Spring 2017 - Issue 6 by ncfcatalyst

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New College of Florida's student-run newspaper

O’Shea holds unannounced meeting over Spring Break BY JASON D'AMOURS President O’Shea held a private meeting in Sudakoff with the Board of Governors (BoG) and Florida state governor Rick Scott on March 29, in the middle of spring break, to urge them to adjust the school-year schedule because daylight savings time affects retention rates, he claims. “Students gain an hour one semester, and then they lose one the next semester, and I just think it really messes them up,” O’Shea said. O’Shea’s master plan adjusts the schedule bi-semesterly, depending on the position of the sun each year. The 77.5 page plan includes in the fine print a mandate requiring the provost to work in accordance with the groundhog’s annual declaration of spring or more winter. It also requires professor’s to hold all exams on the day of the fall and summer solstice regardless of whether class is typically held that day. His comments were met with mostly nods of approval and one sideto-side nod of dissent from Rick Snott.

There was one New College community member in attendance with strong feelings about the meeting. “You know, I think this guy is silly. Not O’Shea. Rick Snott. He disapproved of the claims. And ya know, when I lose that hour, I do get really messed up. I used to eat when it was about to get dark. Now I’m hungry before it gets dark. It just really distracts me from everything I’m supposed to be doing,” Tracy Furry, New College mascot said in a phone interview. Furry questioned whether O’Shea’s passion in this initiative stems from how he is personally affected by daylight savings time. “I said it messes me up,” Furry said. “But he’s so passionate about this it must really mess him up too. Just imagine how distraught he must be when the time changes! It’s kind of sad actually.” When students arrived on campus after spring break, they found an Anya Contreras-Garcia/Cataclysm

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Metz to close entirely on weekends BY MAGDALENE TAYLOR In order to cut rising food service costs, Metz will be closing the dining hall entirely on Saturdays and Sundays, including the C-Store. Beginning on April 7, the dining hall will only be opened from Monday to Friday. After 7 p.m. on Friday, all dining hall options will be closed until 8 a.m. on Monday. To help offset student hunger on weekends, Metz will be installing an Easy Bake Oven in Hamilton Center for weekend use. However, Easy Bake Oven mixes will only be sold during the academic week in the C-Store. The decision to close the dining hall on weekends was the result of a number of causes. A financial report from the International Journal of Small Liberal Arts College Dining Hall Programs cited Metz as having unusually high costs as a result of extreme plate and fork theft. Metz also reportedly spent $500,000 on the new Coca-Cola Freestyle machine in the C-Store, spending nearly half of their annual food budget.

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Pariesa Young/Cataclysm

(left) Metz quickly crossed out the weekend dining hours on their schedule when the decision was reached. (right) Employees have considered changing the sign outside of the cafeteria from "Welcome" to "No."

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23 SHROOMS IN CAPLES

42 BEWARE OF WASPS

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Accepted student package will now include pair of Doc Martens, uses loose tobacco as confetti BY MAGDALENE TAYLOR

After a few years of trial and error, the Admissions department has decided to revamp the accepted students packages to better represent the New College environment. Whereas in previous years high school seniors received t-shirts and sunglasses along with their acceptance letter to the school, the Admissions department will now be sending vegan leather Doc Martens boots to each accepted

prospective student. To help offset the costs of the Doc Martens, they will also be repurposing shreds of loose tobacco swept up from the floors of Pei dorms to use as confetti. “We think these new packages will help us show off the character of our students a bit better. We’re also trying to promote shoe-wearing on campus. We think these will come in handy when the revolution comes,” Admissions Inquisitor Herbie Smith said.

Four Winds frying up something new BY JASMINE RESPESS Four Winds is always at the forefront. Whether it be hosting open-mics and art shows or plastering the latest tropical wallpaper to the bathroom wall. Although vegetarianism and veganism are ever popular options for woke millennials, the cafe felt it was missing out on a major opportunity in artisanal meats. Four Winds has decided to expand their palate further than ever before by adding bacon. “I am excited to add bacon to the menu,” second-year Kaelyn Hartley said. “I we could serve it raw with kimchi or maybe smoother it in cumin.” The fried meat will be rolled out in early April in celebration of the Four Winds poop journal be selected for publishing.

Audrey Warne/Cataclysm

Among the bacon goodies to be sold at Four Winds, donuts steal the show.

IN THIS ISSUE: • NCSA to establish a two-party system • Student's web history is bought. Only memes are found • "Paul Blart: Mall Cop 3 - Blart Reloaded" to be filmed at University Town Center mall. • Trump suggests switch to metric system: 'Powers of ten are tremendous.'

"Turmoil and anguish" © 2016, the Catalyst. All rights reserved. The Catalyst is available online at www.ncfcatalyst.com, facebook.com/NCFcatalyst, @ncfcatalyst The Catalyst is an academic tutorial sponsored by Professor Maria Vesperi. It is developed in the New College Publications Lab using Adobe Photoshop and Adobe InDesign and printed at Sun Coast Press with funds provided by the New College Student Alliance.

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Your Horoscopes – Week of April 5 – 12 AQUARIUS Glamour is in the money, Aquarius. Don’t rely on your witty nature and quirky personality to draw people in. Buy them a drink or a trampoline. PISCES Young fish: Do not pay heed to your emotions, they always lead you astray. Find your practical streak and follow it. ARIES You will have a chance to give back to the world today, Aries. Don’t. Full steam ahead! TAURUS Big changes are on the horizon. They will create strange circumstances that you’ve never experienced before. Good luck. GEMINI Half of you will travel to Madagascar this weekend. Don’t worry, you’re used to being two places at once. Just steer clear from anyone you know! CANCER Stay away from home this week. Let your loyalties go. LEO You will make a new friend this week! Turn to the nearest person to your left and say you have something to tell them. Then, give them a wet willy. VIRGO This week, if an airplane flies overhead, hold your breath. Chemtrails are not real but better safe than sorry, right? LIBRA Remember that at any moment, you hold no obligation to your former self.You are not the only one who thinks Pop Tarts taste like a candle, and you should give yourself permission to stop eating them from now on. SCORPIO As a mystic, you already know your horoscope for this week. Interested in your long-term future? Meet in Palm Court Thurs., March 1, 2057 at 7 p.m. SAGITTARIUS Going into the freezer aisle of the grocery store secretly excites you. Embrace those that give you chills this weekend. CAPRICORN To get out of a sticky situation in the near future, don’t answer any texts today, especially from anyone who responds, “haha and then what ;)”.

Loretta Young Giulia Roberts Ryan Seacrest Elizabeth Taylor & Jacob Gyllenhaal Audrey Hepburn & Anyanka, Kat Williams, Jasmine Staff Writers & Photographers (from Aladdin), Dylan Sprouse, Jordi Alba, Jason Bourne , Kelly Clarkson, Cassie Ventura, General Editor Managing Editor Copy Editor Online Editors Layout Editors

Direct submissions, letters, announcements and inquiries to: The Catalyst 5800 Bay Shore Road Sarasota, Florida 34243 ncfcatalyst@gmail.com The Catalyst reserves the right to edit all submissions for grammar, space and style. No anonymous submissions will be accepted. Submissions must be received by 12:00 p.m. Friday for consideration in the next issue.

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New College of Florida's student-run newspaper

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Students join hundreds in Columbus, Ohio for CIW’s weekend of action BYJASON D'AMOURS AND CASSIE MANZ On Sunday, March 28, around 500 farmworkers and consumer allies from across the country marched three miles through the streets of downtown Columbus, Ohio, during a downpour to demand that Wendy’s join the Fair Food Program (FFP). Many of the farmworkers represented the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW), a human rights organization created and led by farmworkers that fights for and protects workers’ rights in the fields. Accompanying the farmworkers in the march were students, community members and people of faith from around the nation. Sunday’s parade was the pinnacle of the CIW’s Return to Human Rights Tour, a continuation of their national campaign that calls on Wendy’s to join the FFP. The fight for Fair Food The FFP is a workplace-monitoring program that is designed, supervised and enforced by farmworkers. The program harnesses the power of consumer demand, urging retail food companies to come to the table and join the program, ensuring that they buy tomatoes from growers who follow the Fair Food Code of Conduct. Participating buyers are required to pay a small premium - thereby increasing workers’ wages and helping to reverse decades of poverty. For 12 years Wendy’s has held out in joining the FFP, moving their tomato purchases from Florida - with farms that follow the Fair Food Code of Conduct - to farms that don’t in Mexico. In January of 2016, Wendy’s released a supplier code of conduct, but the CIW claims the code has no effective mechanisms to ensure that suppliers actually comply by the standards. In addition, the CIW disapproved of the fact that the code was developed by Wendy’s and created with the “valued input” of their suppliers, yet left out the voice of the workers’ in their supply chain. Two months later the CIW announced a national boycott of Wendy’s. Our tour begins Early Friday morning, March 24, a group of New College students and other community members journeyed up to Columbus to join in a weekend of

WHAT’S INSIDE

Cassie Manz/Catalyst

15 students and community members traveled to Columbus to join the CIW in a weekend of action.

