Nimbus 81 Fall 2017

#81 FALL 2017

A publication of New College of Florida

JOIN THE CLUB ACTIVITIES HELP STUDENTS FIND EACH OTHER AND THEMSELVES Elevating New College

Kirstin Cutts ’06

The ‘most important moment’ since founding

Journey to Jeopardy!

NCAA Communications Committee Jordan Clark - Communications Chair Hazel Bradford Carmela French Cindy Hill Steve Jacobson Editorial Staff David Gulliver Interim Director of Communications and Marketing Jessica Rogers Associate VP for Advancement Kim McDonald Creative Services Manager

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Glen Van Der Molen Assistant Director New College Alumnae/i Association

Join the Club

Publisher Office of Communications & Marketing New College of Florida 5800 Bay Shore Road Sarasota, FL 34243-2109 941.487.4153 communications@ncf.edu

Activities Help Students Find Each Other and Themselves

19 Profiles

15 Elevating New College The ‘most important moment’ since founding

Al Beulig Kathleen McQueeney ’08 Dr. Margee Ensign ’73 Kirstin Cutts ’06

Also inside this issue: On Campus > 1 In the Community > 4 We Heard You > 7 Alumnae/i Focus > 16 Op Ed > 18 Chapter News > 25 Class Notes > 26

*Submit your version of the Nimbus masthead for consideration to communications@ncf.edu.

NCAA Board of Directors Executive Committee Chair – Cindy Hill ’89 Chair-Elect – Steve Jacobson Treasurer – Sarah Thompson ’06 Communications Chair – Jordan Clark ’04 Governance Chair – Chad Bickerton ’05 Immediate Past Chair – Frazier Carraway ’72 Lynne Allen ’72 Hazel Bradford ’75 Robert Freedman ’83 Carmela French ’06 Steve Jacobson ’71 Ginger Lyon ’70 Gera Peoples ’94 Leslie Reinherz ’70 Henry Smyth ’76 Norman Stein ’69 Jim Tietsworth ’84 Troy Winfrey ’87 Vernon Woodworth ’70 MaryAnne Young Vice President for Advancement Dr. Donal O’Shea President of New College For a full board listing, visit ncf.edu.

THEN & NOW Know more about this photo?

Contact communications@ncf.edu.

The Library Even though so much information is available electronically, the library—and books made of paper, not pixels—is still the center of a New College education.

CAMPUS NEWS

New College’s Commencement Includes First Graduates of Data Science Program On Friday, May 26, New College of Florida held its 51st commencement ceremony, but it also was a first – the graduation of the first students from the College’s new data science master’s degree program.

All seven of the data science graduates headed to jobs – four of them in Florida – and most with the companies for which they interned during the program. (In the second year of the New College program, students first work on campus on projects provided by industry partners, then work at the companies themselves.)

These jobs are among the highest-paying in the economy.

The latest survey from PayScale.com found the median salary for a data scientist in the United States is $91,000 a year.

Alumni Philip Pope and Erin Craig both returned to New College to enroll in the program.

Pope was already working as a data scientist in Washington, D.C. “I knew how rapidly the field was changing, and that if I were to have any hope of survival, I would need to build a solid foundation in data science,” he said. “So I came back to New College to do just that.”

Craig was working at Wolfram Research when she decided to return, looking for “an opportunity to challenge myself,” she said.

Which she did, working with real-world data sets from fields including health care and IT security, and in roles from data engineering to visualization to modeling. She also organized the regional affiliate of the nationwide Women in Data Science conference in February.

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“I fell in love with data science!” she said. “And on the way, I learned about myself… This experience showed me what I enjoy most, and it gave me opportunities to grow both as a data scientist and as an individual.”

Craig praised the Data Science faculty for their willingness to work outside of class with the students, and Pope cited the close working relationships with his fellow students and the chance to pursue his own ideas.

One message he would share with all students: “I would encourage future students to think critically for themselves and back their claims up with data. This, in my view, is the essential task of the data scientist.”

“My duties include data engineering and researching human-based computation,” he said. “I am excited to be working on the cutting edge of computer vision.”

www.ncf.edu

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ON CAMPUS CAMPUS NEWS

New College of Florida Receives Performance Funding he Board of Governors announced university performance funding scores at its meeting in June, celebrating the fourth year in a row of nearly acrossthe-board improvement. The State University System boasted year-over-year gains on six of the eight performance metrics that are common to all universities, including the number of students earning degrees in areas of strategic emphasis (such as STEM). The System’s graduation and retention rates have increased by roughly five points each during the same period.

Based on their excellence or improvement on the Board’s metrics, universities are eligible for a share of the $520 million allocated by the governor and Legislature during the 2017 legislative session. The model’s 10 metrics include graduation and retention rates, cost to the student, and success for recent graduates.

“In the past four years, we’ve seen steady improvements at the System level and for individual universities,” said Tom Kuntz, Board of Governors’ chair. “Especially exciting is that we’ve seen universities in the bottom three soar to the top of the pack as they’ve renewed their focus on student success.”

The Board’s newest metric, cost to the student, also pointed to positive outcomes. The average cost of earning a bachelor’s degree is less than $15,000 after financial aid (grants,

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scholarships, and waivers). Furthermore, University Work Plans, in which institutions lay out their future financial goals, indicate that universities are expected to decrease their prices further in the coming years, cutting the student cost per degree from $14,820 to 14,090 by the 2019-2020 school year.

“Affordability has been a priority for the governor and the Legislature as well as the Board of Governors because it increases student access and relieves student debt,” said Ned Lautenbach, vice chair of the Board of Governors and chair of the Budget and Finance Committee. “It’s exciting to see the universities turning that goal into a reality.”

New College of Florida got a share of performance funding dollars this year due to its increase in student retention, average full-time wages of undergraduates employed one year after graduation, the number of students graduating in areas of strategic emphasis, and cost to students.

“New College is thrilled to receive performance funding.

The growth plan and these dollars will elevate the College from a top, public institution, to a place among the very best of all U.S. colleges and universities,” said President Don O’Shea.

For more on the Growth Plan, see p. 15.

CAMPUS NEWS

New Heiser Natural Sciences Wing Opens ess than a year from when construction began, the new wing of the Heiser Natural Sciences Complex opened to faculty and staff, who began moving in on Aug. 17.

Predictably, sciences faculty are thrilled to be in the new facility. “As a new faculty member here at the College, I am so thankful for this new wing,” said Elizabeth Leininger, assistant professor of neurobiology.

The wing houses Leininger’s office and research laboratory, where she will be working with students to study the neural bases of frog vocalization. She is already running a tutorial with students to set up equipment and conduct pilot projects.

“The new wing will significantly enhance my teaching here,” she said. “For example, I will be offering an advanced neurophysiology laboratory for the first time this spring. This laboratory course would not have been possible without the neurophysiology equipment that was purchased with equipment funding for the new wing.”

Science classes like Leininger’s have been in high demand.

Biology is perennially one of the most popular AOCs, and every year, one-quarter to one-third of New College students

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concentrate in the sciences.

More than half of all students take at least one science class each year.

The new wing has 22,000 square feet of space, an increase of more than 50 percent. It includes biology, chemistry and physics teaching labs, three biology research labs, 14 offices, a computer science reading room and a conference room and classroom that can be converted to lab space if needed.

The new wing was designed to meet LEED Silver sustainability certification, the highest level possible under its construction budget. The $9.7 million project was funded by the state of Florida.

ON CAMPUS CAMPUS NEWS

Joy Hamm Named as Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid oy Hamm has joined New College as dean of admissions and financial aid, beginning work on July 2.

Hamm came to the College from Armstrong State University in Savannah, Georgia, where she served as associate vice president of enrollment services. Previously, she oversaw admissions and financial aid as dean of student services for nearly four years at Chattahoochee Valley Community College in Alabama.

“We are excited to have Joy Hamm leading our admissions process,” said New College President Don O’Shea. “She has demonstrated energy and innovation at every stage of her career, and that experience will serve us well in recruiting and educating outstanding students.”

At Armstrong State, Hamm oversaw 40 employees, worked with the university’s research office to build a predictive model for student recruitment, and developed a system to better leverage scholarship funds. At Chattahoochee Valley, she worked with the marketing office to improve promotional

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materials, and revamped special events for prospective and new students.

“I am honored to have been offered the opportunity to join the New College team and am eager to return to a small, liberal arts campus at this point in my career,” Hamm said.

Hamm has a doctorate in education from Georgia Southern University, a master’s degree in counselor education from University of North Carolina at Charlotte, and a bachelor’s degree in political science and psychology from Lenoir-Rhyne University.

New College’s former dean of enrollment services and information technology, Kathleen Killion, retired on June 2 after 27 years of service.

CAMPUS NEWS

New College Selects Barbara Feldman as Provost r. Barbara J. Feldman, a sociology professor and experienced administrator, began work on July 1 as New College’s provost and vice president for academic affairs.

Feldman came to New College from Bridgewater State University in Massachusetts, where she was provost from August 2014 to August 2016.

She previously was dean of the Maxwell College of Arts and Sciences at New Jersey City University. She also has held teaching and administrative roles at Montclair State University and Seton Hall University.

“We are delighted to have Barbara Feldman join New College as our provost,” said New College President Don O’Shea. “She has a distinguished record of leadership and innovation, and impressed the search committee and those she met on campus with her appreciation of New College’s mission and her ideas for how the College can build on its legacy of excellence.”

During her tenure as Bridgewater’s provost, Feldman oversaw 330 full-time faculty and 450 part-time faculty,

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worked with community colleges to develop a dual enrollment system, and developed a program to support faculty research.

She also directed the hiring of 21 new faculty members.

At New College, she hopes to encourage faculty and student research, to expand study abroad programs, to enhance the College’s connections to the surrounding community, and to help the College retain its character as its enrollment grows.

“New College has a national reputation for the strength of its teaching and research and I’m looking forward to working with faculty and students to build on that reputation,” Feldman said.

Feldman also received an appointment to the New College faculty as professor of sociology. Her academic research has examined the community response to natural disasters. She teaches courses including the sociology of women, gender, family and work.

She received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in sociology from University of Delaware, and her doctorate in sociology from University of Pennsylvania.

New College’s former provost, Professor of Music Stephen Miles, stepped down in June after two three-years terms in the position. He plans to return to teaching, and to devote more time to composing, performing and writing. Miles will continue to direct New Music New College, which he founded in 1998.

www.ncf.edu

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IN THE COMMUNITY

From classrooms to campaigns: how this generation of New College students is getting involved in activism

BY GIUL IA HEYWA R D ‘ 14 AT HOME IN SARASOTA AND AS FAR AWAY AS OHIO AND STANDING ROCK, New College students are taking the

independent-minded and counterculture nature of their curriculum and are quite literally, bringing it to the streets.

While New College has always attracted a community of independent thinkers and socially conscious individuals, the recent establishment of campus groups like Students Targeting Oppressive Powers, Black Student Union and Latinx Club has given like-minded students the ability to organize and mobilize in the past year.

