#86 SPRING 2020
A publication of New College of Florida
COACHING THE COLLEGIANS The new Student Success Center offers one-on-one support
Make a Movie. Make a Statement. Documentary filmmakers turn a lens on the struggles of real-life people
Editorial Staff Abby Weingarten Editor/Writer Kim McDonald Associate Director Creative Services Manager Kathleen McCoy Director of Alumni Relations Su Byron Communications Specialist Publisher Office of Communications and Marketing New College of Florida 5800 Bay Shore Road Sarasota, FL 34243-2109 941.487.4153 communications@ncf.edu
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Make a Movie. Make a Statement.
Documentary filmmakers turn a lens on the struggles of real-life people
NCAA Board of Directors Executive Committee Chair – Steve Jacobson ’71 Chair-Elect – Dan Stults ’77 Governance Chair – Chad Bickerton ’05 Immediate Past Chair – Cindy Hill ’89
21 Profiles
Francine Blum Steven Lubka ’13 Gordon Michalson Stephen Miles
16 Coaching the Collegians The new Student Success Center offers one-on-one support
Also inside this issue: On Campus > 1 Op Ed > 5 In the Community > 14 Foundation Focus > 25 Class Notes > 26
Robert Bilott ’83 Hazel Bradford ’75 Benjamin Brown ’05 Doug Christy ’96 John Connelly ’76 Robert Freedman ’83 Eric Gottshall ’79 Oliver Peckham ’08 Gera Peoples ’94 Leslie Reinherz ’70 Norman Stein ’69 Benjamin Stork ’03 New College Leadership Donal O’Shea, Ph.D. President Barbara Feldman, Ph.D. Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs MaryAnne Young Vice President of Advancement Ann Comer-Woods Director of Communications and Marketing For a listing of the Board of Trustees, visit ncf.edu/leadership-and-governance
THEN & NOW
Learning in the Lab Whether it’s conducting gravity experiments in the math lab or doing physics experiments in the science lab, research has always been key to the New College student experience.
CAMPUS NEWS
A Trusted Leader Retires After Nearly 20 Years of Service fter a 19-year career at New College, in which he oversaw tremendous fiscal and facilities growth, Vice President of Finance and Administration John Martin has retired. Chris Kinsley, former assistant vice chancellor for finance and facilities for the State University System of Florida, replaced Martin on March 16, taking over a position that has been expertly served for nearly two decades. “Being associated with an institution that is so wellrespected at the local, state and national levels is a great point of pride for me,” Martin said. “Its students, faculty, staff, trustees and alumni are fantastic.” Martin joined New College in 2001 after former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush passed the law separating the College from the University of South Florida (USF). To prosper independently, New College needed a trusted leader. Martin’s initial responsibilities included setting up financial and administrative structures to help the College meet accreditation requirements. But securing funding was regularly a challenge. “When [Martin] arrived, the governor had just vetoed the funding needed to pay his salary,” New College President Donal O’Shea said. “In the hard times, he has always privileged people, the academic program and students. He has done so collaboratively and transparently, and is one of the most
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respected chief business officers in the state.” Martin has been an invaluable asset to the College. He oversaw the growth of the operating budget from $15.6 million in fiscal year 2001-2002 to $53.5 million in fiscal year 20192020. He helped bring in upwards of $100 million in capital construction, including more than $71.1 million in education and general capital funding for renovations, remodeling and new construction. Of this money, Martin saw $11.3 million allocated to construct the Academic Center (ACE) and $9.7 million to construct the new wing of the Heiser Natural Sciences Complex. Martin also oversaw a bond issue of $30 million that was used to construct the letter dorms in 2007. “Of course, none of this would have happened without the hard work and dedication of the entire campus community, especially those comprising finance and administration,” Martin said. As he enters retirement, Martin, who worked in higher education for more than 45 years, looks to his successor to address the immediate challenges at New College. Priorities include increasing enrollment, raising funds to renovate the Pei residences and construct a new residence hall, ensuring New College’s independence, and convincing the Florida legislature to appropriate capital funds to construct the proposed multi-purpose facility that will replace most of the Palmer Complex buildings. The College is in good hands with Kinsley and Martin is ready for the next phase of his life. “[I look forward to] spending more time with Judy, my wonderful wife of 40 years, and traveling together around the U.S. and beyond,” Martin said. “Volunteering in the community and playing a little golf are on my to-do list as well.” As he goes, Martin leaves New College with a legacy of dedication, honesty and compassion.