Cassie Manz/Catalyst

Activists walked three miles through downtown Columbus, convening at the Wendy's across from the OSU campus.

Cassie Manz/Catalyst

Activists came from all over the country including Texas, Michigan, Illionois, Florida and more.

CAMPUS SMOKING

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action - the culmination of the CIW’s 13-day Tour. The weekend began with a vigil Friday night outside of the Wendy’s headquarters in Dublin, Ohio. Busloads of allies arrived in Columbus late Friday night with the Florida caravan clocking in at 5:30 a.m Saturday morning. We barely had time to lay out our sleeping bags on the floor of Summit on 16th United Methodist Church and drift off into sleep before waking up at 8:00 a.m. for breakfast. The summit Saturday marked the start of the Summit, a day of speakers and social justice oriented workshops. That morning, the CIW acknowledged a group of Ohio State University (OSU) students and community members who fasted for seven days in hopes of convincing their university’s administration to cut their contract with the Wendy’s on campus. “We are [...] here to demand that Wendy’s, after four years of public campaigning, sign on to the Fair Food agreement,” Rachel Metzler, an OSU alum and one of the 19 fasting, said. “And again we are here to call on OSU to lead the way and cut its contract with Wendy’s.” Lucas Benitez, a founding member of the CIW, applauded the OSU students and community members who fasted and then introduced an act of popular theatre - a method the CIW uses to work through complex issues and present them in a way people can better understand. “We want to explain our struggle to you today in a way that we’ve done for a long time,” Benitez said as translated by another member of the CIW. “[We use] popular education to build consciousness in our community.” The set depicted two farms, one that does not comply by the FFP standards on the left and a farm that does on the right. The show ended with farmworkers coercing Wendy’s to the Fair Food side to sign the Fair Food Agreement. Following El Teatro, a variety of workshops and breakout sessions were facilitated by organizers from across the country, concerning a plethora of topics that emphasized

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Repeal of North Carolina’s ‘Bathroom Bill’ leaves no protections for LGBTQ+ community BYJASON D'AMOURS In March 2016, North Carolina legislators passed a bill that required people to use the restrooms and locker rooms that corresponded to the sex on their birth certificate and barred local municipalities from instituting their own antidiscrimination policies. It instead created a new statewide policy that did not mention protections for LGBTQ+ people. The bill, signed by then Governor Pat McCrory (R-NC), was titled House Bill 2 and sparked nationwide protest and contestation. Public rallies and statements in support and opposition of HB2 and Governor McCrory by civil

rights groups and politicians ensued. “They specifically left gays, lesbians and the transgender community out of the antidiscrimination policy,” Sarah Preston, the executive director for the North Carolina office of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), said in an interview with The New York Times. “They want to make it plain that they think that kind of discrimination is O.K.” On March 30, over a year since the passage of HB2, newly elected Governor Roy Cooper (D-NC) signed a repeal of HB2 after it passed the majority Republican legislature. House Bill 142 eliminates the requirement that transgender people use the public

facilities that correspond to the sex on their birth certificate. However, HB142 mandates that only state legislators, not local municipalities, can determine rules for public restrooms, locker rooms and other facilities. Although HB142 repealed the restriction on local municipalities from creating their own antidiscrimination policies, it further restricts them from instituting such policies until December 2020. The ACLU announced on Twitter that the repeal of HB2 is a “fake repeal” for “leaving all LGBT North Carolinians unprotected from discrimination” and that it is “more than [an] economic issue,” in reference to the Associated Press report that by not repealing

HB2, North Carolina could face a $3.76 billion loss in business over the next 12 years. The ACLU launched a petition calling on the N.C.A.A., who have withheld economic interests from North Carolina, from “being fooled by North Carolina’s so-called HB2 ‘repeal’ law.” In effect, North Carolina is faced with a repeal that fails to provide an antidiscrimination policy that protects LGBTQ+ people and one that puts “basketball over civil rights,” the ACLU said in a tweet. Information for this article was gathered from nytimes.com and twitter.com/aclu.

Nationalism in a supranational community: The rise of populist politics in Europe BY AUDREY WARNE The recent resurgence in nationalist rhetoric in the United States under the Trump presidency has been analogous with a similar resurgence in populist political parties and antiEuropeanization promises in key EU states like France and Germany. Europeanization was a term developed by political scientists to address the tendency toward increased European integration in the postwar era. This process was presumably set on a relatively more permanent trajectory after the development of a common currency and a single market in the late 1990s and early 2000s. The United Kingdom’s decision to pull out of the EU – the now infamous Brexit vote – shocked proponents of Europeanization and highlighted the depth to which nationalist sentiments had penetrated the European political mainstream. “I do think there are some important differences between the American and the European context, but certainly a lot of Europe’s far-right leaders have taken heart in the Donald Trump victory and see that as a sign for their own prospects,” Professor of History David Harvey said. “I know he [Trump] has had some meetings and some contact with Nigel Farage, the leader of the UKIP or UK independence party in Britain, and also with Marine Le Pen, the leader of the French Front National. I don’t think these are signs

campaign poster courtesy of frontnational.com

"To establish security, only one solution: the Natonal Front!"

of sort of a deep contact between them – I’m not sure Trump even knows very much about the people that he was meeting with – but there are definite affinities in terms of right-wing populist movements trying to tap into discontent. People who feel concerned with immigration, concerned about crime, concerned about being left behind by globalization - those are things that are similar across Europe and the United States and have given rise to this new political moment.” France’s Front National (FN) represents one of the more virulent strains of European nationalism, with a platform that is centered on immigration reform - with a special emphasis on policies that target Islamic

immigrants - and the promise to pull France from the EU. Marine Le Pen, the current leader of the FN and the daughter of the party’s founder, JeanMarie Le Pen, has built up a legion of supporters through promoting the image of a France wracked by violence and anti-French sentiments, a form of reverse racism in which the (still strongly majority) white French population is forced to change its (racist) ways to accommodate French POCs. (Marine’s dramatic coup d’état in which she wrestled the position of party leader from her father and the ensuing family drama has been fodder for the French media for years.) Posters for the FN feature burning police cars, Islamic woman in burkas

Pariesa Young General Editor Giulia Heyward Managing Editor Ryan Paice Copy Editor Magdalene Taylor & Jacob Wentz Online Editors Audrey Warne & Layout Editors Anya María Contreras-García Katelyn Grimmett, Staff Writers Jasmine Respess, Dylan Pryor, & Photographers Jordi Gonzalez, Jason D'Amours, Kelly Wilson, Cassandra Manz,

and a heavy emphasis on the tricolor flag imagery – often in the form of face paint on a young (white) Frenchman or woman. Appealing to the same fears of globalization and economic stagnation as the Trump campaign, the FN has monopolized on the seemingly universal fears of white members of the lower and middle classes – being left behind by a new wave of more intelligent and more qualified individuals of color. “If Marine Le Pen and the Front National were to win in the French elections later this spring, that would be a serious blow to the EU that conceivably could be fatal since she and her movement have advocated a ‘France first’ policy that rejects the open-borders, open-markets policy of the EU and wants to turn inward,” Harvey said. “Brexit was a serious blow to the European Union, but Britain was a relative latecomer to European integration. It joined the EU in 1973 – about 16 years after its founding – and had always been sort of on the margins. France was one of the original founding members of the EU back in 1957 and has always been central to the European project. “Several of the EU’s emblematic leaders have been French and so for France to pull out [of the EU] would be much broader and much deeper in its impact on the EU. France leaving would also leave the remaining EU much more of a German-dominated community –

continued on p. 11 Direct submissions, letters, announcements and inquiries to: The Catalyst 5800 Bay Shore Road Sarasota, Florida 34243 ncfcatalyst@gmail.com The Catalyst reserves the right to edit all submissions for grammar, space and style. No anonymous submissions will be accepted. Submissions must be received by 12:00 p.m. Friday for consideration in the next issue.

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Federal Reserve President and alumnus Bill Dudley returns to meet with students and faculty BY DYLAN PRYOR On March 31, New College alum and President and CEO of the Federal Reserve of New York Bill Dudley (’74) returned to the school after participating in a University of South Florida financial literacy conference to discuss the future of the economy with students and faculty interested in economics and finance and give them a glimpse into the full potential of a New College education. “I like New College a lot, it’s very valuable for me in terms of my educational experience,” Dudley said. “So I like to come back to maybe share my experiences and since I was here I thought I’d spend a little bit of time on campus with the students and try to be helpful in any way that I can.” In addition to being President of the Federal Reserve, Dudley is also a member of the Group of Thirty (G30), a prestigious international body of leading financiers and academics who has served as Vice-Chairman of the

photo courtesy of startribune.com

Bill Dudley, NCF alumand president of CEO of the Federal Reserve of New York.