“I believe that students get involved because they see so many fellow passionate students that advocate for human rights across many issues,” said Ximena Pedroza, a third-year student and co-president of the New College Student Alliance.

“As a student body, we have many clubs and individuals that are passionate about social justice and it is these students that encourage other students to get involved.”

Commitment to social causes has been in New College’s DNA since its inception. In 1970, faculty voted for campus moratoriums to allow students to join in national protests against the Vietnam War. They suspended classes to protest the Kent State shootings. Students also pitched in to teach in Sarasota “protest schools” to support the Newtown community’s boycott of the Sarasota school system. And in 1972, first-year student Nan Freeman was killed during protests supporting migrant workers in the sugar industry.

That activism persists in the New College education and continues to motivate students. “Our curriculum definitely embodies a spirit of unpacking and deconstructing why social inequalities exist, and New College students embody that,”

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said thesis student Paul Loriston, former co-president of the NCSA. Loriston co-founded the Black Student Union last year and was one of the main organizers of the Black History Month Planning Committee for 2017. The theme centered around Black Action, and the ways in which students can get involved in their communities, from advocating for the historically black area of Sarasota, known as Newtown, to getting involved with Black Lives Matter chapters in the area by attending meetings or showing up to protests in the Manasota area.

That is exactly what Pedroza and third-year student Kayla Kisseadoo, along with alumnae Miriam Carlson ‘15, did once they were contacted by Black Lives Matter Tampa.

The trio raised money and collected donations—from blankets and clothes to food—which they delivered themselves, across the country, to aid protesters in Standing Rock, North Dakota, at the Dakota Access Pipeline.

“In the span of one week, we posted the fundraiser on every social media network, held bake sales, and went door-to-door, asking for any and all monetary or in-kind donations that we could take with us to Standing Rock,” Pedroza said Pedroza was also one of several students who participated in the Fight for Farmworker’s Rights in the Boycott Wendy’s campaign. The campaign claims the fast food chain has refused to sign the Fair Food Program, which would raise the wages of tomato pickers and ensure basic rights, such as protection from sexual violence or harassment.

New College students first began protesting for farmworkers’ rights at Publix grocery locations in Sarasota.

Then they piled into a bus—appropriately titled ColumBUS—

NEW TOPICS A DY N A M I C L E C T U R E S E R I E S F O C U S E D O N C O N T E M P O R A RY I S S U E S

on their way to Ohio State University’s Columbus campus, near the national headquarters of the Wendy’s chain, to join in a national protest.

While in Columbus, students from colleges and universities around the country marched with those of Ohio State University.

As part of the protest, students from Ohio State fasted for a week. Upon their return to Sarasota, five New College students began a fast in solidarity with them. More than 80 New College students, faculty and staff joined these five students for a day.

Student activists have also been able to bring activism from the nation to campus, like Saif Iqbal, who graduated in May, spent his thesis year helping to organize a Million Hoodies for Justice chapter, along with third-year Dajé Austrie, at New College. And other students spent their final year at New College organizing a local edition of the March for Science in Sarasota, all while working on their thesis projects.

“We had multiple platforms: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and a website, and then we posted a bunch of fliers around the city,” said Sarah Scully, one of the co-organizers, with Blaise DeFranco and Kayla Evans. “We also met with local organizations in the area to get the word out.”

The March for Science garnered over 1,200 attendants, and was covered by publications and news organizations such as the Sarasota News Network, SRQ Magazine and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. There was also a large turnout of residents from the Sarasota-Bradenton area.

“It’s important that we step up and that we pay attention to the things that are happening,” Kisseadoo said. “[It’s important that we] participate and that we put our bodies out there to stand in solidarity with everyone.”

Monday, November 6| 5:30 p.m.

The Sarasota World Affairs Council presents:

Alizé Carrère

Sustainability in a Changing World

Tuesday, November 14 | 5:30 p.m.

The New College Public Archaeology Lab Presents:

Brian M. Zepeda The Art of War

Tuesday, January 16| 5:30 p.m.

The Klingenstein Chair of Judaic Studies Presents:

Nicola Denzey Lewis

Rethinking the Jewish Catacombs

Thursday, February 15 | 5:30 p.m.

Robert Bilott ’83

Scientific, Legal, and Regulatory Challenges in Investigating and Addressing Health Threats From “Unregulated” Drinking Water Contaminants: The Case of Perfluorochemicals

Thursday, March 1| 5:30 p.m.

Dr. Donal O’Shea and Anne-Marie Russell Art, Math and Orange Peels: The Legacy of Dr. William Thurston on Math & Fashion

Tuesday, March 13 | 5:30 p.m.

The New College of Florida Division of Humanities presents:

Marilyn Francus

O Mother, What Art Thou? O Mother, Where Art Thou? Frankenstein at 200 All lectures are complimentary but seating is limited.

Reserve online: donate.ncf.edu

www.ncf.edu

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ON CAMPUS

What’s Happening ORIENTATION Orientation began on Aug. 19 with new students arriving from as far as Mali, Egypt and Switzerland.

Welcomes by President Don O’Shea and Provost Barbara Feldman were a great success.

In addition, students enjoyed a First-Year Welcome Festival, campus tours, dinner with Orientation Leaders, and campus scavenger hunts.

REUNION

Join us for Reunion 2018 Feb. 15-18! Alums from all class years are welcome. Ride on a mechanical shark, visit the “Top Ten Food Trucks,” or converse with classmates at a NovoTalk, a poolside barbecue or at mini classes. Join us for a memorable weekend full of fun and friends.

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HEISER OPENING

The College celebrated the opening of the new wing of the Heiser Natural Sciences Complex with a ribbon-cutting and reception on Oct. 12. Felice Schulaner, chair of the Board of Trustees, said trustees were proud of their role in bringing the project to life: “In the current environment, a building dedicated to facts and research and science and learning is even more relevant than when we began.”

WE HEARD YOU

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Congrats #NewCollegeofFL alum Kirstin Cutts for the big win on @Jeopardy last night!

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JOIN THE CLUB / COVER STORY

Join the Club Activities Help Students Find Each Other and Themselves

BY E R I CH B A RG A N I E R ‘10

LATE ONE NIGHT IN MAY IN THE BLACK BOX THEATER (BBT), New College’s resident comedy improv team, Comedy Friends, cycled through ideas in preparation for the final show of the year.

The group’s 10 members acted out audience-suggested scenarios and characters, ranging from a despondent father taking his children to off-brand theme parks, to aquarium visitors who had to handle live, electric eels.

In the center of this maelstrom were the club’s two facilitators, Alba Abrams and Austin Gray. Both second-year students had heard of the comedy group prior to their enrollment and were eager to join.

“New College really appealed to me because it was the only place where I could do computer science while pursuing theater,” Gray said. “When I came to New College, I knew they had an improv team and I wanted to be part of it.”

Abrams, who acted throughout high school in multiple

productions, was also searching for a campus with an outlet for her creative expression. “I knew about the improv group before I came here,” Alba said. “I knew what I was going for when I heard about Comedy Friends.”

Walk out of the BBT and across the plaza and you might find some of New College’s other distinctive clubs at work or play. In the Hamilton teaching auditorium, members of the New College Quiz Bowl team sometimes stake out opposite sides of the horseshoe seating, buzzing in to answer the moderator’s arcane questions on everything from opera to organic chemistry.

A few doors down, the Bull Sharks Dive Club might be planning out their next underwater excursion, for fun or to take part in a public service project. And over in the Gender and Diversity Center, the New College Toastmasters (a group normally composed of business professionals) often practice their craft of persuasive speaking.

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COVER STORY / JOIN THE CLUB

In just its second year, the New College Quiz Bowl team had strong showings at two national championships.

They represent just a sample of the unique ecosystem of clubs on campus where currently more than 60 are registered, despite the 850-person student body. And in their own ways, they exemplify student life at New College—ways for students to relax, to find people like themselves, regardless of interests, and to challenge themselves, on campus and even on the national stage.

Take Comedy Friends. Though it was born just two years ago, the troupe has made it to the big time. Each year, the group has competed in tournaments among southeastern colleges, and this year, broke through with a win that punched their ticket to Chicago for the College Improv Tournament’s 10th annual national championship. Competing against wellestablished teams with hired coaches, Comedy Friends in the south superregional took fourth place nationally, establishing them as one of the best college improv teams in America.

Their success has been in large part because the group has fostered a sense of community. “We try to make it a welcoming environment for everyone, where people can come in and relax, even if they have other things in their school lives stressing them,” Gray said.

This attitude has increased both the size of the audience at Comedy Friends’ shows and the group’s membership. “Now we’re a well-known name on campus, so we’re looking forward to seeing more new auditions on campus,” Abrams said.

“I love watching people grow—to see new people come in and blossom. Our humor is very special and to see that is very special.”

Comedy Friends isn’t the only club gaining national recognition. The New College Quiz Bowl Team qualified for two national tournaments last year.

The team, led by Yonathan Stone, engages in Jeopardy!-style rounds where teams buzz in to answer trivia questions from all disciplines.

And like Comedy Friends, the club connects students from the complete arc of AOCs and personalities, striving to include everyone. More than 30 students turn up for practices. “No one is ever turned away from Quiz Bowl,” said Amaranth Sander, a first-year Quiz Bowler. “If we’re going to a tournament at University of Florida, there is no reason why a student would be denied the opportunity because they aren’t good enough.”

“Quiz Bowl really builds a sense of community inside and outside of New College,” Stone agreed. “Some people come to

“The big schools never heard of us, and then we beat them, and they’re not going to forget us.”

- Alex Koutelias

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JOIN THE CLUB / COVER STORY

our practices just to hang out. The top players will have this The group encourages participation of any sort, even for strict idea that you need to hit this bar and you can be on the musicians who have never played jazz before. “In high school, A team. We are a lot more flexible than that.” we had a jazz band, but they wouldn’t allow clarinet,” said This strategy of inclusion paid off, as the club scored two Maggie Swerdloff, the New Cats’ clarinetist. “I was looking major victories last year. They brought home a trophy for forward to it when I got to New College. I really wanted to placing third in Division 2 at 2017 ACF Nationals Tournament play jazz, I had never played improv. The New Cats were at Columbia University, and for placing 11th in Division 2 at impressed that I even tried. I started my first year and I loved it!” the NAQT Nationals Tournament in Chicago, posting wins The band holds informal sessions where they practice jazz against Cornell, Michigan, Penn State and Vanderbilt, among standards, while becoming better friends in the process. “It is others. “The big schools never heard of us, and then we beat fun to do improv and take away the seriousness,” Swerdloff them, and they’re not going to forget us!” said Alex Koutelias, said. “The lack of pressure made me more able to express a co-founder of the club. myself. As opposed to playing exactly what is written on Despite making a name for themselves among other the page.” universities, members keep returning to have fun. “When you But New College clubs aren’t just about performing in know something and you get rewarded by knowing the front of a crowd. The Bull Sharks Dive Club, another answer, there isn’t any college student in the world that decades-old club, has been uniting New College students doesn’t like that feeling,” said Leo Law, a club officer. and the greater Sarasota community through the love of Amaranth agreed: “It makes learning anything much more exploring the ocean. enjoyable.”