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ON CAMPUS
CAMPUS NEWS
Strive for College Recognizes NCF as Highly Inclusionary espite high educational aspirations, students from low-income households are severely underrepresented on college campuses. While more than 80 percent of these students hope to attend college, only 20 percent will earn bachelor’s degrees by age 25. New College of Florida is working to change this trend, and the nonprofit Strive for College has taken notice. Strive for College promotes excellence in inclusion, affordability and completion for low-income and firstgeneration college students, and the 2007-founded organization recently recognized New College as meeting its “Strive Five” distinctions. These data-based standards measure performance in five key areas that demonstrate a commitment to students from traditionally underrepresented backgrounds. About one-quarter of each entering class at New College is comprised of Pell Grant recipients and approximately 60 percent of these students graduate. “New College is committed to being as inclusive and diverse
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as possible, and to helping all of our students reach their full potential,” said New College President Donal O’Shea. “We are very proud to be associated with Strive for College and grateful for the ‘Strive Five’ recognition.” The “Strive Five” categories are: Inclusion, Diversity, Affordability, Completion, and Outcomes. As New College grows, it is committed to continuing to meet these five standards. “We will continue to strive to ensure successful outcomes for all of our graduates,” O’Shea said. For more information, visit striveforcollege.org.
FOUNDATION NEWS
New College Foundation Welcomes New Board Members he Foundation’s board of directors recently welcomed six new members: Charles F. Raeburn ’64, Monica Van Buskirk, Janene Amick, Beverly Bartner, Susan Burns ’76, and Renee Hamad. They “join a team of dedicated
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people who are united in their commitment to support the mission and needs of New College,” said Sue Jacobson, the board’s chair. “We’re honored to welcome them.”
FOUNDATION NEWS
A Barancik Foundation Grant Puts an Exceptional Education Within Reach for High-Potential Young Leaders cademically qualified low-income students from Sarasota and Manatee counties now have increased opportunities to attend New College of Florida, the state of Florida’s designated honors college. Charles & Margery Barancik Foundation recently awarded the New College Foundation $500,000 to launch a new program targeting local high school students who have demonstrated strong academics and outstanding community leadership. New College has named this new initiative the Access Leadership Program. “Increasing access to high-quality postsecondary education and diversifying the educated workforce are matters of local,
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regional, and national urgency,” said Bill Woodson, New College’s dean of outreach and engagement, and chief diversity and inclusion officer. “The vitality of the Sarasota-Manatee area and the state of Florida gains a tremendous boost when we successfully tap the talent of all of our young people, regardless of their economic status.”
ON CAMPUS
FOUNDATION NEWS
New College Foundation Appoints Associate Vice President of Advancement evin M. Hughes recently joined the New College Foundation as its new associate vice president of advancement. Hughes previously served as the assistant dean of development and alumni relations at Stetson University College of Law. In his new position, he is responsible for the development and management of annual giving, major gifts and planned giving initiatives. In addition, he provides leadership for alumni engagement opportunities and oversees the management of daily operations. “Kevin is an outstanding addition to our leadership team,”
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said MaryAnne Young, the Foundation’s executive director and vice president of advancement. “He has an impressive track record of building philanthropic support, managing institutional fundraising campaigns, and creating innovative—and successful—donor and alumni engagement programs. He brings so much to the table! I’m sure he’ll take our advancement efforts to the next transformative level.” Hughes says he is looking forward to “learning as much as [I] can about the aspirations and goals of New College and the Sarasota-Manatee community.” As a first-generation college graduate, he feels a deep connection to the Foundation’s mission. “Scholarships made my college education possible,” Hughes said. “Coming from that background, I’m passionate about joining the Foundation’s efforts to empower the next generation of college students.”
CAMPUS NEWS
Chris Kinsley is New College’s New Vice President of Finance and Administration n mid-March, Chris Kinsley took over the role of vice president of finance and administration at New College. The former assistant vice chancellor for finance and facilities for the State University System of Florida replaced John Martin, who had served for nearly two decades. “I’ve always had a warm spot in my heart for New College,” Kinsley said. “The College has such a unique mission, it’s a beautiful place, and everybody’s always been warm and friendly.” Kinsley’s work with the Florida Board of Governors (BOG) since 2006 led him to collaborate with much of the College’s faculty and staff. He assisted the College with its legislative budget requests for various projects, including the addition to the Heiser Natural Sciences Complex and some of the Hamilton Center renovations. “I enjoy seeing things happen. My job at the BOG was really trying to find the money to construct or renovate facilities, so it was satisfying when you could see things happen,” Kinsley said. “Not everything we push for gets funding but I like to feel like something is being accomplished.” And Kinsley accomplished much during his years in Tallahassee, including serving as chief comptroller for the
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Florida Department of Education. He holds bachelor’s degrees in finance and accounting, and a master’s degree in accounting from Florida State University. He is also a licensed certified professional accountant and a family man. “I have a wife and three kids (two are college-aged and one is a rising senior in high school). We have two dogs: a standard poodle and a shih tzu. I like to garden, walk, play golf and read (mostly science fiction and history),” Kinsley said. “I’ve been a Tallahassee resident for 30-plus years but I love Sarasota and I’m thrilled to be here now.” He is already quite familiar with the campus and its people. “With my role at the BOG, I’ve had the opportunity to work with John Martin, Mike Michalson, President O’Shea, and multiple people in facilities, emergency management, finance and accounting, so I know at least a good dozen people here at the College,” Kinsley said. “I’ve even known some of the trustees and everyone’s been super pleasant.”