The world, in brief BY PARIESA YOUNG Colombia: President Juan Manuel Santos declared an “economic, social and ecological” state of emergency following the landslide which killed at least 262 people in the city of Mocoa on April 1. The landslide was the result of a downpour of heavy rain which flooded the Mocoa River and caused a torrent of water, mud, and debri to wash away large swaths of civilization. The landslide occurred in the early morning hours when a number of the town’s residents were still sleeping. Mocoa’s survivors, emergency relief groups, nonprofits, and FARC have been clearing the rubble and searching for survivors, with the rebel group offering to rebuild the town. President Santos has promised 40,000 million pesos ($13.9 million) will go toward “humanitarian priorities,” according to BBC. He promised that rebuilding efforts will make Mocoa better than before. Others say more should have been done to prevent the devastation the landslide caused. Colombia has seen major death tolls from landslides and avalanches in the past resulting from frequent seismic activity and flooding in mountainous areas. Russia: An attack on the St. Petersburg subway killed 11 and injured at least 45 people on April 3. A homemade bomb exploded at 2:30 p.m. as a train made its way between two stations on the metro line. The driver was able to continue to the next station in order to allow victims of the blast to be helped more easily. Minutes after the first attack, a second explosive device was found in another station and defused by officials. Both

bombs appeared to be improvised devices disguised in briefcases. The St. Petersburg metro has been shut down and authorities are increasing security measures in public places and transportation infrastructure. The attack has not been claimed by any group, but Russian officials have called it a terrorist attack, although all possible causes are to be investigated. Several Russian news agencies have reported that a suspect has been identified, but it is unknown whether he survived the explosion. President Vladimir Putin was in St. Petersburg at the time meeting with the president of Belarus, and later visited the scene of the attack. China: The province of Xinjiang has passed new legislation that bans a number of things associated with Islam. The ban, which took effect on April 1, was implemented to “curb religious extremism,” according to the South China Morning Post. Among the acts banned are wearing a veil or beard. It is also illegal not to receive national education, which will inhibit many parents from homeschooling their children. Chinese media reports that activities included in the ban are “manifestations” of extremism. These new guidelines on extremist behavior cover activities in public and private life, including marriage, family planning, and even Halal choices. Some have blamed recent instances of terror attacks in this region of China on repression of religious freedom and discriminatory ethnic legislation. Information for this article was gathered from nytimes.com, bbc.com, cnn.com, scmp.com

Federal Open Market Committee since 2009. He is also a former chief economist for Goldman Sachs. “When I joined the New York Fed in 2007, I was running the markets group. I didn’t join because I thought I was going to become the President of the New York Fed,” Dudley said. “You just have to work hard and have some good luck, so when Tim [Geithner] became the Treasury Secretary under Barack Obama’s presidency, the President of the New York Fed position opened up and we were in the middle of a financial crisis. I knew what was going on because I was a participant and so the Board of Directors and Board of Governors decided I was the right choice.” Dudley’s talk was split into two sessions, guided by the questions of the student and faculty participants. The first focused on the state of the economy going forward and placed an emphasis on monetary policy. “There’s still a lot of things to be worked out in economics. As we saw in the financial crisis, what happens in

NCSA ‘puts out’ confusion with new map of tobacco free zones on campus BY GIULIA HEYWARD After years of general dissent among the community over whether students should, or should not, be smoking cigarettes on campus, the recently appointed smoking committee has reached a compromise in the form of a map of areas on campus where students can, and cannot, smoke. The map was created by the smoking committee at New College, a group of students, faculty and administration created by former Health Educator, Mandy Parente, and currently continued by Health Educator, Thelma Santiago. New College Student Alliance (NCSA) Vice President of Student Life (VPSL) and third-year, Sophia Doescher, announced the committee’s creation of a map during the March 12 Towne Meeting. “For the past two years, we’ve been meeting to discuss these smoking areas,” Doescher said at the meeting. “We are working on an overall smoking policy for campus. There will be one put in the Housing Contract for next year.” The committee meets monthly and implemented walks across campus to determine which areas should be smoke-free or smoke-friendly, which

Doescher states was the biggest factor in creating this map. “A handful of students were asked directly to attend these campus walks, but it was also advertised by me at Towne Meetings and in the Cabinet minutes,” Doescher said in an email interview. “Another big factor taken into consideration was the preferences of people who regularly spend time in the academic buildings (professors, staff) in hopes of avoiding places designated smoking spots in areas that would make the smoke enter classrooms or offices.” The map, however, is still in the works. Students interested in the smoke-free, and smoke-friendly, zones can contact Doescher. “I’ll talk through the map with anybody who wants to,” Doescher wrote. “But, in order to avoid increased confusion of the process, we don’t want to make the map published until it has been finessed and finalized.”

“We are working on an overall smoking policy for campus. There will be one put in the Housing Contract for next year.”

Sophia Doecher can be reached at sophia.doescher14@ncf. edu via email. A portion of the information for this article was taken from the March 12 Cabinet Meeting minutes.

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The Activist Newsletter

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April: A month of student organized events BY JASON D'AMOURS April is one busy month! Students have been hard at work planning and organizing events for Sexual Assault Awareness Month (SAAM), Pride Month and for Palestinian Awareness Week! Support your friends and check out what they’ve been planning, and keep an eye on the Student’s List for more information about each event!

Cassie Manz/Catalyst

This week (4/5 – 4/13), activists have the opportunity to participate in book drives, film screenings, art shows, panel discussions and community meetings! Read on if you want to get involved in the community regarding immigrant rights, environmental issues, women’s rights, LGBTQ+ rights or racial equality.

BY ANYA MARÍA CONTRERAS-GARCÍA

Sarasota Film Festival, 1991 Main St., Sarasota, Florida 34236 This panel discussion will showcase local LGBTQ community members and celebrated filmmakers, addressing issues of representation in filmmaking, media and the intersection between race and LGBTQ identities. Panelists include Tiq Milan, a respected trans-activist, Andrew Hevia, the co-producer of Moonlight, and Meccasia Zabriskie, Assistant Professor of Sociology at New College. For more info, check out the event page on Facebook.

Wed, Apr 5 New College ESOL Book Drive @ 9 a.m. – 11 p.m. New College of Florida, ACE Lounge, Sarasota, Florida 34243 New College of Florida is preparing to offer English for Speakers of Other Languages classes for community members and are gathering supplies such as K-12 level books. Students are encouraged to bring old books to the drive in ACE Lounge. For more Sun, Apr 9 Ranked Choice info, contact Ximena Pedroza at Voting in Sarasota @ 3 – 5 p.m. ana.peraltapedroz15@ncf.edu. Fogartyville Community Center, Mar 31 – Apr 9 Environment, 525 Kumquat Ct, Rear, Sarasota, Science and Sustainability Films Florida 34236 The Election Reform Committee Sarasota Film Festival, 1991 of the Peace Education and Action Main St., Sarasota, Florida 34236 The Sarasota Film Festival Center will host an educational will host film screenings related meeting to explain how Ranked to the environment, science and Choice Voting works and examine sustainability. These films cover the opportunities and challenges various topics including urban in implementation. Speakers will planning, space exploration, discuss how voting systems can nuclear fusion, the fashion better represent constituents and industry’s environmental impact increase participation. Doors will and sustainability in Sarasota. For open at 3pm; presentation will start more info, check out the event page at 3:30pm. For more info, check out the event page on Facebook. on Facebook. Sun, Apr 9 American Dreams… Stories of Immigration @ 6 – 8 p.m. Regal Cinemas, 1993 Main St., Sarasota, Florida 34236 The intimate documentary American Dreams examines the history immigration in America and the driving forces of fear, poverty and persecution that make immigrants risk everything to come to America. The film will premier as part of the Sarasota Film Festival on at the Hollywood 20 in Sun, Apr 9 LGBTQ+ and Sarasota. Seating is limited. For Black Identities in Media @ 12 – more info or to buy tickets, go to SarasotaFilmFestival.com. 3 p.m. Sat, Apr 8 NASTY WOMEN ART SHOW @ 6 – 10 p.m. 2800 2nd Ave N, St Petersburg, FL 33713-8611 This is a group exhibition expressing solidarity among artists who identify with being a Nasty Woman in the face of threats to roll back women’s rights, individual rights and abortion rights. All art sale proceeds will go to Planned Parenthood. For more info, contact nastywomenstpete@gmail.com.