The club, which originally focused on all aquatic sports, While Comedy Friends and Quiz Bowl are justifiably proud now exists solely to bring students together to learn how to of their success, another student club has been impressing dive and become scuba-certified, under the leadership of Yara audiences for more than two decades.

Rincon and Constance Sartor.

The New Cats, the College’s jazz combo, is made up of a In her childhood, Rincon dreamed of being the next Jacques rotating cast of musicians each year and have become a staple Cousteau—marine scientist, inventor, explorer, filmmaker—so at events on campus and in the community.

Again, inclusiveness is a key. With an ever What else could you call a club for instrument-free -changing lineup from a singing that’s based sort of near the Florida Keys? variety of musical and Acapellago is the campus a capella music group, cultural heritages, the performing selections from a huge range of artists band’s sound is unique (including The Fugees, k.d. lang, and Judy Garland, to every year and gives all name some past favorites!) for student and events at members a chance New College and around Sarasota. With auditions at to broaden their the beginning of each semester and approximately 15 perspectives and sharpen people in the group at any given time, Acapellago has their talents. the right mix of challenge, competition, and passion.

“It gives the musical And for singers that prefer more classical pieces and students at New College formal settings, there’s also the New College Chorus. a chance to still be involved in music - Angela Duda ‘15 without necessarily taking a class,” said Colin Mulligan, the group’s bassist. “You can just go and play with people who will push you to be better and practice with you all the time.”

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Something for Everyone Acapellago • Aced It! • Aikido Club • All Power to the Imagination • American Medical Student Association Club • Anarchy Deathsticks • Animal Interest Club • Asian/Pacific Islander Student Alliance • Bible Club • Biophysical Osteology ‘N Evolution Recreation Society • Black Student Union • Bullsharks Dive Club • Carnivorous Plant Society • Catholic Solidarity • Chalk and Awe • Chaverim • Circle K International • College Democrats • Council of Green Affairs • Dance Collective • Democracy Matters • Flag Football • Gen UN • Generaction Action • General Strength and Conditioning Club • German Club • Hillel • Improv Club: The Comedy Friends! • InterACT • LatinX • Million Hoodies West Florida • New Cats • New Radio New College • New Sign • New Travels • Pre-Med Club • Psychology Club • Queery • Quizbowl • Resources Aren’t Waste • Rich Discourse Club • Sailing Team • Seeds of Hope/Semillas de Esperanza • Soccer Club • STEM Journal Club • STEMfemme • STOP {Students Targeting Oppressive Powers} • Students for Liberty • Students for Sensible Drug Policy • Super Smash Brothers Club • Swim Club • Swing Dance • T Party • Table Tennis Club • Tennis Club • Toastmasters Club • Windmill Theatre Company

The Club Fair connects students with people who share their interest in any of dozens of areas.

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JOIN THE CLUB / COVER STORY

Anarchy Deathsticks may sound like a metal band, but members of the club don’t bang on drums with their sticks—they knit. With a membership of 80 students, it’s actually one of the biggest clubs on campus. Club meetings, one on a weeknight, and one on a weekend, consistently draw a dozen or two members, challenging stereotypes of college students with baskets of yarn by their side. Students at all stages of the knitting experience, from hopeless beginners to long-lived experts, are encouraged to join.

And no needles or yarn are required—an entire basket of materials is in stock for members to share.

- Angela Duda ‘15

joining the Bull Sharks was natural. Though she’s now shifted from marine science to biochemistry, Rincon loves the experience of scuba diving. “The experience is really cool—it feels like you’re flying,” she said. “It’s unlike anything you’ve ever experienced.”

Sartor has been snorkeling since age 3, and joined the Bull Sharks as an easy way to become scuba-certified. The biology and chemistry AOC has had a long interest in marine life—in a summer program, she documented the spread of a coral disease at St. Croix in the Caribbean and last year she won a national Hollings Scholarship that provides internships at NOAA research facilities. She is also a national Goldwater Fellow for promising science students.

She said the club’s dozen members are building friendships, both through purely recreational events, like a camping and diving trip in the Florida Keys, and community service projects.

Last November, the Bull Sharks joined other local dive clubs in cleaning the bay floor around the Tony Saprito Fishing Pier, at the Ringling Causeway, pulling up fishing lines and nets, tires, street signs, cell phones and even a laptop computer.

They’ve also coordinated with a Venice, Florida dive club.

“The fact that we were younger than them, they loved us,” Rincon said. “They did everything to make sure our interest in diving kept going.”

Sartor wants to build more community collaborations, in particular with Mote Marine Laboratory, where she volunteers. “It would be cool to help with all their research projects,” she said.

As the club continues to grow, its goals are simple: “Working with the community and recruiting more

members,” Rincon said. “And building stronger bonds.”

They’re not the only club connecting with the Sarasota community. As a first-year, Jennifer Lin saw the need for a club on campus to help with class presentations and public speaking, so she chartered a chapter of Toastmasters at New College. Toastmasters is an international association designed to teach leadership, communication and organizational skills.

“There is no club on campus that really gave that support to students who are afraid of standing up and presenting a paper,” she said. “Toastmasters does that.”

The club quickly received recognition from the district leadership, and hosted the district’s local contest, where members stand in front of an audience and deliver a speech of their choosing, or on a topic that they have only moments to prepare for.

At the end of the day, New College members won almost every award at the event. “Now the Sarasota community knows we’re here!” Lin said.

As the group starts its second year this fall, Lin hopes to host more contests, help members build their communications talents and grow the membership beyond its already solid core group of 20. That makes Toastmasters one of the larger clubs on campus, but the New College chapter of the organization is unique in another way: “Many of us are first-years, so arguably, we could be the youngest Toastmasters club in the world!” Lin said.

Opportunities to speak, to perform and to create exist beyond clubs with a specific purpose or medium. New College has a long history of unofficial creative communities popping up that support experimental poetry, DIY music, handmade art and more.

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COVER STORY / HEAD

“I love watching people grow – to see new people come in and blossom.

Our humor is very special and to see that is very special.”

-Alba Abrams

The improv group Comedy Friends can find humor anywhere, even a campus activities fair.

The Creative Collective has taken the next step and organized a club to realize these goals and promote the arts on- and off-campus, while connecting all communities into a whole.

Founded by students Miles Rodriguez and Thomas Ghebrezgi, the group came together to promote the arts on campus and attract New College students to the arts.

“Essentially, the Creative Collective is this space where artists can bring their work, showcase their work on a weekly basis and receive useful feedback from other artists across all disciplines,” Ghebrezgi said.

While the creation of new art projects remains the core value of the group, Miles and Thomas both strive to build connections among students to accomplish this goal. “I figured if we had a network at the school, we could get people to meet each other,” Rodriguez said. “People can be introverted and not want to meet. Basically [the goal was to] bring as many creative people to the same space and create some great projects.”

One of their biggest successes this year has come through the creation of “Empty Set,” a physical magazine that combines student submissions of art, sheet music, literature and more every semester. The 30-plus student membership

14 New College of Florida | nimbus

has organized art shows, concerts and more.

As a collective, another primary goal is to promote the arts on campus. After the first issue of “Empty Set” was published, the group had an idea. “Essentially, we had made our first copy of the magazine,” Ghebrezgi said. “Someone in our group suggested we do a tutorial. We were very concerned with expanding the curriculum.”

Thomas approached Miriam Wallace, professor of English, and designed a tutorial based around the creation of ‘zines with the rest of the club. The tutorial was a success, and even more classes are planned for the coming academic year.

As it grows, Creative Collective intends to balance the arts with all other disciplines to make New College a community that not only strives to promote Natural Sciences or Social Sciences, but also becomes an art hub of Sarasota.

“What we’re trying to do is more important than ever,” Ghebrezgi said. “We need to carve out a space for dancers, facilities for musicians, for creative writing programs.”

“At the same time, I think a lot of connections were built in that group,” Rodriguez added. “There are always new people coming in and out. It’s like a family. The fact that Creative Collective was a catalyst, that is one of my favorite things.

Who knows what is going to happen next?”

Elevating New College The ‘most important moment’ since founding

BY DAVI D GU LLI VE R

WHEN NEW COLLEGE OF FLORIDA announced its transformative plan for growth in June, newspaper and television reporters flocked to campus to learn about the possibilities for the region’s landmark college.

One reporter asked Provost Stephen Miles to sum up the significance of the state’s endorsement and financial support of the growth plan. Miles’ response was immediate and definitive.

“It is the most important moment in the history of the College since its founding,” he said.

A strong claim, to be sure, but accurate, and the culmination of years of planning. At his inauguration in 2013, President Don O’Shea set a goal of growing New College—enough to create more opportunities for students and ensure the institution’s stability, while still maintaining its DNA. Over six years, the plan calls for New College of Florida to expand both its student population and its faculty by 50 percent, to about 1,200 students and 120 tenure-track professors. That maintains the College’s 10:1 student-faculty ratio.

“This growth plan will elevate New College from a top small, public college, to a place among the very best of all American colleges and universities,” O’Shea said.

The growth would put New College’s size in the same class as Haverford and Swarthmore, highly regarded liberal arts colleges but still the smallest such institutions. At that size, O’Shea said, colleges’ graduation rates and retention rates improve significantly, a major goal for New College.

Felice Schulaner, chair of the New College Board of Trustees, called it “a truly exciting next chapter” for her alma mater. The growth plan will allow the College to “provide our students with a deeper and broader array of academic offerings.”

“Enhancing the New College experience will benefit our extraordinarily talented current students as well as provide a platform to attract the best and brightest minds going forward,” she said.

The first phase of the plan is well underway. The faculty finished a report on where it sees the greatest need for new

positions, and this fall, New College is conducting searches for 15 of the new faculty members. The administrative team expects to have all 40 new professors hired within three years.

With the new faculty on board, the College will begin expanding its enrollment, with a target of 900 students in 2018-19 and 1,200 by 2022-23.

Staffing would grow by about 20 percent, to accommodate the admissions and student support positions needed for the larger enrollment.

With so many new teachers and students on campus, New College will need to grow physically as well, so the plan also has a facilities component. “The College hopes to add a vibrant, interactive space on the Bayfront side of campus, allowing students to collaborate and connect with faculty and staff,” said John Martin, vice president for finance and administration. “This space would act as a hub for clubs, organizations, and student activity—academic and social.”

It would consist of about 100,000 square feet of new construction, comprising classrooms, labs, auditoriums, faculty offices, and space for health and wellness, student life and advising programs, and administrative support. New College is again requesting $4 million in planning funds from the state this fall. The overall cost is estimated at $46 million.

Martin said new residence halls will be constructed using public-private partnership funding, and may be in collaboration with Ringling College of Art & Design, USF Sarasota Manatee, and other members in the regional Cross College Alliance.

The resulting synergies with those consortium partners will create enormous opportunities for students, which in turn will make New College even more attractive to prospective and current students.