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ON CAMPUS
What’s Happening PARKING LOT REGATTA
Using human-powered vehicles (made of old bikes, metal scraps and furniture), students raced to celebrate the end of their sculpture class with a Parking Lot Regatta on the Caples Campus in December. Ryan Buyssens, assistant professor of art (sculpture), hosted the event, which was the first of its kind at New College.
TRU BLUE DAY
Are you #TruBlu? New College celebrated its version of Founder’s Day with Tru Blu Day in October. A Blu Bash was held on Z Green where students tie-dyed New College T-shirts and filled their own swag bags with New College gear. Novos also put together a Tru Blue collage filled with images that reminded them of all things New College.
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BLACK HISTORY MONTH
In February, New College hosted its sixth annual Black History Month celebration. With a combination of artistic and academic events, the celebration examined the meaning of liberation, justice, and belonging for individuals in global black communities. More than 17 events were held throughout the month, including the New Schools of Black Thought Symposium, pictured above.
OP-ED
Meeting the expectations of today’s students and their parents BY NEW CO LLEGE PRESID E N T D O N AL O’SH E A
Early 2020 brought two existential challenges to New College of Florida: a bill in the Florida House of Representatives that proposed merging New College with the University of Florida, and the coronavirus pandemic. A heartfelt thanks to all students, faculty, staff, alumni, trustees and board members (current and former), friends, community members, local legislators (city, county, state and federal) for lobbying to reject the House bill and keep New College independent. Thanks to the Senate president, the bill did not advance to the Senate. It may come back, but we will be ready. The coronavirus pandemic has required massive changes. After spring break, we moved our face-to-face instructional program (classes, tutorials, laboratories, theses and baccalaureate exams) online for the rest of the semester. Students vacated the residence halls, and staff and faculty have been working remotely. Thanks to the students who relocated and to everyone who donated to the student emergency fund to help students who needed financial assistance. Thanks to faculty, staff and students who have been working very hard under very trying conditions. Amidst these challenges, we must prepare for the future. Accordingly, New College is moving full steam ahead on our goal to increase our enrollment to 1,200 students by 2024, and our four-year graduation rate for students entering that year to 80 percent. With funding support from the state, we have expanded our faculty to ensure that student/faculty ratios remain low, increased student services are offered through our Center for Career Engagement and Opportunity (CEO), and that students are further supported by the opening of the Student Success Center (see cover story). We engaged the higher education consulting firm, Art & Science Group, to help us understand our current market position, test the impact of potential strategic initiatives on enrollment, and identify opportunities to increase student satisfaction with their New College experience. During the 2018-19 academic year, Art & Science Group conducted quantitative and qualitative market research on our prospective, admitted and current students (as well as students who withdrew from New College). Based on this research, Art & Science Group recommended several institutional strategies that are grounded in New College’s mission and institutional character, and meet the expectations of today’s students and their parents: • Honors for All – Emphasize how the interactive nature of small classes, close relationships between students and faculty, and value placed on rigorous and independent thinking prepares our graduates for life beyond college. • Applied Liberal Arts – Pair liberal arts with skills-based learning to provide a curriculum in which students pursue areas of study that spark their intellectual curiosity and relate to their potential career interests. • Integrated Post-Graduation Planning – Begin post-graduation planning with students during their first year and integrate it into all four years of their academic experience. • Experiential Learning – Make experiential learning central to the experience of all students through internships, study abroad programs, community service, and other relevant opportunities. • Customized Curriculum – Leverage the customized curriculum that allows all students to work individually with faculty mentors to design a unique educational experience that pushes students to take intellectual risks and explore new opportunities. Since receiving these recommendations last fall, our faculty and staff have been working diligently to begin incorporating them into the student experience. The CEO has partnered with the Provost’s Office to put in place a four-year career plan program to help all students develop career management skills as part of their academic experience. The CEO is also working with the faculty on a centralized internship program for students. And, thanks to a second grant from the Mellon Foundation, we have been able to reduce financial barriers for students interested in arts and humanities internships. On the academic front, our faculty launched the First-Year Seminar program last fall; approved new areas of concentration (as of mid-March) in Creative Writing, Public Policy, Statistics and Urban Studies; and created certification programs in Bloomberg Market Concepts (Bloomberg Certification), Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) certification, and Geographic Information Systems (GIS). We will continue to rely on our curricular flexibility, culture of innovation, and highly capable faculty and staff to support and sustain New College’s forward momentum.