Sexual Assault Awareness Month (SAAM) * Events will be announced in [SAAM] labeled emails; if you wish, email emily.via15@ncf.edu for assistance filtering [SAAM] emails * April 4: Introduction to Bystander Intervention Workshop April 6: SAAM Zine Submission Deadline April 6: Clothesline Project April 9: Discussion with Writer & Activist Tiq Milan April 11: Healthy Relationships Panel April 13: Movie Screening of The Witness April 14: Project Unbreakable April 17: Self Care Event April 18: Surviving and Memory Workshop April 20: Zine Release and Bake Sale April 21: Feminist Friday with Denice Frohman April 26: Take Back the Night Pride Month April 3: Movie Screening of Screaming Queens: Riot at Compton’s Cafeteria April 4: Pride Month Poster Making April 7: Pride Ball! April 8: Picnic Potluck! April 8: Movie Screening April 12: Allyship “101” Discussion April 14: Pronoun Workshop and Button Making April 17: Movie Screening of Moonlight April 19: Trans and Queer Love with Duane Khan Palestinian Awareness Week April 24: Speaker April 25: Movie Screening of 3000 Nights April 26: The Activist Panel April 27: Movie Screening of The Radiance of Resistance April 28: Speaker Samar Dahmash April 29: Dabke and After Party at the Four Winds

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Breaking down Trump's budget BY KELLY WILSON President Donald Trump’s proposed budget promises to raise defense spending by $54 billion without changing the dollar amount of the overall budget. Which seems promising at first glance, however, the proposed budget requires cuts to important industries to support the shift in funds, which is, not surprisingly, problematic for already disadvantaged groups, such as the poor and the elderly. The technical stuff The budget proposed by President Trump proposed only makes changes to discretionary funding, leaving things like Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security, which are considered mandatory spending, untouched. Mandatory spending takes up 73 percent of the U.S. budget and discretionary spending makes up the other 27 percent. Currently, the Department of Defense (DOD) already makes up about $590 million of the approximately $1.64 trillion discretionary budget. The new budget would add $54 million to the DOD bringing it up to approximately $644 million of the $1.64 trillion budget. The majority of the money which will be shifted to the DOD will be taken from the EPA, the Department of Health and Human Services, the State Department, the Department of Education, the Department of Agriculture, Housing and Urban Development, the Department of Labor, the Department of Energy and

the Department of the Interior. Some money will also come from smaller programs such as the Program for Public Broadcasting, and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA). The budget would bring increases to Veterans Affairs - a key campaign promise - and the Department of Homeland Security, which would be used to increase efforts to detain immigrants. What does it mean? The $54 billion that Trump plans to add to the military budget must come from somewhere. Within the budget, the administration makes cuts to agencies that it determines are “ineffective”. Under this budget, the EPA and International Assistance Programs would be virtually nonexistent. Cuts to the Department of Health and Human Services would be mostly taken from the National Institute of Health - which plays an important part in biomedical research. The cuts would also affect programs like the Low Income Energy Assistance Program, which helps provide heating and air conditioning to poor families. Cuts to the Department of Education would eliminate programs that help give college scholarships to the poor, federal work study programs and before and after school programs for low income students. It would eliminate programs like the 21st Century Community Learning Program which funds programs like the Boys

and Girls Club of Sarasota. Programs cut from the Department of Housing and Urban Development include Meals on Wheels and other programs designed to fight poverty. Cuts to the Department of Labor would follow a similar pattern in targeting disadvantaged populations and cutting programs designed to create jobs for seniors, young people and the general unemployed population. Cuts to the Department of the Interior cut funds from programs that support wildlife refuges and national heritage areas. All of these cuts are important, however, cuts to the NEH and NEA hit closest to home for New College. “If you’ve ever been to an arts show or an arts event. You may well have been riding on NEA funding and you wouldn’t know it because they give a lot of money out to groups and organizations [...] the NEA is a very important and foundational place of support for pretty much all the organizations around the town,” Miriam Wallace, the chair of the Division of Humanities at New College, said. The NEH has also funded research for New College professors. It has funded four fellowships for New College professors and provided grants for at least four seminars for professors. Without the NEH it would be very hard for professors at New College to pursue work outside of their teaching careers. However, the budget would eliminate these two programs entirely. It could also completely eliminate the Corporate Broadcasting System which supports public TV and radio and

the Institute of Museum and Library services which includes programs like Bookshare, a program which provides books to those who are blind or have a disability which makes reading print difficult. What’s next? The proposed budget is what some call a “skinny budget”. If Trump sticks to tradition, he will expand upon the proposed budget later on this year. Then, the budget must be approved by congress before it can become policy. And even with Trump’s majority Republican congress, this will be no easy feat. The proposed budget makes cuts to programs which alienate much of his voter base, such as Appalachian commission and the Delta Regional Authority, which serves eight Southern and Midwestern states, seven of them with Republican governors. It also goes against some of Trump’s campaign promises, such as his promise to rebuild infrastructure, by instead making cuts to infrastructure spending. With that being said, it is unlikely that the proposed budget will make it past Congress in its current form - especially paired with his tax plan. However, it is important to let your representatives know if you do not approve of Trump’s proposed budget, because they are the ones that will be working to rewrite and revise it. You can contact our local representative, Vern Buchanan, with your concerns at: (941) 747 - 9081. Or visit or write to his office at 1051 Manatee Ave W #305.

CIW march

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 the intersectionality between different social justice movements and the fight for farmworkers’ rights. The workshops covered mass incarceration, the related Milk with Dignity movement in Vermont, migrant and workers’ rights in the Rio Grande Valley, the history of farmworker labor in the United States and more. “I thought the workshops were really incredible because they had a lot of different perspectives,” second-year Alba Abrams said. The summit ended with a night of performances by different acts including the Peace Poets and Olmeca and Shantilly. The Peace Poets are a collective of artists from the Bronx who use poetry and music as a platform for activism. Similarly, Olmeca, who performed with Shantilly, is known for using his music to amplify the voices of the Latin American community and has a long history of collaboration with the CIW. Even after the concert ended, friends lingered outside, singing, dancing and creating music. The sound of jaranas echoed through the streets. The parade It was a hectic morning as we rolled up our sleeping bags and

Cassie Manz/Catalyst

The parade kicks off in Goodale Park!

prepared for the climax of the Return to Human Rights Tour. Many allies chose to attend the church service before boarding the buses to Goodale Park in downtown Columbus. Hundreds began to gather as the threat of rain loomed; ponchos were donned as members of the Coalition and allies addressed the crowd. “Let’s make sure that not only are we marching today, but taking this energy from this march to keep up the fight after today,” Columbus Councilwoman Elizabeth Brown said. “I feel that it’s raining and we should start

walking soon.” And with that, roughly 500 farmworkers, their consumer allies and three elaborate floats marched three miles in the downpour, briefly stopping at the Wendy’s across the street from the OSU campus. The crowd’s energy culminated here as they shouted, “Boycott Wendy’s!” and “We’ll be back!” before continuing on and ending in a courtyard on the OSU campus. It was in this courtyard that the weeklong fast by OSU students and community members came to an end with bread presented by children from

Immokalee. “I think that this action [the parade] was particularly impactful because of the fast that the 19 students and community members have done here at OSU,” Meghan Cohorst, a member of the Student Farmworker Alliance (SFA) said. “It’s exciting for me as sort of an old person in the world of SFA to see students continuing to recognize that power and continuing to demand of their administrations that they do the right thing.” After a powerful weekend of action, CIW farmworkers and allies remain hopeful that a Wendy’s commitment will come. “I am very proud and happy to be here with all of you and that you’re all supporting the coalition,” a leader of the CIW said as translated by a fellow member. “And thanks to all the work that y’all are doing, we will show Wendy’s that we’re going to cut her braids off and make her come to the table. And thanks to all the students and allies, we will win.” Information for this article was gathered from ciw-online.org, fairfoodprogram.org and dispatch.com

College kids and car trips: My New Orleans experience BY JACOB WENTZ When I first posed the idea of a cross-country road trip to my parents, they told me I was naive. Transfer student Benjamin Cook and I originally planned a trip to Colorado, but as spring break drew near, we realized that our plan was in fact just that. We were still determined, however, to visit places we had never seen before without spending too much money, so we decided on New Orleans and the east coast of Florida. Preparation We planned to leave on Saturday, Mar. 25, the day after midterm week. There’s a decent amount of preparation that must be done before embarking on a trip of this distance: in addition to saving up some money, finding a cheap Airbnb and gathering snacks for the road, we had to make sure that my car’s oil was changed and that my title and insurance were both up to date. We also had to pack our bags for a week away, grab some blankets and pillows and double check that we hadn’t forgotten anything. By the time we finally got on the interstate, it was around 9:00 p.m. Driving & Resting We drove through the night because I was so determined to leave on Saturday. In hindsight, it might’ve been nicer to just leave the next morning, but I feel like the events of the night were part of the overall experience.