“Our growth plan will allow New College to do more of what it already does so well—offering students the chance to partner with brilliant faculty members to learn, conduct high-level research and become prepared for the challenges of the 21st century,” President O’Shea said.

www.ncf.edu

15

ALUMNAE/I FOCUS

2018 Alumnae/i Reunion Attention! Greetings! Hey! Put this on your calendar: Feb 15-18, 2018. Major New College reunion for ALL alums – no more targeted years.

It’s coming, it’s on campus, and you need to get on board.

Otherwise you’ll miss your chance to ride a mechanical shark, have active confrontations with hundreds of first-class minds, fill your bellies with Top Ten Food Truck Cuisine, swing to the sounds of Paul Cebar, Heather Normandale, Silus Durocher’s Get Right Band, and others. There’ll be Novo Talks, a pool-side barbecue, career networking, mini classes, kid activities, waterfront sports, a chance to interact with current students, and well...this is just the tip of the iceberg.

Bring your unique, bright, quirky selves and share this memorable reunion weekend with friends.

Register now! It’s Florida so there’s even an Early Bird Special!

We can’t wait to see you!

Ginger Lyon and Leslie Reinherz Your Reunion Committee co-chairs

ncf.edu/reunion

Thursday Noon – 5:00 p.m.

Registration/Welcome/Hospitality Station The Keating Center 5:30 p.m. – 7:00 p.m.

New Topics – Robert Bilott ’83 Scientific, Legal, and Regulatory Challenges in Investigating and Addressing Health Threats from “Unregulated” Drinking Water Contaminants: The Case of Perfluorochemicals, as featured in The New York Times article “The Lawyer who Became Dupont’s Worst Nightmare”

7:00 p.m.

New Topics reception

Friday 8:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.

Registration/Welcome/Hospitality Station The Keating Center 8:00 a.m. – 10:00 a.m.

Yoga and Yogurt Sunrise – DIY Breakfast on the Bay Waterfront sports at Caples 10:00 a.m. – noon

Affinity Group Activities TBD

12:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.

NovoCon – Welcome Expo

Music: Heather Normandale ’00 followed by open mic Alumnae/i showcase on promenade Noon – 2:00 p.m.

Food truck lunch

1:30 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.

Alum “NOVO” Talks: Dan Chambliss ’71 – How College Works Jennifer Granick ’86 – American Spies Jennifer Posey ’95 – American Circus Aaron Hillegass ’89 – How Mobile Apps are Made Rhoda Kennedy ’87 – Architecture

6:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.

New College New Table – Community Dinner on the Promenade Music: The Get Right Band – Silas Durocher ‘03

9:00 p.m. – 11:00 p.m.

Alumnae/i Storytelling Nostalgia Coffeehouse

16 New College of Florida | nimbus

Register online or by phone: ncf.edu/reunion - (941) 487-4684 Hotel blocks now available! Visit ncf.edu/reunion for FAQs and more information.

Saturday 7:30 a.m. – 9:30 a.m.

Morsels and Meditation DIY Breakfast on the Bay

8:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m.

Registration/Welcome/Hospitality Station The Keating Center 9:00 a.m. – 11:00 a.m.

Campus tours

9:00 a.m. – 11:00 a.m.

Mini Classes with Faculty

Emily Saarinen ’97 – Bio and Environmental Studies

Nova Myhill and April Flakne – Mellon/Humanities Mike Michalson – Philosophy

Justus Doenecke, Emeritus – History Steve Miles – Music

Coffee and light bites provided

10:00 a.m. – 11:30 a.m.

Beyond the Bubble – Alumnae/i Career Panel Coffee and light bites provided

11:30 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.

Kickball/softball game Baseball diamond Noon – 1:00 p.m.

The Novo Network – professional mixer Optional Lunch 12:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m.

Marco, Novo – Poolside BBQ and Music/Bike Shoppe Open House Music: Heather Normandale ’00 3:00 p.m. – 4:30 p.m.

Towne Meeting with President O’Shea

4:30 p.m. – 6:00 p.m.

Sustainability Forum and Breakout Groups: Campus Growth and More 6:00 p.m. – 10:00 p.m.

Nov-a-palooza – Bayfront Carnival Music: Paul Cebar ’75 Informal Food Truck Dinner

Performances and displays in College Hall

Sunday 8:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.

Hospitality Station The Keating Center 8:00 a.m. – 10:00 a.m.

NCAA Board of Directors Meeting

8:00 a.m. – 10:00 a.m.

DIY Breakfast/Yoga/Dance by the Bay

9:00 a.m. – 11:30 a.m.

10:00 a.m. – 11:00 a.m.

Alum Focus and Affinity Groups/Book Club Memorial and Remembrance Ceremony Sgt. Ken Vickers, Douglas Berggren, David Pini

11:30 a.m. – 1:30 p.m.

Closing and lunch

Time TBA

Group photo

1:00 p.m. – 2:30 p.m.

Walk Down Memory Lane

* Date of COUP to be determined.

Schedule/speakers subject to change.

www.ncf.edu

17

OP ED

Greater Involvement, Giant Rewards

BY RO BIN M. WILLIAM SO N, PH.D., D E AN O F STUDE N T A F FA I R S

EVERY YEAR, THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF COLLEGES AND EMPLOYERS (NACE)

asks employers of recent college graduates what qualities they desire in these new hires. For 2017, the top answer was the ability to work in a team.

More than 75% of employers stated that this was the most-wanted skill.

Employers also said that leadership skills and participation in extracurricular activities are significant influences on their decisions when choosing between two equally qualified candidates. When so much of academia focuses on individual pursuits and achievements, how can students find these opportunities to build these skills and capacities?

I did an informal poll of my Facebook friends to inquire about a moment or person from their collegiate experience that made a lasting impact. Without fail, comments mentioned specific individuals as well as organizations in which they were involved. The individuals were a good mix of faculty, staff and peers. All people mentioned took an interest in and actively connected with the respondents. These personal connections reinforced a sense of community, while helping the student gain a deeper understanding of

self as well as those around them. Many also responded that they fully realized their passions because of these interactions and involvements. Being engaged in these types of experiences and relationships allows students to further explore theories and concepts from classroom learning, all while expanding their ability to work with others, while developing leadership and communication skills.

At New College, we have more than 60 student organizations, in addition to the numerous educational and social programs offered on campus. Getting involved and becoming fully engaged is an easy, fun, and rewarding way to develop abilities and talents. Besides student organizations, the division of Student Affairs offers a variety of ways in which students can further cultivate and grow their talents and strengths. By intentionally directing our efforts on holistic development, we encourage and promote the opportunity to foster intellectual, vocational, social, emotional, physical, and spiritual awareness. Among our staff, we have over 225 years of professional experience. We are not only well-versed in student development, we have a passion and a desire to help students

figure out who it is they are meant to be and to be the best version of that self.

In 1676, Isaac Newton said, “If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.� We know our students achieve their full potential when they have the places and spaces to enact classroom learning and personal interests in a communal environment with others who challenge and support one another. Our promise to Novo Collegians will be fully realized when they find meaningful, intentional and uplifting ways to connect and form attachments with faculty, staff, peers and organizations. We strive to empower our students to see further than ever believed possible.

THE NEW COLLEGE ADMISSIONS TEAM WANTS YOUR HELP! Nearly 100% of all admitted students are offered scholarships. Refer a student or help spread the word about New College.

941-487-5000 or admissions@ncf.edu 18 New College of Florida | nimbus

AL BEULIG / PROFILE

An open mind and an open heart Al Beulig retires—sort of—after four decades at New College

BY ABIGA IL OA KES ’ 1 1

SETTING THE RECORD STRAIGHT: There is no

truth to the rumor that the Natural Sciences division had a special chalk budget just for Dr. Al Beulig.

It is true, however, that one could assess Beulig’s passion for a particular topic by glancing about the classroom and noting the amount of chalk shrapnel on the floor. His students marveled at Beulig’s ability to spell out the concepts of evolution or taxonomy – in a full lecture or even in a 5-minute mini class—by wildly scribbling notes on the chalkboard, burning through pieces of chalk and often flinging pieces blindly over his shoulder if they fractured—or if he suspected his audience needed a jolt.

Students and chalk are safer now, though, as Beulig’s 42-year New College teaching career ended, sort of, in May. That career began in true Novo form, well before he even knew what that meant, via happenstance and a touch of spontaneity.

He was in the doctoral program at the City College of the City University of New York when a mentor recommended he study sharks at Mote Marine Laboratory. Having focused on freshwater biology, he knew nothing about sharks, but he took the leap anyway.

Beulig defended his Ph.D. dissertation on sharks at Mote in 1975, and it was the perfect time to be an expert on the creatures—the movie “Jaws” had just been released. The studies at Mote led him across Sarasota Bay to New College and a faculty position asr a vertebrate biologist.

During his years at New College, Beulig sponsored 178 student theses, directed countless tutorials and Independent Study Projects (ISPs), and traveled internationally with students to pursue biological research.

That began with a trip to American Samoa with three students and continued with trips to Belize, Honduras, and

most recently, Costa Rica and Panama. In the beginning, he said, funding was so scarce that he quite literally “mortgaged his farm” to pay for his students’ travel and research.

In the early years, he said, many of the academic opportunities he and his students pursued stemmed from personal connections made in bars over a drink. “I love making connections like that,” he says, “If you keep your mind open and your heart open, good things will happen.”

As New College grew and Beulig continued to build his personal network, opportunities for research became even more readily available. In 1997, Beulig co-founded The Institute for Tropical Ecology and Conservation (ITEC) in Bocas Del Toro, Panama. Now celebrating its 21st year, Beulig remains on the faculty at ITEC, focusing on coral reef ecology and animal behavior.

In addition to opportunities for research and travel, the course offerings Beulig brought to New College’s campus were diverse, to say the least. Topics ranged from marine animal behavior, to the theory of locomotion and fluid dynamics as it pertains to sailing. “That is why I really love New College,” Beulig says, “There is nowhere else I could pursue such unconventional and valuable learning experiences with students.”

And that ultimately proved to align with his ideals.

“I always wanted a career where everything I “I always wanted did was worth my time. I a career where was never interested in everything I did was selling my soul on an worth my time. installment plan. It’s about I was never interested fulfillment, and I value that New College has given me in selling my soul that.” on an installment plan.

Now Beulig is on to his It’s about fulfillment, next set of adventures. and I value that Building seaplanes and New College has learning to fly, continuing the never-ending cycle of given me that.” work on his many sailboats, and venturing back to ITEC. Don’t be too quick to say goodbye, though. Beulig cannot quite call it quits, and plans on returning to New College to teach his popular Coral Reef Ecology course the earliest that he is allowed—Mod 2 of spring 2018.

www.ncf.edu

19

PROFILE / KATHLEEN MCQUEENEY ’08

Efficiency and Equity Kathleen McQueeney ’08 navigates her course in economics

BY BETH LUBE REC K I

AS A FIRST-YEAR AT NEW COLLEGE OF FLORIDA, Kathleen

McQueeney took an economics course at a fortuitous moment. It was 2008, and about a month into the course, the country was rocked by the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.