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Make a Movie. Make a Statement. Documentary filmmakers turn a lens on the struggles of real-life people New College of Florida is not a film school, but for those who aspire to be the next Ken Burns, it may be the perfect college. Graduates who have pursued careers as documentary filmmakers describe their alma mater as a place that equipped them with the knowledge, perspective and analytical skills to find and tell stories. It was a place that instilled in them a commitment to truth, fairness and social justice, and a place where they acquired the tenacity, drive and imagination (the entrepreneurship) to chase and capture a dream.
Telling Stories of Marginalized Youth
“Reality has come to seem more and more like what we are shown by cameras.” –Susan Sontag Documentary filmmaker Cheryl Horner McDonough, who quoted the feminist author Susan Sontag in her 1991 thesis, is now the founder and owner of Gigantic! Productions—a two-time Emmy Award-winning production company in New York City. Her company produces documentaries and news specials, from MTV films honestly depicting teen challenges, to a National Geographic series with Katie Couric touring America, to Parkland Rising (a 2019 feature-length film on student activism and resilience in the wake of the 2018 Florida high school shooting). Looking back on her New College thesis, which assessed the accuracy, angle, thoroughness and tone of CBS and CNN newscasts, McDonough said, “I ended up writing this thing that completely changed the way I looked at the news and the
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coverage of the news. And I think that does inform what I do now, because I don’t come in with so many assumptions. I say, ‘Let’s listen first. Let’s look around. Let’s see what’s going on. Let’s look at this from 12 different angles before we think we know what we’re doing.’” In 2015, McDonough won an Emmy for Laverne Cox Presents: The T Word, a documentary about transgender youth that premiered on MTV’s True Life (a series on the lives of real young people). McDonough’s company produced more than 50 episodes of the show during its 21 seasons, examining topics that the mainstream media had largely ignored. “If you look back, you see that MTV was really ahead of the curve,” McDonough said, “by putting gay characters on TV before it was mainstream, or a character with HIV, which was so controversial at the time.” That commitment to telling the stories of marginalized young people compelled McDonough to produce Parkland Rising. After the initial news coverage of the mass shooting at
COVER STORY / MAKE A MOVIE
Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, McDonough sought to tell the deeper and more complicated stories of the teenage survivors. Within two weeks, McDonough had assembled a film crew in Parkland, Florida. While other film crews clamored for the attention of the students, McDonough’s team earned the trust of the students and their families through “patience, persistence, and thoughtful, sensitive producers who were there day in and day out,” she said. During the production, McDonough met Emma Gonzalez, who is now a second-year student at New College. “I was so glad [that she decided to attend New College],” McDonough said. “I thought, this is the perfect place for her. She’s an ideal New College student.” In Parkland Rising and all of her films, McDonough applies a guiding principle: “I never try to pretend that I’m like my subjects, that I’m a teenager or in my 20s
or that I’m one of the people I’m working with. I just try to listen to them and their stories without judgment, and that’s really what most people want.”
Trusting in Your Own Abilities
After graduating from New College in 2003, Ru Mahoney worked as a science teacher, and later as the director of a small nature center in Utah. But it wasn’t until she volunteered at a film festival that she discovered her true calling. Mahoney made industry connections there, and the directors she met started calling her at the nature center, asking her to review their scripts for scientific accuracy. During one call with a director, Mahoney discussed her passion for well-informed environmental programming that could reach and influence broader audiences. “He said, ‘Oh, you’re an impact
producer,’ and I’d never heard that phrase before,” Mahoney recalled. “This is already what I am, I just didn’t know it was a thing. I accidentally found myself.” As the impact producer for Sea of Shadows, a 2019 National Geographic documentary about the plight of the vaquita porpoise in the Sea of Cortez, Mahoney read an enormous amount of research about the most endangered whale species on Earth. The filmmakers relied on her research to focus on credible reasons for the decline of the vaquita population. “Prepping for a film like this involves a lot of reading and a lot of critical thinking skills,” Mahoney said. “Sometimes, you’re bringing that critical thinking to bear on subjects that are not your area of expertise. That’s where the New College critical thinking skills come into play.” In addition to the research, Mahoney secured the appropriate permits for
Cheryl Horner McDonough produced Emmy Award-winning documentaries like Laverne Cox Presents: The T Word.