Nonetheless, we were headed for Mobile, Alabama, where my big sister, Sydney, was recently relocated to by Whole Foods. Mobile isn’t a place that either Ben or I was particularly interested in visiting, but it’s hard to pass up a free room, free food and the chance to see family. We arrived at my sister’s house the next morning, after stopping to nap in the parking lot of an unaffordable hotel. We spent the day resting after the eight-hour drive, and the night hanging out with Sydney and her boyfriend, Seth. The next morning, we drove two hours to our Airbnb in Metairie, Louisiana, a ten-minute drive from central New Orleans. New Orleans We booked our Airbnb for two nights, so we had a limited amount of time to experience the city. The first thing that we did was visit the New Orleans Historic Voodoo Museum. The building was small and quaint; it definitely represented the style and culture of New Orleans. There are two medium-sized rooms and a hallway, each full of art and history. We learned about Marie Laveau, voodoo, rituals, altars and how voodoo dolls are traditionally meant for good - for love, luck and comfort. In addition to all of the art and voodoo items, there were dollar bills, coins and other personal belongings that tourists left behind for good fortune. After the voodoo museum, we

The horses that led the carriages were adorable, but their water was unfortunately as dirty as some other parts of the city.

wandered around the French Quarter for an hour or so and familiarized ourselves with the general feeling of the city. From there, we decided to save money by making dinner at our Airbnb. Because Ben and I are both underage and kind of antisocial, we decided to stay in for the night. The next morning, we undertook a more thorough exploration of the French Quarter. We started with beignets and coffee for breakfast, then headed to Jackson Square, where we listened to various musical groups. On one side of the square, a visiting middle school orchestra played classical tunes. On the opposite side, a local group of jazz musicians belted out loud, brassy jazz riffs. The square was filled with lively sounds. We then walked through a small French market, full of local art. After spending a few hours in the French Quarter, we made our way to Uptown New Orleans. Here, we saw various picturesque houses and did a lap through Audubon Park. After relaxing and swinging in the park, it was time for dinner. Once again, we took advantage of the kitchen in our Airbnb and had an easy night with pizza, fresh baked cookies and homemade ice cream sundaes. The next morning we cleaned the apartment and headed towards our next destination: the east coast of Florida. The East Coast We broke up the lengthy car ride

all photos Jacob Wentz/Catalyst by stopping at Pensacola. Here, we visited a really interesting park with wooden pathways: Bay Bluffs Park. This park is right on the water and has a railroad track that crosses through it. From there, we made our way to St. Augustine, only to be disappointed that entrance to Castillo de San Marcos would have costed $10 each. Nonetheless, we explored the city a bit and took a walking trail tour at Fort Matanzas. After visiting St. Augustine, we headed south towards Flagler Beach and Ormond Beach. I’m not sure exactly where along the coast we ended up, but it wasn’t as far south as Daytona Beach. We went to the store to purchase some beach supplies and Pub-subs and enjoyed an entire day on some beach somewhere. As the sun was setting, we drove back to my house near Tampa. It was awesome to be able to explore so many areas that neither Ben nor I had ever visited. The trip didn’t cost too much money; most of the expenses came from gas, the Airbnb and food. With the right planning, however, a trip like this is definitely doable. This might sound kind of pretentious, but this trip gave me time to think about the world and conventional societal structures. Returning to routine seems difficult after doing nothing but living for a week. Breaks are great, but I sure wish they lasted longer.

Transfer student Ben Cook at thte New Orleans Historic Voodoo Museum.

The St. Louis Cathedral, and the Jackson Square in front of it, reminds me of Disney World.

Transfer student Ben Cook sips on some iced coffee before trying a beignet.

Cultural artifacts lined the walls of the New Orleans Historic Voodoo Museum.

Voodoo dolls were traditionally intended for good, not evil.

CATALYST

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FEATURES

Mote’s ‘The Teeth Beneath’ opens wide open

BY JASMINE RESPESS Mote Marine’s newest exhibit “The Teeth Beneath,” features alligators, a baby crocodile and caimans. Although these reptiles are often feared, Mote works to educate the public on them. Visitors are encouraged to be careful, but stay curious. “The Teeth Beneath” is now open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. seven days a week, at Mote’s Ann and Alfred E. Goldstein Marine Mammal Research and Rehabilitation Center. Tickets are $19.75 for adults, $18.75 for seniors, $14.75 for children 4-12, children under 3 visit free and Mote Marine members are free as well. “We would like our visitors to have a better understanding of is the importance of our watershed environments,” Assistant Vice President for the Aquarium Evan Barniskis said. “These are our local areas where all the water drains into rivers, lakes and streams and how important it is to conserve those areas.” In exploring what animals live in these areas - and what those creatures

photo courtesy of Mote Marine Crocodilian exhibit opens wide at Mote Marine Labs.

Neil deGrasse Tyson is hopeful for the future of space exploration BY KELLY WILSON SpaceX, a private spaceflight company headed by the founder of Tesla, Elon Musk, has been gathering the attention of space aficionados everywhere in the past few months. With its public promise to send a pair of anonymous space tourists in a loop around the moon by 2018 and, more recently, its launch and landing of a reusable Falcon Rocket on a drone on March 30. However, this publicity has left SpaceX open to criticism from the likes of celebrity astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson. Tyson, famous for his pursuit to remove Pluto from the plant list among older followers, and his appearances on, and famous relationship with, Bill Nye the Science Guy among younger followers, told his fans on Reddit that he would be willing to go to Mars as long as Elon Musk met a few conditions. “I'm not taking that trip [to Mars] until Elon Musk send[s] his mother and brings her back alive. Then I'm good for it,” Tyson wrote on an Ask Me Anything (AMA) on Reddit on April 2. Tyson went on to say that he is one of SpaceX biggest supporters and critics. "Governments do these things first, allowing private enterprise to learn what to do and what not to do, then come next with a plan that involves us all. So my read of history is that private companies will not be the first to send humans to Mars unless government actually pays for it,” Tyson wrote.

This indicated that Elon Musk was overly ambitious with his promise to send space tourists around the moon in 2018. The AMA also discussed other topics, such as Trump’s budget, something which sparked a viral video from his colleague Bill Nye recently. The video sent a desperate plea to President Trump to allocate sufficient funds to The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in his new budget. Previously, the importance of funding NASA has been agreed upon bipartisanly. Tyson said that he disagreed with Trump’s plans to shift NASA funds from earth science research to space flight, instead of increasing funds by a substantial amount. "Unless this task is picked up by some other agency, the disconnect will be disastrous to our understanding of our own planet, preventing us from knowing and predicting our own impact on our own environment,” Tyson wrote. In the AMA Tyson also discussed the fact that being vaporized by a supernova explosion would probably be the second-most interesting way to die, after getting sucked into a black hole, which he has discussed previously. Tyson also dubbed anyone born after 1995, the year that we discovered our first exoplanet, “generation exoplanet” and started that he was hopeful for the future of Space when this demographic grew up and began to take charge of the space industry.

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contribute to the ecosystem - it allows visitors to appreciate and work to protect these watersheds. “When they come here and learn about the alligators and caimans, hopefully they gain an appreciation for those animals and the areas they live in,” Barniskis said. The reptiles were acquired in couple different ways. “The caiman are an invasive species,” Senior Aquarium BiologistCephalopods Brian Siegel said. “They are from South America.” The caimans were found and removed from the Florida Everglades as hatchlings. Siegel explained that for the most part they stay south, since they are used to warmer climates. The alligator came from another Association of Zoos (AZA) accredited facility in Florida. “We added the crocodile to the “Oh Baby” exhibit, as a small hatchling, to educated the public about how these animals reproduce,” Barniskis said. “The Teeth Beneath” Exhibit is now wide open. Come experience, learn and explore.

NBA Playoff Preview BY RYAN PAICE When Kevin Durant left the Oklahoma City Thunder last offseason for the Golden State Warriors – who had just set the all-time regular season record of 73-9 but gave up a 3-1 lead to lose in the Finals to Cleveland – the question of parity in the NBA took the spotlight. Was the league fated to be dominated by two powerhouses while all others are left by the wayside? The playoffs will be the true determination of that question. If the Warriors and Cavaliers face off for their third straight NBA Finals matchup – which is almost expected at this point – that question might be answered. However, the 2016-2017 NBA season has been nothing short of thrilling and competitive, and with both Kevin Durant returning from injury and Lebron’s Cavaliers struggling to find any semblance of defensive consistency, neither the Warriors nor the Cavaliers look to have a simple road to the Finals. In the East, the Cavaliers have been met with a wily trio of talented teams in the Boston Celtics, Toronto Raptors and the Washington Wizards. The Celtics, as of April 4, have taken the top seed in the East from the Cavs, assuring home court advantage throughout Conference play – assuming they can fend off Lebron for the remaining five games of the season. The Raptors and Wizards are locked in a heat-to-head battle for the third and fourth seeds, but either team can challenge the Cavaliers for the second seed if they continue to slip. Throughout March, Cleveland went only 7-10, and exhibiting shockingly awful defense throughout – bad enough to bring their defensive rating all the way to 22 of all 30 teams on the year.