“Every class we’d talk about what was going on and why this was happening,” she says. “Because it was a complicated situation.

It was a really 0pportunistic time to be taking an economics course, and that’s really what drove my interest after that.”

Four years later, McQueeney graduated with a B.A. in economics. And in May, she got married and received her doctorate in economics from Brandeis University. She says she never would have achieved the latter if it wasn’t for New College.

“I had really close faculty relationships there, and I really felt like people valued my intellectual progression and my success,” she says. “It’s not totally usual for people to go straight into a Ph.D. program after undergrad, but New College is a place where that’s possible. I had good faculty recommendations because they actually knew who I was.

That definitely helped me.”

New College gave her a strong academic foundation that prepared her for the rigorous course work of a Ph.D. program.

When she started thinking about graduate school while still at New College, faculty members recommended she take math classes to augment her economics work. “And they were right about that,” she laughs.

She also points to her New College senior thesis as something that helped her jump right into pursuing the Ph.D. “I think being able to do that was just huge in

20 New College of Florida | nimbus

preparing me for graduate school,” she says.

Connections made at New College proved incredibly valuable in advancing McQueeney’s studies and career.

She was one of several students the college introduced to David Kotok, who runs the Sarasota money-management firm Cumberland Investments. He sponsored an opportunity for her to attend a Global Interdependence Center conference in Sweden, where she met a Brandeis faculty member who encouraged her to apply to its Ph.D. program.

“That made a huge difference,” she says. “I don’t know if I would have known that Brandeis has a Ph.D. program. It’s a small program, so it’s not totally dissimilar from New College in that sense.”

In August, McQueeney started a job as a senior economist on the Applied Research Methods team in the U.S. Government Accountability Office. While she also interviewed for academic and industry positions, she’s not surprised she ended up in the policy realm, an area that’s always interested her. And she’s prepared for a role in what’s still a male-dominated field, thanks to the strong female mentors she had at Brandeis.

“I had really close faculty relationships there, and I really felt like people valued my intellectual progression and my success.”

While McQueeney is just starting out in her career, she’s already made it a habit to support New College financially, albeit at a smaller level that she hopes will grow down the road.

“I feel like New College gave me my future in a way I really never expected,” she says. “I’m 27 and I have my Ph.D. now and I can go out and do whatever I want to do. I want other students to have the same opportunities I’ve had. I have a very soft spot in my heart for New College, especially now that I’m older and have seen all different types of schools that people have gone to. It’s pretty unique.”

DR. MARGEE ENSIGN / PROFILE

Solving Problems Dr. Margee Ensign ’73 links colleges and communities

BY JA MES E SPO SITO ‘ 14

MARGEE ENSIGN’S ADVOCACY FOR WOMEN’S EDUCATION AND EMPOWERMENT dates to her first year in college at the newly

co-ed Fairfield University, where she earned positions on both the college newspaper and the men’s tennis team. “Of course that didn’t make the guys very happy,” she gleefully recalls.

And that advocacy was tested during her time as president of American University of Nigeria, where she contended with the Boko Haram insurgency, known for the mass kidnapping of young women from another college.

Now, as the new president of Dickinson College, in Pennsylvania, she will continue her advocacy for education and strong communities. Dr. Ensign says her perspective was shaped most by “the influence of New College, which is so profound in my life.”

Ensign transferred to New College after a year at Fairfield and quickly began developing those formative relationships.

She graduated in 1976.

“I arrived at a time when this amazing woman, Dr. Peggy Bates, was there,” Ensign remembers. “I thought I was a pretty good writer when I got there, and I remember my first paper that Bates gave back to me ... she said to me, in a kind but challenging way, ‘You don’t write very well, which makes me think you’re not thinking clearly.’” But instead of succumbing to devastation and dropping the course, she said “No! I think if I stay with her I’ll learn how to write.”

Her mental tenacity and drive to overcome challenges suited Ensign to the school’s academic rigor, and these traits would follow her throughout her career.

“There are so many threads from New College,” she said.

“One is the ability to learn how to think clearly—and that’s hard—and to write well, and to realize the world’s problems do not fit into departments. So if you’re departmentally focused, whether it’s science without policy, or understanding the biology of food problems without looking at democracy, you miss the bigger picture.”

As president of AUN, where Ensign and her community stood up to a deadly terrorist group, the big picture was infinitely more valuable than departmentalized knowledge.

Yola, the capital city of Nigeria’s Adamawa State and the home of AUN, faced devastating problems that needed to be approached with great care. “The challenges of leadership were greater than I thought I could handle,” she says. “We had Boko Haram 50 miles from campus, [and] we had 400,000 refugees

in the community.”

– more than doubling the city’s population.

It was only through connecting the Yola community leaders that they were able to develop a plan to move towards peace, safety, and empowerment for the people displaced by the insurgency.

Called the Adamawa Peace Initiative, AUN brought together “all the Muslim leaders, the Christian leaders, the women’s groups, ... and that’s what kept the area safe and people fed,” she says.

Ensign expects to bring the influence of her time at AUN to her presidency at Dickinson. “I’m going to take some of the lessons from Nigeria, the wonderful way my students were able to approach and solve huge problems ... It made me realize we can’t underestimate what students can do.”

Dickinson’s connectedness to the surrounding community was attractive to Ensign, as someone who understands the potential for positive change that exists in engaged citizenship. “They’ve been a leader in global education and sustainability for a long time—things that are near and dear to my heart. ... One of the reasons I chose to come home now is I think we are in the middle of a gigantic wake-up call in America.”

“When we look at institutions that are important in protecting and supporting the American ideal, we don’t often think of colleges and universities, right?” Ensign presses. “So I’m hoping, in my tiny little way, we can begin to forge more of a movement with other colleges and universities to say, ‘Let’s focus on solving community problems.’ If every college and university focused on their community challenges, we’d begin to see a lot of social and economic progress.”

www.ncf.edu

21

PROFILE / KIRSTIN CUTTS

Answer: A Long, Strange Trip Question: What was Kirstin Cutts’ ’06 Journey to Jeopardy! Stardom?

BY DAV E GULLIV ER

IT WAS DAY 3 OF KIRSTIN CUTTS’ RUN ON THE GAME SHOW JEOPARDY!, and it looked it might be her last. She trailed the

leading contestant, $10,600 to $14,000 with just one question left – Final Jeopardy.

Then Alex Trebek read the category—“Literary Figures”— and the clue. “When we first meet her in the novel, she’s wearing a green dress with 12 yards of fabric, and matching green slippers from Atlanta.”

Cutts graduated in 2013 with an AOC in English and French.

So a literature question about a classic Southern novel—she’s from Gainesville, to boot—would be a breeze, right?

“Actually, I have never read ‘Gone With The Wind.’ I haven’t seen it – but I’ve seen the Carol Burnett sketch,” she says, breaking out in a peal of laughter, something she does a lot.

“But, yeah, Atlanta, green dress, it’s gotta be Scarlett. It just has to be!”

It was, and she leapfrogged the leader, who missed the question. (His answer: The Good Witch.) Final score, $15,600 to $6,799, and on to another game.

For five days in February, Cutts was the darling of the nation’s trivia nerds. Her four victories and a final secondplace finish netted her $51,403 in winnings. And while she and her New College classmates would often hit the trivia contests

at local bars, her Jeopardy! run was more accident than destiny.

She signed up for the online test for potential contestants, and one night in January 2016 spotted the email with the link to the test. She’d forgotten all about it, but had nothing to do that night, so she sat up in bed with a glass of wine and took the test.

Then she went on with her life—finished her first year of graduate school at University of Texas, Austin in art education, and by July had moved on to an internship in San Antonio. Then she got the next email, inviting her to an in-person audition.

Two problems: the closest site was in Oklahoma City, and the audition was right when she was supposed to be moving into new digs in Austin. She told her mother, there’s no way I can do this, but mom persuaded her to try.

So it was off to Oklahoma City, where some 60 people showed up for the tryout. They took two written tests, got a run-through on gameplay, and played a short practice game.

They also did a brief interview—“tell us all the interesting things about you” and “what would you do with all the money?”—as a way to judge the contestants’ appeal on camera, Cutts said.

Kirsten Cutts ’06 on the Jeopardy! set with legendary host Alex Trebek

22 New College of Florida | nimbus

KIRSTIN CUTTS / PROFILE

(Her current answer to that question: “I can buy a car that’s only five years old instead of 10 years old, and maybe the next place I live will have a washer and dryer in the apartment!” she says, laughing again. “I feel like I’m setting my goals pretty realistically here!”)

Then: Thank you very much. If we like you, we’ll call you in the next 18 months.

The call came two months later, and in November, she headed to Los Angeles. The rest is Jeopardy! history.

Between the call and the tapings, Cutts got serious. She watched past episodes, studied and had friends with varying interests quiz her. She also studied wagering strategy, which helped in two come-from-behind wins.

But the reasons for her success started much earlier, with parents and teachers who encouraged her to pursue interests beyond the standards, and she credits New College for amplifying the love and skill of independent learning.

“If you’re the kind of person who’s drawn to New College, I think you’re already the kind of person who would do well on Jeopardy!” she said.

“If something interests you, you go and learn more about it, and if you’re going to do that independently, which is the whole thing New College emphasizes…” She pauses. “If something intrigues you, you go out and learn more about it on your own. And because you’re taking the initiative, it’s going to stick in your brain—for eight years, and you can pull on it when you’re on international television!”

That media attention was a prize in itself, helping Cutts reconnect with her far-flung Novo family—perfect timing, as she’s just wrapped up her degree and is deciding where to go next.

“A friend of mine from New College—she was in my class, I haven’t talked to her in years – she’s in California now, and she messaged me, ‘I walked into a bar and there you were!’ She had no idea!”

“That was a really fun thing about it,” she said. “It gave me a reason to talk to all these people I hadn’t talked to in a long time, and it was a fun thing to share. I have good friends of mine from all over the country that I haven’t been able to see for a few years, and they’re saying, ‘We’re watching you and we’re rooting for you!’ and sending me updates.

“That was a really, really fun part of it. Knowing I had tiny fan clubs around the country was awesome. And now the ice has been broken, and I can talk to all these people again.”

Kirstin’s Final Jeopardy Questions Game #1

“In her memoirs, Queen Liliuokalani tells us that before Hawaii had its own national anthem, it used this one.”

“God Save the Queen” (answered correctly)

Game #2

“Since ‘The Godfather Part II,’ this film has been the only sequel to win Best Picture.”

“The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King” (answered incorrectly)

Game #3

“When we first meet her in the novel, she’s wearing a green dress with 12 yards of fabric, and matching green slippers from Atlanta.”

“Scarlett” (answered correctly)

Game #4

“In 1942, a Maryland area was named for the Tibetan paradise in ‘Lost Horizon,’ but in 1953 was renamed this, for a young boy.”

Camp David (answered incorrectly)

Game #5

“Famous Catholics who’ve publicly answered this question include Susan Boyle (sweets) & Paul Ryan (beer).”