“I ended up writing this thing that completely changed the way I looked at the news and the coverage of the news. And I think that does inform what I do now, because I don’t come in with so many assumptions. I say, ‘Let’s listen first. Let’s look around. Let’s see what’s going on. Let’s look at this from 12 different angles before we think we know what we’re doing.’”
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“Sometimes, you’re bringing that critical thinking to bear on subjects that are not your area of expertise. That’s where the New College critical thinking skills come into play.”
Ru Mahoney (left) was an impact producer for Sea of Shadows, a 2019 National Geographic documentary about the plight of the vaquita porpoise.
shooting in a United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Heritage Site. “You’re never doing just one thing,” Mahoney said. “You’ve got your permits in your backpack while you’re pointing a microphone at someone.” After the release of the film, which told the story of drug cartels and poor fishermen poaching the vaquita off the coast of Mexico, Mahoney arranged screenings for Mexico’s Senate and the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES). She also worked with the United States Department of State to include the film in American cultural exchange programs. When it comes to documentary filmmaking, Mahoney said, “There’s a level of intellectual recklessness and overconfidence and, for better or for worse, New College definitely instilled that in me. You have to have a certain amount of trust in your own abilities.”
Applying Anthropology Lessons to Filmmaking Nicholas Manting Brewer followed an unconventional route to the director’s chair when he turned down art school and enrolled at New College. “I was able to do something that I think a lot of people who pursue an undergraduate film education don’t,”
Brewer said. “I had the opportunity to have four years of my life to explore something that wasn’t filmmaking, and it gave me a foundation for understanding the world and for thinking through things critically. And that carries over into my filmmaking.” At New College, Brewer pursued an Area of Concentration (AOC) in anthropology and found opportunities to make movies. He documented a student trip to archaeological dig sites in Mexico for a tutorial, and shot videos for the College’s marketing department. “That was one of the beauties of New College for me—there was so much academic freedom and I had this ability to figure out what I really loved,” Brewer said. In his anthropology studies, Brewer was able to combine his interests in social justice and telling people’s stories (a theme that runs through his creative works). He eventually earned a Master of Fine Arts degree in Film and TV Production at the University of Southern California. Brewer currently works as a film editor in Los Angeles, California, but he still relies on the lessons he learned from anthropology classes at New College. “I use ethnographic methods whenever I’m starting to film and during the process, and participant observation to really get a sense of what’s happening on the ground,” he said.
Brewer’s first major film, Lumpkin, GA, tells the story of a fading southern town in his home state, where one of the country’s largest immigrant detention centers is located. Reel South, a documentary series produced by several southern PBS stations, ultimately picked up the 2019 film. “We knew we had something when we started, and we just kind of followed it for a year,” Brewer said. “Basically, we would go to Georgia and film, and come back to Los Angeles and edit what we had. Then I would work and save money, and go back to Georgia and film (not the most sustainable method, but definitely very exciting and very fun). It was a gamble, taking a chance and trying to do what you want to do, and we did that.”
Gritting it Out
When Miles Iton served as the New College Student Alliance co-president with classmate Paul Loriston in 2016 and 2017, the two faced an unsuccessful impeachment over charges that were eventually ruled unfounded. From that incident, Iton learned firsthand about similar experiences that black student leaders were encountering on other college campuses. So Iton traveled to American, Clemson and Cornell Universities to capture the real-life stories of black student leaders. In 2018, he premiered
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“You can have all the talent in the world, but doing things requires grit. It’s one of the most underrated character traits and, if you have the grit to bust out a thesis, you can make that a transferable skill anywhere.”
Miles Iton’s (second from left) documentary, Sincerely, The Black Kids, revealed the struggles black students have experienced on college campuses.
his documentary, Sincerely, The Black Kids, at New College’s Sainer Pavilion, and at several film festivals around the country. The title complements the 2014 film and current Netflix series, Dear White People, which portrays the challenges that black students often face on predominantly white campuses. “In an ideal world, I would not have made Sincerely, The Black Kids,” Iton said. “But schools need to know that this has happened, even in an environment like New College.” Iton not only made his movie but also landed a Fulbright scholarship to Taiwan, where he is completing a master’s degree program. He is currently in talks with financial backers for Lo-Fi Language Learning—a hip-hop-based, English as a foreign language course that he developed in a tutorial sponsored by Carl Shaw, a New College professor of classics. And Iton is continuing to produce works for his company, n.e.Bodied Entertainment. Iton largely attributes his accomplishments to gritty determination. “You can have all the talent in the world, but doing things requires grit,” he said. “It’s one of the most underrated character traits and, if you have the grit to bust out a thesis, you can make that a transferable skill anywhere.”