The Celtics and Raptors have both gone 8-2 over their last ten games, and seem to be working into a groove just in time for the playoffs. While the Celtics have a team flush with depth and led by MVP candidate Isaiah Thomas and possible Coach of the Year candidate, Brad Stevens, the Raptors have a couple of the best players in the Eastern conference in Kyle Lowry – who has yet to return from wrist surgery but could be ready for the playoffs – and DeMar DeRozan, along with trade deadline additions Serge Ibaka and P.J. Tucker who have brought their defense to one of the best in the entire league. The Wizards have only gone 5-5 over their last ten games, but their midseason dominant stretch exemplified the threat the duo of John Wall and Bradley Beal pose to any team. In the West, the Warriors – without Durant, as he has been injured since before midseason – have fought to maintain their first place seeding from the tenacious San Antonio Spurs. While not resetting the record for all-time regular season wins, the Warriors have still already bested the 63-win mark as of April 4, and will be getting Durant back in time for title contention. The Spurs, meanwhile, have demonstrated unbelievable consistency, winning 59 games as of April 4 on the shoulders of legendary coach Gregg Popovich and MVP candidate Kawhi Leonard. Regardless of the historic allaround statistics the Warriors have posted with Durant healthy, the Spurs have proven to be a perennial contender, and counting them out of title contention would be foolish. As

continued on p. 11

CATALYST

POETRY

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Saxophone Scandal BYJACOB WENTZ Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve been happy with my saxophone for years Sweet sounds turn into cold carelessness. Scratches and dents are embedded deeper On his neck and body. I was once in love with the saxophone And we stayed up all night making mellow melodies, Sending sensations of soft songs through the milky cloud above us. But Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m a reckless teenager. And I eagerly jump off of love bridge For the thrill of falling Into a coma, Isolated Where the worries of the world are nonexistent And reality is restrained Behind a screen of smoke.

all photos and writing Jacob Wentz/Catalyst

Isolation was interrupted by the sound of Seduction, A saxophone with a perfect pitch. Expensive, new, and saxy I was careful And delicately played things out With high hopes, high expectations, high energy Sponge in hand, I made Seduction shine And we made music all the time Fingering the notes, tonguing the rhythms The sax was fantastic. The music was precise and accurate But lacked soul. Improv solos became shallow And the music lost love. My talent became as questionable As to what had originally made the sax so appealing. Seduction is a sponge Dry, plain, as if the passion had been squeezed out Nothing more than an average Joe, Who I pledged never to be like. A hollow tube runs from top to bottom, Filled with the innocent spirit of sound That Seduction stole, Leaving an empty body in silence.

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CATALYST

FEATURES

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PAGE 10

Paint It Black at Sarasota Film Festival BYJASMINE RESPESS Paint It Black is a film about loss. Specifically how losing someone effects a partner and a mother. The central character, Josie (Alia Shawkat), is a mess after losing her boyfriend Michael (Rhys Wakefield). On top of that, his very wealthy mother Meredith (Janet McTeer) blames him for his death and terrorizes her. This film is about there are always things unknown about loved ones and how grief can cloud judgement. Paint It Black was the first directorial endeavor by Amber Tamblyn of Joan of Arcaida and The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. The film was released at L.A.’s 2016 film festival and shown this April at The Sarasota Film Festival. This film had some moments. Flashbacks were utilized to paint Josie

and Michael’s relationship in a realistic way. The flashbacks focused on the space they shared and through that I understood their life together. Often times, films just put couples together, especially heterosexual couples, and are just like ‘boy meets girl . . . got it!’ I appreciated that this film showed me how they became a couple. Still, I was bored by the all white main cast. I don’t think I saw more than three people of color and one of them was ‘the help.’ This film as basically about a straight, white couple. This is not to say that the problems in the film, suicide, abuse, alcoholism and drug use aren’t real, but I grow tired of seeing films set in major cities, such as L.A., with such little diversity. Maybe this issue comes from the fact that this was a novel of the same name by Janet Fitch, but since books and comics, ie Ghost in a Shell,

photo courtesy ofSFF are often white washed, I don’t see why it couldn’t be the other way around. Although the film had a background of queer clubs and mosh pits, the characters did not stray from the usual stereotypes, such as the girl from the wrong side of the tracks and

the hoity-toity, overbearing mother. I could not see myself in these characters. For Paint It Black to live up to that name, I would like to see more diversity or subversion, as it stands, it is just a warped rom com.

New College Creative Collective to release Creative Anthology Vol. 1 BY JORDI GONZALEZ The New College Creative Collective (NCCC) was founded by Myles “Optimystic” Rodriguez and Thomas Ghebrezgi who were both firstyear transfer students when they met in the Fall of 2016 during Orientation. Quite instantly, the two formed a collaborative union held together by their fondness of the arts and selfexpression. Thus, the Collective was born and its first Creative Anthology is set to release in mid April. The anthology is an artistic magazine encompassing as many forms of art as possible, whatever can be supplied by the New College student body. Over 20 pieces submitted by students will be included ranging from photography, digital art, sheet music and creative literature. Keeping the spirit of the school’s official unofficial mascot (the empty set), the magazine is titled { }: A Creative Anthology with the space between the two brackets being filled with the overall theme of the issue. For its first volume this is {Love}, a theme democratically voted upon by the club. “We wanted to give students at New College that creative outlet. We want to give them a place to write, to express, to demonstrate all the different ideas or forms of art in a way that was legitimate,” Ghebrezgi said. Hinting at the fact that other nearby schools have such platforms for artistic expression like this he adds, “We’re a state school. We deserve this.” The main objective goals for the group of artists is to provide a support system for all artists on campus to keep accountability of each other; making sure expected personal goals of creation are met. That collaboration amongst artists could be more easily facilitated, connecting talents via the Creative Collective. However, debatably, their most important objective is to enhance

photo courtesy of NCCC "I enjoyed putting the order together so that it would unfold a greater message about love," Rodriguez said. Cover: image “Love is a garden you cultivate within yourself ” by Leah Bender

the creative curriculum on campus. “People put so much time and energy into their creative projects so why not make that a part of the curriculum,” Rodriguez said. Unsatisfied with the fact that

most (of the limited) artistic classes revolve around simply learning the theory and history of the disciplines, Rodriguez and Ghebrezgi created the NCCC as a way to encourage the expansion of artist's endeavors in

this school. They are more concerned with the actual manifestation of and production of the self-expression, the kind of boundless, limitless formation of art that could ideally be incorporated into students’ Areas of Concentration. Many difficulties were faced in trying to put this project together especially since the majority of those involved with its creation had little to no experience with organizing a publication of this magnitude. Allocating funding, setting effective meeting times for everyone, printing out posters and so on had the NCCC learning every step of the way. Still, a special shout out is given to secondyear Araya Barnes who had first brought up to Rodriguez the idea of making an artistic magazine and, having had experience in the matter, they assisted tremendously in the fruition of the Anthology. There will be 50 physical copies distributed at a release date party in April in the Black Box Theatre starting tentatively around 8 p.m. However, there will also be an online PDF version of the magazine for easy and wide accessibility to all students as well as a handful of copies that will be left around campus for the public. The group meets Saturday evenings around 7 p.m. for whoever is interested. It is an extremely accepting club that believes all students of New College are already unsuspecting members according to the founders themselves. As for future endeavors, the NCCC will be working on having a class in tutorial form that would be solely dedicated to producing a literary magazine every mod, so two per year. “[The Creative Anthology] made me excited about the creative and artistic potential of this school,” Ghebrezgi said.

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JUMPS

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Bill Dudley

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 2 economics and finance can still have huge effects for the macro-economy,” Dudley said. “So, I think one of the challenges going forward is to integrate macroeconomics with finance a little bit better so we can understand the risks in the macro-economy stemming from the financial sector. So, making improvements in terms of how we think about financial stability risks, when we identify financial stability risks, figure out what to do about them. It’s not like we’ve solved everything, there’s a heck of a lot more work to do.”

Dudley then took questions about potential careers in economics and finance and gave students advice about how to make the most of a New College education. “I think the first thing is to make sure you have a passion about whatever field of economics and finance that you’re studying and two, I would just say, especially if you’re going to graduate school, take more math than I did,” Dudley said. “I only had a half semester of college calculus so when I got to graduate school in Economics,

it was really challenging because I had to do all the math and economics simultaneously. It’s really important while you’re in college to take the harder subjects that maybe would be harder to learn on your own, like statistics, like college calculus.” Among the students in attendance was third-year Economics/Finance student Julien Baruch, who drove all the way from Miami to attend the talk. “I wanted to see how exactly he applied his education into the economics field and how he advanced into that

and why he advanced into that,” Baruch said. “This is someone who has very detailed knowledge of what’s going on in the government, what’s going on in the economy and it’s just something that I thought was a very interesting thing to do. He definitely spoke about a lot of things and about a lot of different ways of thinking, different ideas that I can definitely apply in my field and in my thesis and just generally the way I think.”