What are you giving up for Lent? (answered correctly)

www.ncf.edu

23

PROGRAMMING/ACHIEVEMENT

02

01 04

03

05 Scholarship Reception The New College Foundation held its annual scholarship luncheon on April 20 at The Keating Center. Around 60 supporters of the College, including many Bradenton and Sarasota civic leaders, gathered with approximately 20 students to celebrate, raising more than $750,000 to support academically gifted students, and $60,000 to support student research projects at New College. Three students spoke and thanked our generous donors for their support at the luncheon: Mackenna Jensen, a second-year student described her study of the biology of sharks and rays, learning anatomy, and tagging sharks from the College’s research boat; Sabrina Finn, a third-year student studying language and cognitive neuropsychology, described her research which included documenting isolated languages in the Amazon rainforest; and Yara Rincon, a thirdyear student, told supporters about her academic journey. Among the attendees were Trustee Chair Felice Schulaner ’78, Francine Blum, Bill and Betsy Johnston, Bonnie Haber, Alexandra Jupin and John Bean, Audrey and Bill Coleman, Mike and Marie Pender, George and Tina Skestos, Altom ’90 and Jennifer ’89 Maglio, Roseanne Martarello, Alison Gardner, Jan Sirota and Charles Hamilton ’64.

04

Commencement The New College Alumnae/i Association welcomed 171 graduates during the 2017 commencement. On May 23, the NCAA and the Foundation hosted a celebration for the graduating class at The Keating Center where the incoming alumnae/i learned about the NCAA and socialized before their cruise around the Bay. Graduates Susan Gomes ’13 and Bobby Barber ’13 spoke at the event, sharing with their classmates the importance of being active as an alumnus and maintaining their connections to New College through the alumnae/i association.

Special thanks to Metz catering for underwriting the wonderful food and drinks for the evening.

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On May 26, immediately after graduation rehearsal, the NCAA held a special salute to graduates in College Hall. NCAA Board Chair Cindy Hill ’89 addressed the graduating class and welcomed them to the NCAA. Fiscal Year Giving Results New College alumnae/i showed their dedication to their alma mater with more than 1,000 alumni gifts and a giving percentage of 14.5% for the 2017 fiscal year.

The graduating class also made their first gifts, matching the giving percent of the entire alumnae/i body.

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Book Awards The New College book award program, administered by the NCAA, recognizes outstanding high school juniors by presenting them a book from New College.

The book award, presented by an alumnus or alumnae, introduces high-achieving high school students to New College. The book award program continues to grow and has almost doubled in size from last year, with 10 total awards. The high schools that participated this year include: Tampa Prep, Troy High School, Mater Academy, Bayshore High, Cardinal Mooney, Immaculate Heart Academy, Pine View, Hanover High, South Carolina Governor’s School for Science and Mathematics, and St. Stephen’s Episcopal School. If you are connected to a local high school and would like to present a book award, please send us an email to ncalum@ncf.edu.

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Teacher Outreach Initiative The New College Alumnae/i Association Teacher Outreach Initiative is a new effort to engage current alumnae/i high school teachers to help spread the good word about New College to interested high school students. The NCAA recognizes that alumnae/i are some of the best ambassadors for New College as they have personally experienced life and academics at New College and are often some of the schools most ardent supporters.

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Any New College alumnae/i who are currently teaching or working at a high school are eligible to participate in this initiative. The NCAA will send participating alumnae/i a care package including admissions information and a New College pennant. To receive your package, please contact us at: ncalum@ncf.edu.

ALUMNAE/I EVENTS / CHAPTER NEWS

CHICAGO, IL

WASHINGTON, D.C. AUSTIN, TEXAS

February 25, 2017 -- The New College student improv team, Comedy Friends, competed in the National Improv Tournament in Chicago, Ill. and made it to the final round! Local New College alumnae/i attended the tournament to cheer on our hilariously quick-witted students.

January 21, 2017 -- New College alumnae/i in Washington D.C. and across the country participated in the Women’s March. New College Alumnae/i Association Board Member Jordan Clark ’04 hosted a special gathering at her home in D.C. inviting those in the city to gather.

NEW YORK, NY

NewMusicNewCollege

2017-2018 SEASON

February 2, 2017 -- New College alumane/i gathered at Blackwell’s Pub in New York City for a dinner party.

NEWMUSICNEWCOLLEGE.ORG www.ncf.edu

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CHAPTER NEWS / ALUMNAE/I EVENTS

1960s Paul Adomites ‘66 delivered a presentation (three, one-hour sessions) to the Institute for Learning in Retirement at Slippery Rock University in early May. The topic was “Edgar Allan Poe on Old Time Radio.” Previously, he published an article on the same subject in “Nostalgia Digest,” winter 2017. The presentation combined two of Paul’s deep loves, with Old Time Radio, the newer of the two. He discovered he still had an anthology of Poe that he had used while at New College. (It cost a $1.85 in 1967.) “The ILR is a memberdirected organization, providing lively learning experiences for mature adults who share a love of learning.” Many of the members are retired Slippery Rock University professors who have chosen to remain in the area. The Institute offers some 70 courses and workshops every semester.

In 2016, Malcom Brenner ‘69 published “Mel-Khyor: An Interstellar Affair,” a novel about a woman’s fling with a crashed space alien, based on UFO mythology he uncovered while working as a reporter in New Mexico, 1992-2002. The book is available on Amazon and Audible, and joins his previous novel “Wet Goddess” and his memoir “Growing Up in the Orgone Box.” “In the Park,” a movie that Lynwood Sawyer ‘69 adapted from a play he saw at the Wildfire Theatre in Sherman Oaks, written by a talented L.A. writer (Trudi Roth) and directed by Marianna

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Dean, won Best Comedy/Dramedy Short at the 2017 L.A. Independent Film Festival. In the film, a yuppie mom in the middle of a complete meltdown confronts a dosser in a rundown Croydon Park. They both skewer the pretensions by which each sustains their identity, and their exchange covers everything from library “smelly letters” to Chabon to a peculiar habit of mother dogs.

1970s In recent years Dan Chambliss ’71 has visited dozens of colleges and secondary schools lecturing on the college experience, drawing on his book “How College Works” (co-authored with his former student Chris Takacs). Those years at New College, of course, are the critical background to everything he thinks he’s learned during 36 years in higher education.

Bill Witherspoon ‘71 enrolled at Georgia Tech in January through Georgia’s tuition-free plan for seniors, in order to gain more knowledge for talks he gives that relate to climate change.

Three such talks exist, namely part one and two of “Georgia’s Climate History,” and “Bridging Differences to Win a Climate-Safe World” about getting a price on carbon passed in the U.S. Congress (such as Citizen’s Climate Lobby’s carbon fee and dividend proposal). The talks are given without charge, and invitations are welcome to bill@georgiarocks.us.

Margee Ensign ’73 was named president of Dickinson College and took her new post on July 1. Margee was previously the President of American University of Nigeria.

Burlington Free Press named Annette Smith ’73 “2016 Vermonter of the Year” for raising awareness and dialogue about major energy projects and their impacts on local communities.

Samuel Zamarripa ‘73 completed two novels between 2013 and 2016, publishing his first book of a duology, “The Spectacle of Let–the Oliet and Obit,” with Floricanto Press in 2017. A gospel of fantastic spirituality and abiding love, “The Spectacle of Let–the Oliet and Obit,” reimagines the marvel of creation and the unbound possibilities of a single word, “let.” The second book in the series, “The Spectacle of Let–the Soul of a Miracle,” along with a companion lexicon, is scheduled for publication in late 2017.

Samuel received a master’s of public policy from the Maxwell School of Citizenship at Syracuse University. He lives in Atlanta, Georgia, with his wife, Robin D. Zamarripa.

CLASS NOTES

Bob Allen ‘78, recently returned from the 2017 Superyacht Investor Conference in London, England, where attendees examined the international superyacht industry to identify key opportunities and areas of growth. Bob participated on the panel entitled, “MYBA Purchase Form, Time for a Change?” which considered the different approaches to superyacht purchases in the U.S. and the U.K. White House correspondent Alexis Simendinger ’75 was inducted into Society of Professional Journalists Hall of Fame in June 2017.

James McDonald ’78, managing partner of Fisher Phillips Irvine office, was named among Southern California’s 2017 Super Lawyers.

1980s Elizabeth Green ’81 received Law360’s Bankruptcy MVP recognition.

Five attorneys were chosen in this category from more than 1,000 submissions in various areas. Green’s work in several large Chapter 11 cases in the energy and health care industries in 2016, securing three plan confirmations and freeing Black Elk Energy Offshore Operations LLC from more than $700 million in offshore oil platform decommissioning obligations, was the determining factor for this recognition.

After New College, Steven Hawson ‘85 settled in New Mexico and designed and built his own adobe house, making each brick himself.

Grad school followed, where he earned a master’s in Spanish translation and a master’s of business administration (MBA). He has published two books, including “The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Intermediate Spanish,” mostly because he fancies himself a complete idiot. He is married and has six children.

Steven works as a human resources director for a large home remodeling company. He still plays and records music and performs the occasional stand-up comedy routine. Find him on YouTube.

Jennifer Granick ’86, director of civil liberties at the Stanford Center for Internet and Society, is the author of a new book from Cambridge University Press entitled “American Spies: Modern Surveillance, Why You Should Care, and What To Do About It.” Jennifer will present a “Novo Talk” during the February 2018 New College Reunion in Sarasota.

Justin Bloom ’87 was married to Summer Miller on Little Sarasota Bay in June. They live in downtown Sarasota.

YOU’RE OUR BEST AMBASSADORS! The New College Alumnae/i Association Teacher Outreach Initiative is a new effort to engage current alumni to help spread the good word about New College to interested high school students. Any New College alumni that are currently teaching or working at a high school are eligible to participate in this initiative.

The NCAA will send participating alumni a package including admissions information and a New College pennant. If you or someone you know may be interested in engaging with this program, please email ncalum@ncf.edu and let us know!

www.ncf.edu

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CLASS NOTES

After 20 years of working on climate change domestically and internationally, for various USAID, Department of Energy (DOE), and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) consulting firms, Keith Forbes ‘88 started his own shop—Integrated Sustainability Solutions, LLC,—based out of his home office in Saratoga Springs, N.Y. Since moving there from D.C., Keith has worked remotely for different companies, and is now trying to go it alone. So far, so good, but as any independent consultant will tell you, a more stable work pipeline would be great, and Keith is working on developing that. “On the personal front, there’s three of us, self, wife, and 13-yearold son, who, unbelievably will be off to high school next year. In touch with a few NCF-ers like Dan O’Brien, Mike “Puff” Campbell, but not as many as I’d like. I was in Portugal last year, and did a road trip to Madrid and spent a couple of fun days with Christian Perez and Megan Cytron. It was nice to see the kids hang out. I took both of them to see the Santiago Bernabeu (real Madrid stadium). The others went to some important museum or something.”