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A Crazy-Steep Learning Curve
After taking a film class at New College and working on some local productions with Florida State University students, Todd Kellstein decided to write and produce a film for his thesis project. In the opening credits of Phil and Stell’s Last Date, he wryly quoted his thesis adviser: “I am not sponsoring any f---ing thesis film. Find somebody else.” Despite his adviser’s initial objections, Phil and Stell’s Last Date turned into an unforgettable learning experience for Kellstein, who had to recruit a producer, manage actors, and keep the project on budget and on schedule. “I was forcing myself into this crazy-steep learning curve, to give myself a boot camp on what it was to work in the business professionally,” Kellstein said. After graduation (which he nearly missed while working on a local TV commercial), Kellstein took his thesis-developed Hollywood skillset to Los Angeles, California. There, Kellstein worked on low-budget productions as a film grip (the person who assembles and operates the equipment that supports and moves the cameras during a shoot). Kellstein then moved on to MTV, working on music videos until he
accompanied a director to Thailand for a project in 2006. On an off day, he wandered around a local fair and found a boxing ring where two 8-year-old girls were fighting. “Of course, I had a camera with me, so I started shooting,” he said. Afterward, through an interpreter, he asked one of the girls, Stam, why she was fighting. She answered, “I fight for money, to help my parents.” “I couldn’t shake it,” Kellstein said. “When I got home from that shoot, I couldn’t shake that kid, and I thought, ‘I gotta tell that story.’” For three years, Kellstein traveled back and forth to Thailand to film four young Muay Thai boxers. “I shot everything these kids did, every practice, every fight, every trip to their grandparents’ house,” Kellstein said. He would return intermittently to the United States to shoot music videos and recruit donors to fund the project. In 2012, all of his work paid off with the premiere of his 90-minute documentary, Buffalo Girls, which attracted coverage and reviews from national outlets. While some critics faulted the film for failing to criticize the violence, Kellstein said, “It would have been very easy to say her parents are evil and they shouldn’t
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be doing this and it’s terrible. I tried as hard as I could to be incredibly objective. It was really important to not be that ‘white savior’ who shows up somewhere and starts dictating what morality is in another country. That’s the last thing I wanted to do.”
Engaging Critically with Content
Janet Goldwater’s education in film began at New College when she attended an informal film series organized by David Pini, an adjunct instructor and charter class alumnus. “I remember sitting in a lecture room in uncomfortable chairs, watching Last Year at Marienbad, and I was completely baffled,” she said. “But that was huge for me at New College, just watching those films.” Goldwater went on to study art and art history until she graduated in 1972. Her first movie evolved from her experience advocating for reproductive rights with the National Abortion Rights Action League (NARAL) and Planned Parenthood in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. There, she collaborated with film student Barbara Attie to produce the 1992 documentary, Motherless: A Legacy of Loss from Illegal Abortion.
IN A WAY, NEW COLLEGE ALUMNUS Rob Bilott made a movie—not with a camera but with research, determination and countless legal filings. Bilott, a 1987 graduate, attorney and member of the New College Alumni Association Board of Directors, is the subject of the 2019 movie Dark Waters, in which actor Mark Ruffalo portrayed him. The movie tells the story of Bilott’s 20-year legal battle against the chemical manufacturer DuPont. It began when Bilott, a partner at the Taft law firm in Cincinnati, Ohio, got a call in 1998 from a farmer who knew Bilott’s grandmother in West Virginia. “He had hundreds of cows that were dying on his property,” Bilott told The Washington Post. “He had gone to the state. He had gone to the federal EPA. He had gone to the company. He wasn’t getting anywhere, you know, was just reaching out, pleading for somebody to help.” Bilott began looking into the case, eventually tracing the problem to a substance known as perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), in water coming from a DuPont landfill. His research revealed that DuPont had known, for years, that the substance caused a variety of illnesses (including two cancers) and that DuPont had dumped PFOA into open pits that allowed it to enter the local water supply. In 2001, Bilott brought his findings to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and filed a class-action lawsuit in West Virginia. In 2017, Bilott won a $671-million settlement on behalf of 3,500 plaintiffs. To date, DuPont has paid more than $1 billion in penalties from the PFOA findings. However, Bilott’s work is continuing. In 2018, he filed a lawsuit against several companies for their use of chemicals in the same family, called per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). Companies have been switching to these new, untested but similar chemicals in “a whack-a-mole game,” Bilott told The Washington Post. He said that, with regulatory agencies unwilling or unable to restrict them, people’s options are limited. “If we can’t get where we need to go to protect people through our regulatory channels, through our legislative process, then unfortunately, what we have left is our legal process,” Bilott told Time magazine. “If that’s what it takes to get people the information they need and to protect people, we’re willing to do it.” He is also working on a public information campaign with his book, Exposure: Poisoned Water, Corporate Greed, and One Lawyer’s Twenty-Year Battle Against DuPont (Atria Books, October 2019), and a website, fightforeverchemicals.com (the name reflects the substances’ resistance to breakdown and pervasiveness in the environment). “In my view, we’re talking about what is, in essence, a public health threat,” Bilott told The Columbus Dispatch. “We’re talking about a chemical that’s out there. Not just on one farm in West Virginia, not even just in the public water of an entire community there, but it’s now in water all over the country, all over the planet, in the blood of virtually every living thing.”