NBA preview

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 9 would be ignoring the flame-throwing Houston Rockets and their second-bestin-the-league offense led by [debatably leading] MVP candidate James Harden, who has posted an unbelievable 29.2 points per game, 8.1 rebounds per game and a league-leading 11.2 assists per game upon his adaptation to the

point guard position. In head coach Mike D’Antoni’s system, the Rockets have bounced back from a hugely disappointing 2015-2016 season, and have solidified themselves as the third seed in the Western conference as of April 4. Regardless of the season’s

excitement and seemingly level field of competition, the playoffs will be the true determination of whether parity truly exists in today’s NBA. Hopefully, the playoffs will be as thrilling as the regular season has been, but unless either the Warriors or Cavs are eliminated, things could stay as predictable as everyone

feared when the season begun. Information taken from basketballreference.com

European elections

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 2 even more than it already is now – and also cause other states to want to pull out.” Though the FN currently only holds two of the 577 seats in the French National Assembly, the damage Le Pen could inflict if she is elected should not be minimized. However, the recent decision by Dutch voters to reject Geert Wilders – another populist politician who advocated for immigration reform and the removal of the Netherlands from the EU – was certainly a positive barometer for the outcome of nationalist parties in other European elections this year. “I think the combination of our election, Russia’s interference in our election and attempts to interfere in European elections, and the serious uncertainty President Trump sowed about US commitment to European security has had a sobering effect on voters,” Professor of Political Science and Director of the International Studies Program Barbara Hicks said in an email interview. “We saw the decline in support for the far right in the Dutch election, and polls for similar candidates are down in both France and Germany. Whether this will be another one of the lulls before new strides in integration or a more permanent decline remains to be seen. The Brexit process may crystalize for some what they value about European integration, while critics will be looking at it for assessing the costs of following the UK’s path. For the 19 countries in the Eurozone, disentangling from Europe would be much more difficult and costly than it is for the UK.” France has generally been a left-

graphic courtesy of bloomberg.com

leaning nation throughout its history, with its promotion of nationalized health care and higher education, support of unionization and extensive family and social welfare policies. The far-right, conservative regime of the Vichy era represents more of a blip in France’s political history than a symbol of an underlying current of right-wingers and conservative policies. Le Pen’s promise to pull France of the EU would be a huge blow to Europeanization efforts and to the fate of the EU as a whole. “If you asked me before last year whether Marine Le Pen had a path to victory I probably would have said no,” Harvey said. “There’s a very good chance that Marine Le Pen will win the plurality in the first round, that she’ll get more votes than any other candidate, but then she’ll go into a runoff, presumably with a candidate representing the French political mainstream. Right now it looks like Emmanuel Macron,

an independent running sort of as a centrist and a reformer, and most of the polls would seem to suggest that the two of them will probably be neckin-neck after the first round but then all of the more mainstream support will sort of coalesce around Macron in the second round.” Emmanuel Macron is the leader of the newly formed En Marche Party (EM), a socially liberal party created in April 2016. EM is the brainchild of Macron – it is no coincidence that the party shares his initials – and was developed as an alternative to the establishment progressive parties in France. “What’s kind of interesting about it in a sense is that throughout the life of the fifth republic, since 1958, the second round – and really French governments – have been dominated by two big sort of middle of the road parties: the socialists one the one side representing the center-left and

the Gaullists representing the centerright,” Harvey said. “If the polls are correct, this time we’ll have a run-off in which both of those – the main parties of post-war France – will be left out. You’ll have the Front National versus an independent candidate, who is a former minister in a Socialist government but doesn’t himself identify as a socialist and is sort-of a non-party reformer.” Macron has been compared to Trump by media outlets for his lack of experience as an elected official and his personality-based platform that emphasizes his desire to change the French political system and his selfproclaimed credentials as an outsider candidate – even though he is a member of France’s technocratic elite with degrees from some of the country’s most prestigious and exclusive universities. “Assuming Macron wins, he’ll have to try and build a governing coalition that will probably include the Gaullists – the Republicans – and will probably include the socialists,” Harvey said. “These are groups that don’t necessarily agree with each other on how France should be governed. I do think they’ll come together to block the Front National from gaining power, but they’ll have a very hard time governing. The problems that France has faced in recent years with terrorism, with economic stagnation, with debates over migration and cultural identity – those will still be there and that’s what has sort of enabled the Front National’s rise in the first place.” Information gathered from en-marche. fr, frontnational.com, nytimes.com and lemonde.fr.

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Whitney Biennial tackles contemporary issues with historical precedence BY MAGDALENE TAYLOR

New York City is always the site of spectacle and controversy, but maybe even more so during the Whitney Biennial. Since its beginning in 1932, the installment at the Whitney Museum of American Art has always strived to be a collection of themes about what’s really happening in America, though sometimes only touching upon the themes of what’s really happening in America if you’re white, wealthy and most likely male. Now in its 78th installment, the collection demonstrates a broader appeal. For the first time, the Biennial curators are both people of color and under 40. Christopher Y. Lew, 36, and Mia Locks, 34, spent months travelling the country searching for artist’s and their works that spoke to today’s issues, most saliently those relating to race, class, gender, the environment and the intersections among them. Many of the works are strikingly successful in evoking these issues. The photographs of Deana Lawson offer carefully staged portraits of family life and love of Black people in a way that

“subverts the ways in which portrayals of Black bodies are often subject to biased perceptions of Black personhood in American culture,” according to the museum’s artist biography. Lawson’s photographs are beautifully intimate, commanding a shared gaze between the subject and viewer. Meanwhile, the paintings of Celeste Dupoy-Spencer deliver a sympathetic but unaffectionate portrayal of white America, namely of the Trump-voting demographic. This includes depictions of a Trump rally itself and more abstract scenes like a scene of two girls fighting in a Louisiana street. These paintings are confrontational and even disturbing, but feel overwhelmingly honest. Conversely, a painting by white artist Dana Shultz depicts a rendering of Emmett Till in his casket feels tactless, protested by many as making a spectacle of the deaths of Black people. One exhibition within the Biennial took a Floridian slant. Jon Kessler’s “Floating World” is a moving, mechanical installation of mannequins wearing VR headsets to watch disaster

movies, bearing permanent selfie sticks with iPhones recording their every move onto an ocean-like surface of monitors. These mannequins wear bathing suits with images of the forthcoming One Thousand Museum in Miami. One Thousand Museum is a luxury high rise currently under construction that is set to be the tallest building in Miami. It’s so high-end that it is going to have its own rooftop helipad. Kessler’s mannequins are intended to be the building’s future residents. While climate change takes Miami into the ocean, these residents will either be escaping in their private helicopters or too busy watching disaster movies on their VR headsets to realize what’s happening. Climate change seems like something that’s going to impact us all, but as Hurricane Katrina and other natural disasters have proved, it’s often people without money and often people of color who are impacted the most. Another Jon Kessler installation was particularly salient. “Exodus” featured a rotating wheel of figurines depicting a historical image of the traveller: the pilgrim, the wanderer, the

refugee. These figurines come from a wide range of traditions and cultures, offering no hierarchy to the scene. What makes Americans feel like it’s more acceptable that their ancestors immigrated here than it is for people to immigrate here today? Much of New York begs this question. It’s asked on the top floor exhibition of the Museum of Modern Art in a series of works offering a similar thematic landscape to the Whitney’s Biennial. One of the more interesting ways of asking the question happens at the city’s Tenement Museum, where you can tour preserved apartments of immigrant families from the late 19th century. The museum will soon be expanding to provide a wider scope of the experiences of Jewish, Chinese and Puerto Rican immigrants. While we see the big issues being portrayed in the abstract works of the Whitney Biennial, we can see the historical realities of these issues at the Tenement Museum as they’ve existed in America for hundreds of years.

all photos by Magdalene Taylor/ Catalyst

Celeste Dupoy-Spencer, "The Charmers" (top left), "NADCP" (top right) "Trump Rally (and some of them I assume are good people)" (bottom)

Jon Kessler's "Floating World"

Celeste Dupoy-Specer "St. Tammany Parish"

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“Call me Basketball Man”: Joe Biden joins the NBA BY DYLAN PRYOR As the National Basketball Association’s season nears its close, Commissioner Adam Silver recently reassured fans of both the NBA and America that there was still much more to be excited about, as the National Basketball Association has signed on former Vice President Joe Biden to join the Board of Governors this past Friday, addressing the seasoned politician’s concerns that there “just isn’t much to do anymore.” “I promise I remain more dedicated than ever to addressing the critical issues of the day in the aftermath of the election,” Biden said

in an official statement released by his new employers. “Americans want to be number one at everything, and they are at baseball, football, and basketball… Basketball is growing fast, and I want to be a part of that.” According to officials, Biden has reportedly been fascinated with the sport since his early days as an alternate for the Syracuse Orange while pursuing his law degree, and his interest was only compounded during his initial campaign for the White House alongside President Barack Obama, during which they spent “many hours passing the old rock” while waiting for polls to close on Super Tuesday. “Nobody knew how tall I was or

how much I weighed. Because I didn’t want anybody to know my identity,” Biden said regarding his time at Syracuse. “I was like a superhero, call me Basketball Man.” In a later press release, Silver shared his enthusiasm for the impending partnership with the veteran politician and the potential impact it could have on the NBA’s role in American politics, despite having been on the fence at first. “Politics is changing the world; it’s changing our sport, it’s changing the way people are following the NBA,” Silver said. “And honestly, at this point, it might as well be the other way around.”