Keith is always up for hearing from Novo Collegians, especially those around the great north of upstate N.Y. Ronald Christaldi ’89 received the Lions Eye Institute for Transplant and Research 2016 Light of Sight Award.

The award is given to persons who have made a significant impact in the work to help those who are blind or visually impaired. Ron also chaired the Lions Eye Institute Eye Ball Gala which raises funds each year for ocular research.

Ron is a partner at Shumaker, Loop and Kendrick, LLP. Chad Goldberg’s ‘89 second book, “Modernity and the Jews in Western Social Thought,” was published by the University of Chicago Press in May 2017.

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the book shows European and American

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social thinkers emphasized different features of modern society and disagreed about whether Jews were synonymous with or antithetical to those features. But they turned repeatedly to the Jews as a touchstone for defining modernity and national identity. This history extends into the present with the Jews—and now the Jewish state—continuing to serve as an intermediary for self-reflection in the 21st century.

1990s Kelly Rains ’91 completed a second master’s degree (this time in business analytics) and started a new job with the University of Rochester, Advancement Data Analytics group. Kelly is living in Rochester with Adam Rains ‘94 and their son, Max (aged 3).

Jason Evans ’95 is happily married to fellow alum Sharon Levine ‘97 and are eternally grateful for their 6 year-old son, Isaac Levine. After serving in a research faculty position at the University of Georgia from March 2010 –July 2014.

Jason joined Stetson University as a tenure-track assistant professor of environmental science and studies in August 2014. In March 2017, Stetson gave Jason official notification of his successful application for tenure and promotion to the position of associate professor, effective at the beginning of the Fall 2017 term. Jason is also currently serving as co editor-in-chief of the “Journal of Environmental Management,” a position he has held since January 2016.

For the past year Matt Spitzer ’95 has been helping to run an international non-profit (cos.io) that works to improve the transparency and reproducibility of scientific research, builds open source public-goods infrastructure (osf.io), trains researchers on open science best practices, and helps journals change how they impact open practices. Matt works closely with many research institutions and communities around the world who want to impact how research is documented and communicated. They also have lots of internships for developers and others!

Prior to this, Matt helped run a local start-up solving problems in maternal health and patient engagement. Matt is living in Charlottesville, Va., and raising two kids, aged 6 and 9.

Angelica Torres ’96 and her family relocated from New York City metro area four years ago for the slower and more affordable pace of life.

Angelica states, “My husband and I are unschooling/world-schooling our son, who is 5. New College was my Auntie Mame* when I was a downtrodden, relatively recent Puerto Rican import.

CLASS NOTES

New College picked me up, introduced me to anthropology, and sent me abroad on my first of many adventures. Now I’m excited to raise our son as an independent thinker and citizen of the world. I am interested in connecting with homeschooling alums to share resources and perhaps meet up on a future family outing. Or, if you find yourself in DFW with no friends. I am at sendamt@gmail.com [*if you’ve seen Auntie Mame more than once, let’s be friends, please].

Sara Seidel Beall ’97 is happily settled in Raleigh, N.C. She and her husband, Dan, had a beautiful baby girl, Lucinda Rae in November 2016.

Steven Wheeler ’98 finally managed to escape College Station, Texas, and has moved to the University of Georgia, where he is an associate professor of chemistry in the Center for Computational Quantum Chemistry.

animal portmanteaus, like “tomatoad” and “zebroccoli.”

Maryjo Oster ‘01 lives in Washington, D.C., in a condo she purchased back in 2012 with her partner, Jon, and dog, Stella. Maryjo is a research scientist at Child Trends—a nonprofit that does research to improve outcomes for youth and families—by day; and a singersongwriter-musician and Zumba instructor by night. You can check out Maryjo’s various music projects by searching for “Maryjo Mattea,” “Two Dragons and a Cheetah,” “Doctor Robert and Penny Lane,” and “Color Palette Band,” or search for her name on LinkedIn and the child trends blog to read about some of her latest professional work.

Lauren Fields’s ‘06 latest novel, “Homo Superiors,” is a Lambda Literary Award finalist for Gay Mystery.

Carly Summers ’01 received her Ph.D. in plant pathology from Cornell in 2015 and was hired in April, 2017 at Cornell Cooperative Extension as an Agriculture Educator. Carly will lead the county’s efforts to deepen relationships with the local agricultural community, and to reintroduce the agency and their programming.

Kathleen McQueeney ’08 received her Ph.D. in economics from Brandeis in May 2017. That same month, she married her longtime love, Anthony Amoruso. They are moving to Washington, D.C. this summer for her new job at the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO).

Erica Sirotich’s ’03 debut picture book, “Found Dogs,” was published by Dial Books for Young Readers (Penguin) on July 18, 2017. Erica has been illustrating children’s books for a few years now, but “Found Dogs” is the first one she’s both written and illustrated.

It’s a counting book about adopting a dog from a shelter. Erica currently lives and works in St. Petersburg, Florida.

Rachel Barnard ‘08 published her fourth novel, “Seize the Donut” (For the Love of Donuts Book 2), June 2, 2017.

“Seize the Donut” is a young-adult novel about two best friends, the local liberal arts college, and growing up. The more that main characters Vanessa and Nichole try to live independent lives from one another, the more they realize that they need each other and that friendships should never be taken for granted.

Thomas Hoke ‘99 recently earned his doctor of education in education leadership, higher education policy studies.

2000s Veronica Fannin ’00 wrote and illustrated the book “A is for Asparagus.”

Her children’s book features a page devoted to each letter, with vibrant illustrations of plant and

Maria Duenas ‘06 was elected to serve on the board of directors at the Society for the Study of Social Problems (SSSP) for the 2017-2019 term. SSSP is a national sociology organization that focuses on critical sociology and scholaractivism. She is currently a doctoral student in the department of sociology at the University of California, Merced.

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CLASS NOTES

SAVE THE DATE. The New College Alumnae/i Association Presents:

REUNION WEEKEND Sarasota, FL February 15-18, 2018

struggling through as a part-time worker and full-time Ph.D. student, Dorothea applied for and was awarded a full scholarship into the Friedrich Schlegel graduate school of the Freie Universität , which means as of October 2017, Dorothea can focus on her dissertation on intermediality in German and English migration literature, as well as properly enjoy her studies, place in the program, and time in Berlin. This has been a dream of Dorothea’s since New College. She is very happy right now.

2010s On November 2, 2016, Kaitlin Statz ‘10 married her partner, Travis Vengroff, on their fourth-year anniversary. They exchanged their vows before a small personal family gathering, solidifying a loving relationship that began when Kaitlin was a third-year student at New College.

All Classes Welcome! ncf.edu/reunion After leaving New College, Dorothea Trotter ‘09 ended up at Florida Atlantic University because it was close to her family and offered her a graduate teaching assistantship. Dorothea went abroad the second year of her master’s studies to Hamburg, Germany. Study abroad was something Dorothea wanted to do the entire time she was at New College, but it never worked out.

Dorothea completed her M.A. there and came back home to teach a few classes of English composition at Florida Atlantic University. In the meantime, Dorothea applied to graduate schools in the U.S. and Germany and ended up at the Freie Universität in Berlin. After

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After graduating New College in 2016, Anna Rodriguez ‘12 didn’t know where her life was going. Anna knew that she wanted to keep working on reproductive justice, but she had no idea where that passion would take her. That fall, Anna worked on election efforts in Iowa as a campus organizer, moving

across the country to a new community that soon felt like home. Soon thereafter, Anna moved back to the east coast to D.C. to start a new adventure.

As a communications fellow at ConwayStrategic, Anna works everyday with reproductive justice organizations to come up with strategic social and earned media strategies to fight the incredible fight we have in front of us.

Anna also researches abortion attitudes and messaging, and is currently working on an original post-election report.

Anna states, “this work has been exciting and revitalizing.” Last December, Anna decided to apply to her top-choice law school (after being spurred by friends) even though she never thought she would get in. “For some reason I did, and I am so excited to start law school at UC-Berkeley this fall. I hope to continue fighting for reproductive justice, and one day work on impact litigation that helps health equity become a reality.

None of this would be possible without the incredible professors and friends I had at New College, who not only challenged me but let me know that imposter syndrome is real and that I really am capable. It would also not have been possible without the incredible community I found in Sarasota, starting with interning at Maternally Yours and Rosemary Birthing Home, where many moms became my family and showed me how important it is to be able to choose the family you have and make your own personal decisions about your body. I am forever grateful to these women.”

CLASS NOTES

IN MEMORIAM Craig C. Bowman, 70, of Sarasota, Florida died on March 9, 2017. See tribute by David Schwartz ’66 below.

Mildred P. Ellis was born in Chattanooga, Tennessee on June 14, 1928. She met her husband, Nick V. Ellis, (who predeceased her) at the University of Chattanooga after he returned from the Navy in World War II. She was President of the Alpha Delta Pi sorority, and an Alpha Beauty and Homecoming Queen in 1949. She

married Nick in 1949. In the early 1950’s she moved with Nick to Sarasota and they had two sons, Richard Ellis and Nick Ellis, who survive her and live in Sarasota and Bradenton, Florida. She also is survived by four grandchildren Bryan Ellis, Nicholas Ellis, Molly Ellis and Brad Ellis, and by her daughter-inlaw Jane Ellis.

During her initial years in Sarasota Mildred made many lifetime friends, many of whom called her “Pottsy”. She played tennis and was a member of the Junior League. In 1960, “Millie” started her career as one of the first employees of New College. She ultimately came to hold the position of Director of Admissions at New College, after which

In Memory of Craig Bowman

at his memorial. - David Schwartz ’66 If any of us have thought of a time when Craig, I mean Bowman, was at his very happiest, it’s surely when he was building his treehouse. He’d ascend from the ground and its mundane oppressions of college administrators and draft boards and climb into the lap of that massive live oak. Hidden behind curtains of Spanish moss and air plants, the noise of the Trail distant in the background, he’d open the treehouse door and climb in. I remember that treehouse door, for which I contributed a stained-glass window.

If you wandered off into that little jungle behind the old motel and found Bowman in residence, he would welcome you in. He’d pull out his stash, roll one up, and you’d enjoy his treehouse hospitality. He’d go on about all the improvements he wanted to make, how he was going to go about it, where he had spotted free materials. I remember Craig at his most expansive there, king of his airy world.

In this magic moment, suspended between school and the “real world,” our great friend flourished.

We all have been together for most of our lives, now, starting at 18 by this bayfront, where I wish I could be today.

We have, in our enduring connections for each other, seen the course of our own and our friends’ lives. I have come to understand how the passage that we threaded in the first years of the college claimed many of us in some ways, and some of us everything.

We grew up in the restrictions of the 50’s and hit the free air

she served as Director of Admissions at the Out of Door Academy in Sarasota for several years. Millie made numerous trips to Greece and elsewhere, both with her husband and with friends.

During the late 1980s and 1990s, her grandchildren arrived and she was loved by all of them.

(Published in Sarasota Herald Tribune on April 14, 2017) Douglas Appleton ‘81 Dag passed after a long battle with injuries sustained from a fall. He was always kind, caring, nutty and fun. He was a great dad and a good friend.