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“I had the opportunity to have four years of my life to explore something that wasn’t filmmaking, and it gave me a foundation for understanding the world and for thinking through things critically. And that carries over into my filmmaking.”
Nicholas Manting Brewer’s first major film, Lumpkin, GA, told the story of a fading southern town in his home state.
Throughout the past two decades, the duo behind Attie & Goldwater Productions has teamed up to make eight feature-length films that largely focus on women’s reproductive rights. The two women have consistently sought and received funding from the Sundance Institute Documentary Fund, the Independent Television Service, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the National Endowment for the Humanities. “Someone asked me, when I was working on my second or third film about reproductive issues, ‘Doesn’t it get depressing?’ And I said, ‘It’s actually more depressing to know what’s going on and not do anything,’” Goldwater said. Goldwater’s 2009 documentary, Mrs. Goundo’s Daughter, focused on a mother from Mali, West Africa, who was seeking asylum for her daughter in the United States (to protect her from the practice of female genital mutilation in her home country). And Goldwater’s latest film, Abortion Helpline, This Is Lisa, was screened at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival. “It has to be about content,” Goldwater said. “The documentaries that I see that bring incredible filmmaking to the table but don’t want to engage with real content, they fail, as far as I’m concerned. The ability to engage critically with content is crucial.”
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Fueling a Passion
When Josh Tickell was a New College student in the early 1990s, he created his own AOC: Sustainable Living. The concept was born of Tickell’s interest in deep green ecology, which comprises elements of environmental science, ecology and social science. Tickell and his classmate, Kaia Roman, built the Veggie Van—a Winnebago that ran on biodiesel fuel converted from used French fry oil. For two years after graduation, Tickell and Roman drove the van around the country to advocate for clean energy.
But Tickell realized that he needed a platform larger than “doing PowerPoints for 200 people at a time” to spread the message. He went back to school, earned an MFA degree in film from Florida State University, and returned to California to make a movie. “I put the film largely on credit cards, which was a bad idea that seemed like a good idea at the time,” Tickell said. In 2008, he produced Fuel, a documentary that depicted the despoiled country near the Louisiana oil fields where Tickell grew up, as well as his quixotic journey in the Veggie Van
Janet Goldwater has produced multiple documentaries about women’s rights, including the most recent Abortion Helpline, This Is Lisa.
Nirvan Mullick’s Caine’s Arcade showcased an inspiring 11-year-old boy and his homemade arcade.
and his global quest to find energy alternatives to oil. Fuel was an international sensation, winning the Sundance Film Festival’s audience award for best documentary, glowing reviews from The New York Times and The Washington Post, a spot on the Academy Awards shortlist, and a screening in the White House during the Obama administration. Since his first film premiered in 2008, Tickell has produced 10 more movies, including The Big Fix, a film about the Deepwater Horizon oil spill; Kiss the Ground, a documentary about sustainable energy sources, narrated by and starring actor Woody Harrelson; and The Revolution Generation, an up-close look at the challenges and opportunities that the millennial generation faces.
