTER DUO

By Alyssa Britton-Harr Sports Writer

Reagan Walsh steps up to the plate in her backyard. Her imaginary teammates just loaded the bases, and she has the chance to hit a walk-off grand slam to take down one of the Gators’ biggest rivals.

She just has one person standing in her way: her father, John Walsh.

John was forced into the villain role as Reagan pretended to live out her dream of playing on the Gators before she joined UF’s team.

“I would pitch to her, and she would be in the Florida Gators’ lineup,” John said. “I would always be the Alabama pitcher trying to strike her out.”

Reagan and her father, a former quarterback for Brigham Young University, bond over their shared passion for sports. The father has helped his daughter develop as an athlete and pushes her to be the best person possible, on and off the field.

Walsh has always wanted to be a Florida Gator, John Walsh said. Now, he supports her through her once-destined collegiate career at UF.

“Since she was little, I coached her, just like many of the dads on the Florida Gators’ [team] did,” he said.

Before Walsh had started her collegiate journey, her dad was her hitting coach, she said.

"[My dad] would always take me down to the park to hit off the tee, throw a front toss and just support me in every way he can," Walsh said. "He was basically my hitting coach from the start until

now,” she said.

John Walsh wishes he could go back and do it all over again, he said. He loved spending time with her and creating memories and is proud of where she is now.

The moments he spent with Reagan Walsh — coaching and parenting her — when she was just a little girl were some of the best moments of his life, he said.

Reagan Walsh's dream has always been to play for Florida, she said; she watched them play when she was young.

"I remember watching Kelsey Bruder, all those Florida athletes, and I just wanted to play for Coach Walton ever since I was in middle school," she said.

Walsh, as an 8 or 9 year old, was a fan of Bruder, Megan Bush and all the women on the team, John Walsh said.

Her dad has always supported her passion for playing for Florida, even though she’s far from her home in Redondo Beach, California. He and his wife try to go to at least two or three home tournaments a year, he said.

"It was her dream to be a Florida Gator from a very young age, so when she got the opportunity, I didn't want to take that from her," he said.

John Walsh, as a former college athlete, worked with Reagan to help prepare before she arrived at Florida. Walsh's father was the former starting quarterback at Brigham Young during the 1993 and 1994 seasons.

"The workouts he had me doing definitely prepared me mentally and physically for a higher lev-

SEE SOFTBALL, PAGE 12

Goodbye Column

My life is really a slice-of-life movie SOFTBALL

So many ways to say it, yet none of them sound right.

April 24, 2022, I got an email asking me to interview for The Alligator. A year later, I’m publishing my goodbye column in this semester’s final paper. My driver’s license might read the same name, but the kid who got that email isn’t the same as the one typing this column.

When I applied, it was just a shot in the dark. My professor told me to come out of the proverbial corner of the journalism world and join The Alligator to get some real reporting experience.

I got a spot on staff as a general assignment University reporter. I figured the opportunity was good enough that I didn’t mind being on the University Desk as opposed to the aspired sports reporting position.

Covering UF was certainly no easy task, but it taught me so much about journalism and became a huge part of where I am today. I got so much valuable experience, but the relationships I developed that Summer were just as valuable.

The Alligator is responsible for what became some of my most important relationships. Office hours and staff meetings helped bring me out of my shell. One of the editors found my Letterboxd account (@ kylebumpers for those who are interested), and we were off to the races.

I didn’t realize it then, but that one moment led to running into my soon-to-be friends at Arcade Bar or going to a Fourth of July get-together or staying up until 7 a.m. watching “Baby Driver.”

If not for that group of people, who knows if I even would have made it through the semester and got onto the sports desk. But in Fall 2022, I became the men’s tennis reporter under one of said friends, who was the sports editor.

He helped me develop as a journalist and make the unusual transition from tennis reporter to lead sports editor. And with one of my best friends, I assumed the role I aspired to the whole time.

Without my summer group and friends, I made along the way, who knows if I would’ve bought into this whole journalism thing?

I started college as a statistics major with sports statistics (whatever that means) as the goal. After realizing how much I didn’t actually enjoy math, I switched to the next best thing: sports journalism.

Now, I get to watch sports and write about teams and players of the sports I love. And I only regret one thing; I wish I joined journalism sooner.

I’ve always been a sports fan, so I wasn’t surprised I enjoyed that aspect. But I’ve never been a big writer, even though my mother is an English teacher, and my dad enjoys writing.

Now, I’m in the best job possible for me. For the past year, I’ve been able to work with people that will become lifelong friends and in a place I’ve come to adore.

The next step is to find what’s next, and I honestly don’t know what that is. But I have learned one thing from this journey, it’s that the opportunity will come at the right time. I’ve met people when I needed to and been given opportunities I didn’t know I would get.

And if The Alligator is as good as I believe, then I’ll end up somewhere I’ll be happy, and I’ll be well prepared to take on whatever hurdle comes next.

So goodbye. Bye, bye, bye. And see ya later, Alligator.

Kyle Bumpers was the Spring 2023 Sports Editor of The Independent Florida Alligator.

Ryan Friedenberg // Alligator Staff

Florida infielder Reagan Walsh prepares to swing her bat during the Gators’ 4-3 win over the Connecticut Huskies Saturday, Feb. 18, 2023.

Kyle Bumpers @BumpersKyle kbumpers@alligator.org

Florida dream comes true

SOFTBALL, from pg. 11

el, so he had an impact on my growth as a person and an athlete," Reagan Walsh said. Her growth as an athlete and as a Gator was made possible by the support of her parents and teammates, she said.

Walsh — who’s near the end of her second year — recognized she has support from her father, teammates and coaches, she said.

"The people at the University of Florida are great and have definitely impacted me as a player, but also as a person," Walsh said.

Her fellow Gators have noticed her confidence in her ability to change positions on the field when things get tough.

"I've seen her work and the growth she has had,” UF shortstop Skylar Wallace said. “I think she's known you're not going to be perfect at all times."

Walsh has displayed confidence and an eagerness to win to the fans who come out to support her in Katie Seashole Pressly Stadium. She batted in a season-high six runs against Illinois State Feb. 11 and has a batting average of 0.353 this season. Her control at bat and ability to find the right pitch is big in late innings, Wallace

said.

Walsh was set to fill the hole left by the departure of former Florida graduate student infielder Hannah Adams as she entered her sophomore season.

“Working with Coach Walton every single day at practice, and him killing me at second base, I think, is all worth it,” Walsh said. “Hannah was such a great athlete; it's an awesome experience to be able to play second.”

Walsh and her father share a passion for sports and the competitiveness that comes with it. However, a line is drawn between his support for her as a father and giving her advice as a former athlete who understands the hardships of being an athlete, John Walsh said. He has to push her and

be hard on her so she will succeed, he said.

"As a parent, I just want to love and support her — tell her it's all right,” he said. “Then on the other hand, you have to be competitive, and you have to push her to make sure she knows you have to do better, and you can do this.”

He will forever support his daughter, he said. As a former athlete playing at a competitive level, he’s been hard on Reagan and understands the tough times she might face, he said.

"It's a tough balance,” he said. “But I love her and let her know that.”

@abrittonharr abritton-harr@alligator.org