(No formal obituary was published at the time of death.)

of this place like we were blasting out of underwater. To finally escape from being told what to do all of the time made many of us lifetime resisters. Craig was never so animated as when preparing a defense. But some of us found that early overcontrol actually cost us the ability to know and pursue our own aims when we finally achieved freedom. Some of us weren’t raised for that possibility, but then asked to do it. And then we find ourselves in a dilemma. And in this dilemma a life-long alcohol addiction took pernicious root.

All these years later, the Bowman that I remember and always have remembered, is the guy up there in the tree.

Talking excitedly about his plans. Quoting from “Catch-22,” which so expressed his view of life. (He wasn’t alone.)

Sometimes singing something in his Willie Nelson-like voice.

Reciting Ambrose Bierce’s Whangdepootenawah from memory. He was full of life back then, as were we all.

I remember the afternoon that he scrawled the whole Whangdepootenawah on Jane Snyder’s body in green magic marker to match her panties, and sent her to Hart.

I remember when Bowman came over to where Hart and I were removing wilted rose blossoms in Mabel’s rose garden, right next to here, and got a garbage bag of rose petals, which he carefully separated to make Woody Tree a bed of roses.

I’ll never forget you, Craig. Not that I ever did. I hope that your joyous spirit is free in a tree. I wish I were there, to return your dust into the bay by which we all started, and you spent your life. Some how I see you paddling across it in a rubber raft, like Orr, headed for some transcendent Sweden.

Goodbye, Bowman, I yearn for you tragically already.

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CLASS NOTES

Dr. Anthony Frank Crisafi ‘92, 47 of Orange City, Florida, passed away on Sunday, May 21, 2017.

He was born on September 30, 1969 in Brooklyn, New York to Georgette Allawas.

Anthony is survived by his wife Dr. Denise Nicole Crisafi; sons, Dominic Jerichau Crisafi and Michael Anthony Crisafi; sister, Arlette Abbott.

Anthony was a professor at the University of Central Florida and Valencia College. He held an associate’s degree from Brevard Community College, bachelor’s degree from New College of Florida, master’s and doctoral degrees from UCF, completing his second doctoral degree from the University of Jena in Germany. Anthony was a member of the American Philosophical Association and enjoyed playing guitar, writing music and poetry, cooking and running.

(Published in the Bradenton Herald. ) Joan Marie Pelland of Bradenton, Florida, formerly of Providence, Rhode Island passed away at home after a brief period of failing health, May 14, 2017, at the age of 75.

Born in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, she was the daughter of the late Noel and Ada Pelland. She had lived in Providence for many years before moving to New Orleans, where she was a librarian at the Loyola Law School for some 10 years before coming to Bradenton. Joan was a graduate of Brown University, Class of 1977, and received a master’s degree in Library Science from Simons in Boston.

She was librarian and eventually dean of libraries at New College of Florida, where she worked for some 30 years.

She is the beloved wife of John Scott Campbell of Bradenton and was predeceased by her brother, Noel Pelland, Jr. (Published in the Bradenton Herald.)

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Katherine Reynolds Chandler ‘76 (“Kate”), 67, died at 1 PM, Saturday, April 1, 2017, at her home in St Mary’s City, Maryland, after battling Stage 4 Ovarian Cancer for two years. She was born October 10, 1949 at Fort Gordon in Augusta, Georgia, to Harold K (Deak) and Elizabeth H (Beth) Reynolds. She married Roy F (“Rocky”) Chandler on May 5, 1976.

Surviving Kate are her sister, Sue Reynolds, of Chapel Hill, North Carolina, and her brothers Kim Reynolds of Washington DC, and John Reynolds of Nashville, Tennessee. Kate’s father, mother, brother Kenny, and husband, preceded her in death.

She entered New College in 1976 and completed her M.A. and Ph.D. in English Literature at The Pennsylvania State University with a dissertation in fiction of the Romantic period, but her research had turned to nature/environmental literature as a professor of English at St. Mary’s College of Maryland, where she taught since 1996. In addition to her contributions to the English department, she helped to found the Environmental Studies program, through which she has mentored many students in their cross-disciplinary senior projects. She joined with students and faculty in promoting interdisciplinary ideas and activities, and helped create the Campus Community Farm, which brought her great joy and pride. Kate co-edited the first collection of critical essays on Terry Tempest Williams, “Surveying the Literary Landscapes of Terry Tempest Williams”. She received the Norton T. Dodge Award for Teaching Excellence in 2011.

Kate was a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, and an active member of the Lexington Park Ward. During her many years in the church, she served in numerous leadership capacities, including President of the Relief Society, where she worked to secure the welfare of women and families. She also presided over the children’s organization and was

a loving Sunday School teacher, blessing the lives of hundreds in the church. She was an example of Christlike service to everyone who knew her.

Kate was a great daughter, great wife, great friend, great colleague, great teacher, and especially a great sister who will be missed every day. She was one of a kind.

Frederick Strobel, who taught economics at New College from 19942008, died on December 22, 2016. He was 79 years old.

Born and reared in Quincy, Massachusetts, Fred earned a bachelor’s degree (accounting) and M.B.A. from Northeastern University, and he earned his master’s degree (economics) and Ph.D. (economics) from Clark University. He served as a lecturer at the Georgia Institute of Technology and Clark University, and he was a professor of economics for three years at Holy Cross College. At Kalamazoo College, he taught from 1974-1994 and was the Stephen B. Monroe Professor of Money and Banking. He was a prolific scholar who published articles in Business Week, The American Banker, The Eastern Economic Journal and the Journal of Economic Issues.

Fred wrote two books, “Upward Dreams, Downward Mobility: The Economic Decline of the American Middle Class” (1993) and “The Coming Class War and How to Avoid It” (1999).

His books identified and documented the decline of the middle class long before the issue entered the national consciousness and policy debate.

In 1992 Fred received a six-week appointment as visiting professor of economics at Moscow State University, where he taught a course in money and banking to a group of 60 Russian undergraduate and graduate students.

In 1994, Fred became the William G. and Marie Selby Chair of Economics at the New College of the University of South Florida in Sarasota. He taught there until his retirement in 2008.

Fred is survived by two daughters, Heidi Strobel and Gretchen Strobel.

Douglas Berggren: Rest in Peace John Peters – Class of 64

The New College faculty of 1964 was an amazing assemblage of remarkable, daring, and inno-vative scholars and teachers.

Their charisma and energy fulfilled the greatest expectations and hopes of the Charter Class. For me, and for many others in the Charter Class, Doctor Berggren was the most exciting and challenging intellectual presence we had ever encountered. His lectures on Collingwood and Cassirer in this room left our hands scribbling and our minds reeling with transformative ideas.

In conversation and seminars, he generously took our sometimes halting and inarticulate expressions seriously, reshaping our thoughts and presenting them back to us as if they had been entirely ours all along.

And he was cool! He drove his convertible around campus chain smoking and cutting the figure of the simultaneously poised and intense intellectual we all hoped to become.

It is difficult to say how important it is to a young person to have such a man seriously listen to what you have to say.

Doctor Berggren did this consistently, and not just for me, but for everyone.

Years went by and thanks to a Charter Class Gathering and the Internet, Doctor Berggren who was then my dear

Douglas Charles Berggren died at his home on June 17, 2017 surrounded by family and with his wife of 62 years, Barbara.

A lifelong professor, he moved to Sarasota to teach at New College in 1964 shortly before the first students arrived.

He was instrumental in developing the groundbreaking concepts of New College’s educational philosophy– believing in the power of the mind, and freeing students and faculty from the limits of “lock-step” curriculum and a focus on credit hours and a GPA. He continued teaching philosophy there until 2000. After he retired he became an Emeritus Professor, teaching occasional courses there. He later taught adults at Pierian Spring Academy, and offered seminars through Lifelong Learning.

A lifelong learner himself, Douglas

friend Doug, and I re-engaged, and I found that he was still at it. The intensity of his intellectual curiosity was stronger than ever. We had a memorable conversation in his living room regarding Post-Modernism during which his description of the contingency of competing intellectual paradigms was so vivid that I felt dizzy as common sense reality lost some of its usual heft. Walking to my car, I wondered if it would be safe to drive. (So I guess I could add that Doug’s brilliance was intoxicating.)

For more than a decade, until earlier this year, Doug was the driving force of an informal email colloquy among six members of the Charter Class who would read and discuss ideas, books, articles and current events, and again the vibrancy, originality and sincerity of Doug’s thinking inspired all of us. As we have continued this colloquy, we continue to feel and be inspired by Doug’s presence in our lives and indeed such is his influence that he is with me every day.

He was my teacher and friend and I loved him.

was always reinventing his courses, reading new books, and engaging in philosophical discussions with former and current students and colleagues, and members of the community. He and several intellectuals and professionals in Sarasota formed a local Flaneur Group to reflect on life and have lively discussions. Ever curious and independent, a self-critical thinker who continued to challenge his and other peoples ways of thinking, he was able to synthesize and view issues in novel ways continuing to inspire all those around him to elevate their own thoughts.

Douglas was born on October 28, 1930 in Joliet, Illinois to Grace and Walter Berggren. Orphaned at an early age, he was raised by Reverend William Thornberg and the Clearwater family of Joliet. After graduation from Carleton College in 1952 he went to Oxford University, attending Jesus College, where he met Barbara Wolfenden. They married in 1955.

After earning a Masters Degree in Philosophy at Oxford, he attended Yale University and received a Danforth Foundation grant and earned a second

Masters Degree in Philosophy.

Following his graduation, he returned to Carleton College as an instructor for two years to see if he liked teaching, which he found he loved. He then returned to Yale and enrolled in the PhD program, later teaching as an Assistant Professor for five years before moving to Sarasota as a Full Professor of Philosophy at New College.

Douglas Berggren is survived by his wife, Barbara Berggren of Sarasota; their children Lynne Buchanan of Asheville, NC and Keith Berggren (Darlyn) of Sarasota FL. Grandchildren Ryan Berggren (Andrea) of Valrico, FL, Evan Berggren of Sarasota, Jason Silverman of St Paul, MN, Thomas Silverman of Providence, RI, and Carolyn Silverman of New York, NY; and two great-grandchildren Landon and Brayden Berggren.

A Quaker memorial in his honor was held at New College in the Music Room on June 24th. In September 2017, a celebration of life was hosted by New College. In lieu of flowers, donations in his memory should be made to the New College Foundation to be earmarked for an endowment in his name.

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ORIENTATION 2017

2017 Class Profile

233

13

members of the 2017 incoming class at New College of Florida

foreign countries are represented including: Barbados, Brazil, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Egypt, France, Germany, Ireland, Jordan, Mali, Russia, Switzerland, and the UK

19

states are represented

37 PERCENT of the new students were in the top 10 percent of their high school graduating class, and 57 PERCENT were in the top 20 percent.

Average GPA =

3.99

More than half of the incoming students had a GPA of 3.99 or better.