I.M. Pei calls campus dorms “his greatest work” BY CASSIE MANZ On Friday, March 28, while attending a dinner in his honor at the Louvre Museum in Paris, I.M. Pei, the famous architect, declared the Pei dorms on the New College of Florida campus “my greatest work.” The astonishing quote comes two days after the release of Pei: where he went right and where he went wrong written by acclaimed architectural historian Archie Tecture. In this book, Tecture explores the many works of I.M. Pei, zeroing in on his accomplishments and “many” failures. “I just felt like many people acknowledged the great works Pei designed,” Tecture said. “But I felt like not enough people knew all the ways he fucked up.” Pei is well-known for designing the pyramid outside the Musée du Louvre in Paris and the John F. Kennedy Library in Massachusetts. What he is not as well-known for is the complex of dorms on the New College campus, aptly named for him. This unfamiliarity by the general public is surprising because the dorms are seen as a huge success in the architectural community; they have sustained the Florida environment

In an effort to let the heat die down a little, thesis-student Qake Cooley told New College officials to play it cool if his thesis sponsor comes looking for him as he is really banking on not running into her today after missing his latest thesis deadline. “Every time I see her I pivot in the perfectly diametric opposite direction and run at a fairly casual pace, not a full sprint but nothing akin to a walk and I’ve done it enough that she’s accepted this as a normal mode of behavior and

NEWS PAGE 9.75

Songs you should heAR BACK TO SCHOOL EDITION

BY JASMINE RESPESS AND JORDI GONZALEZ Coming back from spring is hard. Especially in Florida, where you do not even have to leave the city to be in on of the best beachside locations. Here are some songs to help that reintegration process. I Will Survive –– Diana Ross This song is important, because you will actually survive the rest of the semester, even thesis students. Everybody Hurts –– REM I feel like this is a dad song, but it is true, everybody hurts and everyone struggles to get back into the swing of school. Eye of the Tiger –– Eye on the prize y’all. YOU CAN DO IT!

for 50 years and remain in the utmost perfect condition with absolutely zero real renovations done to them. However, Tecture disagrees with this assessment. In Pei: where he went right and where he went wrong, Tecture writes, “Pei had no idea what he was doing in Sarasota. He clearly did not know of or prepare for the humid environment or afternoon thunderstorms. The dorms are basically

falling apart.” In a statement released this past Tuesday in response to the book, Pei said, “Tecture’s critique is simply unfounded. Although I have not visited the dorms since I left the school in 1967 I am sure they are in perfect condition. In fact, I have heard that students

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After missing deadline, thesis student really banking on not running into sponsor today BY DYLAN PRYOR

despite her best attempts, cannot catch me,” Cooley said. “I found that to be pretty effective in avoiding her. I’ll also slam my head against my desk until unconscious and then I enter the sweet escape of traumatic sleep.” Cooley, who contacted reporters from an undisclosed location on campus which is “definitely not sinking into the ground,” remains adamant that the best way to tackle the situation is clearly to devise as many strategies to avoid it as possible. “As long as we can occupy separate physical spaces, we can also occupy

separate metaphysical spaces and in doing so, just stay enrolled at this institution forever, never finish my thesis, and eventually, through sheer mental stress alone, wear myself away into nothing,” Cooley said. “But postgrad plans change every day.” At press time, Cooley, who has recently sighted his sponsor at locations such as the local Tom and Chee and his workplace, decided to enact his plan B by posing as a statue in Jane Bancroft Cook library and asking the front-desk worker whether the coast was clear for him to skip town.

“I Wanna Go Home” by Sandy Cheeks (Spongebob Squarepants) Anyone who grew up watching the show that won the Nickelodeon's Kid’s Choice Awards for Favorite Cartoon every single year (14 wins already) knows this ever-so-sorrowful song. Sandy singing from the bottom of her heart with poetic lines like “When I’m away from Texas, all I wanna do is cry.” Though Texas is not my home… we feel you Sandy, we feel you. “(I’d Rather Be) Anywhere But Here by Honeyblood The title pretty much says it all. The female dynamic duo sing with entrancing lo-fi vocals over loud drums and a cool garage band rockish sound riddled with hints of melancholia. The song gives very similar California beach vibes like Best Coast if you are interested in them then this would be a good new find. “Never Going Back Again” by Fleetwood Mac Though we shall all reluctantly and matter-of-factly return to school for the semester’s mod 2, it’s still nice to dream isn’t it. The rather short two minute song only features a fast paced rhythmic guitar with incredible finger picking patterns by the famous classic rock band’s lead guitarist Lindsey Buckingham and vocals by Buckingham as well. Although the song is about not returning to a lover, the message still rings true.

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Game on: Library’s group study room 3 to be converted into a video arcade BY DYLAN PRYOR

Inspired by the success of this year’s International Game Day at the library, Library Operations Supervisor Barbara Dubreuil recently announced plans to convert Jane Bancroft Cook Library’s Group Study Room 3 into a video arcade that students will be able to enjoy during study breaks next year. “Everyone knows that the real reasons libraries exist are for entertainment,” Dubreuil said. “You’re just here to have pure fun, excitement, hang out, it’s a place where people can get together. You know, we’re seeing the arcade with the great lighting and music and the sounds of all these different games, it will be a great place for people to come in, you know, not worrying about tests and studying, and just making it about fun. That’s what college is all about.” The arcade, dubbed the SandlerJames Game Room after the two starring actors of hit 2015 film Pixels will include such classic 1980s standup arcade games as Qubert, Centipede, Donkey-Kong, Pac-Man and Ms. PacMan. The game room is being designed with the goal of giving library patrons a new alternative way to develop life skills. “For hand-eye coordination we are looking at several different types of pinball machines and your classic standalone shooter games, giving you the actual devices in your hands,” Dubreuil said. “Things like Wii try to imitate, but they really can’t get that full feeling like when you have that steering wheel in

Dylan Pryor/Catalyst

Third-year Kenny Kent tests the library's new Frogger machine, formerly the Public computer.

your hand and you’re sitting in one of those cars and learning to drive.” The potential for a successful game

room in the library was first tested by the library’s sole public computer being converted into a Frogger machine. The

library has also ordered a shipment of various gaming magazines to help provide students with additional options for scholarly literature. “You really need to look towards the things that can truly stimulate your mind, which is gaming,” Dubreuil said. “It’s been proven in several of the premier journals like GamePro, different PlayStation annuals and monthlies… The research is endless.” Although there is no official date set yet for the grand opening of the Sandler-James Game Room, the library administrative staff has been in talks with actor Adam Sandler to make a brief appearance for the ribbon cutting ceremony and share how Pixels taught America that video games can actually save the earth. Sandler agreed, but only if Kevin James and David Spade can come with him to play supporting characters within the audience. James is set to play Sandler’s down-on-his luck best friend who needs Sandler’s help beating the Pac-Man world record to win back his college girlfriend. “My second year, when I moved out of third court, they renovated it; my third year, when I moved out of dort/ gold they started letting dogs in; now this,” thesis-student Hannah Shepherd said. “As a graduating senior, I am deeply bitter about this change.” As for those who are concerned there is no way for the library to grow from here, look out for the potential 2019 renovations, since rumors have it that the second-floor may or may not make a sick laser tag arena.

Breaking down emotional New College will soon walls: First Court be one giant wasp nest remodeling to encourage residents to bear all BYJORDI GONZALEZ

Spring semester has seen the unbelievable rise in wasp sightings and if you’re not worried yet here’s why you should be. Over 14 students have been injured and evacuated from the area, but New College officials have kept this information from the masses. Nests have been found in almost every dorm forming on the windows, doors, and staircases all around campus. “I once woke up and had my window accidentally open. These suckers ripped a hole in the mesh and were swarming ‘round my room!” firstyear transfer Lev Steedman Gurt said. Surely there should be a stop to the madness. The only clear modes of defense are alertness (as they may attack at any given moment) and winter clothing (as they cannot penetrate through many layers), but also do

NOT leave doors or windows open at any point. Good news is not all of the flying stinging insects are dangerous, some are rather small and harmless. However, some have already been identified as Paper Wasps which can be a danger especially if they are nesting in frequently used areas. "It's crucial that we keep our eyes closed near them since these are a special breed that showers the air around them with a blinding and infectious spray," Director of Facilities and Construction at Physical Plant Alan Burr said. "We need to get this under control." This is the only advice we were able to gather for the public. Authorities’ responses to the crisis are not speedy enough and work orders have been going through the roof. Maintenance is

continued on p. 11

BYJORDI GONZALEZ In an effort to promote a greater sense of community throughout New College’s residence halls, administration has recently announced plans to remodel First-Court around a communal bathroom similar to those in B-Dorm, known for its strong sense of community. In a recent survey conducted by administration, B-Dorm residents were found to have the strongest emotional connectivity among New College residents. Those in charge of the survey have attributed this phenomenon to the fact that they all share the same bathrooms.

“B is known for its tight knit community, and administration really wanted to expand that to the rest of the residential halls,” B-Dorm Residential Advisor (RA) Hope Sparks said. “This summer they’re doing renovations in some of the First Court areas to test it out. The bathroom walls will be knocked out and Pei rooms will have to share them.” At press time, one first year planning to live in Pei next year mused that it would not be that bad, since now “We can have those sweet tornado bathroom parties like the one I saw in B on Snapchat.”