Pursuing a Perfect Moment
When Nirvan Mullick was a student at New College, one of his classmates loaned him French existentialist Jean-Paul Sartre’s novel Nausea, in which an artist struggles to find his place in the world as he tries to create a “perfect moment.” “I was 19 or 20, in Palm Court, lying against a palm tree,” Mullick recalled. “I put the book down and I thought about what that phrase meant to me, and when I was happiest (which was when I would lose track of time and get
so absorbed in the process of making something, as perfectly as possible, regardless of how short it might last).” Mullick eventually devoted more than two years to his thesis project, Fish Eye Guy and Why the Trees Died, an experimental animation documentary that fused his interests in philosophy and art. The film’s story was about the intergenerational “back in the day” New College myth set in Palm Court, where Mullick also screened the film in 1998. With that film, Mullick stamped his ticket to California Institute of the Arts’ Experimental Animation Program. In the pursuit of his own perfect moment, Mullick set out to “make one second of film as perfectly as possible” and to “make a perfect moment for a perfect stranger,” he said. He described this “perfect moment” as the ability to “see into some stranger’s heart and know what would make them happier than anything else in the world, and then choreograph that for them.” Mullick started his first goal in 2001 with The 1 Second Film, a collaborative experiment built around one second of animation, which became one of the first crowdfunded films (with more than 14,000 producers). The inspiration for his second goal materialized when he walked into an auto parts store in Los Angeles, California, looking for a door handle for his ancient car. He met a lonely
9-year-old boy there who had filled his father’s store with games made from cardboard boxes and other odds and ends. From the chance encounter, Mullick made Caine’s Arcade, an 11-minute video about the boy, his creation, and a community of players (who Mullick recruited via social media to pack the arcade). The video went viral, generating more than 10 million views. The experience inspired Mullick to create a nonprofit organization called Imagination.org, as well as The Global Cardboard Challenge (an annual event in which more than one million children have made their own cardboard games and creations). Mullick is now working on several projects related to the themes of moments and impact, including Larry’s Lawnchair, a film about Larry Walters (the man who tied balloons to a lawn chair and flew in 1982); and a project about New College alumnus Rick Doblin’s quest to legalize psychedelics for therapeutic use. Mullick is also creating a movie and social platform called #ClimateUprising, about the town of Paradise, California (and how it was destroyed by wildfires fueled by climate change). All of his work has its roots in the self-sufficiency ethos at New College’s core. As Mullick said, “That idea that ‘each student is responsible for his or her own education’—that always seemed right to me.”
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IN THE COMMUNITY
Building Empathy and Community: New College Students Volunteer, Learn and Grow WSLR Connects New College to the Community AT A TIME WHEN TECHNOLOGY DRIVES PEOPLE TO USE
individualized music libraries—where any song can be found and played in seconds—New College students are keeping a public platform alive at a local radio station. WSLR 96.5 LPFM (short for Why Sarasota Loves Radio) is a community-centric station in downtown Sarasota with music, news and talk shows. And the concept has its roots in New College. In 2003, students Bo Bentele and Sarah Kell, thenrepresentatives of the New College Student Alliance, negotiated an agreement to construct a low-power station that would be run by student representatives and community members. It was an instant hit with Novo Collegians. “I just really like the idea of sharing the music I like with the community. I hope people get involved with the music,” said student Lucille Sanz, who hosts a show on Thursdays, playing music by Latin American artists. New College students like Sanz have the opportunity to host shows during the “new radio” slots on Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday nights (five students hosted shows last semester alone). Students also connect to the public through live performances at Fogartyville Media and Arts Center, the station’s nonprofit community space; and activist events at the affiliated Peace Education and Action Center (PEACenter) organization.
New College continues to maintain a presence on WSLR’s board of directors, where Brendan Goff, assistant professor of history, and alumna Ryan Hartford Stanley hold seats. In fact, the WSLR governing board was mostly comprised of New College affiliates until 2006. In 2009, students voted to transfer the station license to WSLR, Inc. But WSLR and New College students constructed an agreement that WSLR would continue to offer students some programmer positions, seats on the board and internship opportunities. Student Olivia Pertierra currently hosts a weekly themed music/talk show from 11 p.m. to 1 a.m. on Wednesdays. “I’ve always wanted experience with broadcasting music and being a DJ, and WSLR seemed like a really good platform,” Pertierra said. “I like the comfort of programming late at night because it feels like less pressure.” Student Maya Greenberg has been working with WSLR and Fogartyville for two years as an activist intern for the PEACenter, and has hosted a radio show for a year. “It’s rare to find such an open and welcoming environment to try such unique things,” Greenberg said. “So many different people from the community walk in and I feel like I meet a new person every day. They always treat you like you’re family and thank you for contributing. You really feel the community effort. I have so much respect for community radio stations and the people that put so much effort into keeping them alive.” The full WSLR programming schedule can be found in the station’s newspaper, The Critical Times. More information about upcoming events, programs, initiatives, and the history of WSLR and Fogartyville, is available at wslr.org.
Oxfam Banquet Teaches Students about Global Poverty
New college students collaborate with WSLR staff on community programming.
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DURING AN EYE-OPENING AND EMPATHY-BUILDING event last fall, New College students got a taste of what life is like in hunger-stricken countries. The Oxfam America Hunger Banquet, a second-annual local dinner by an organization working to alleviate worldwide poverty, was held on November 21 at Ringling College of Art and Design’s Alfred R. Goldstein Library. Two student organizers, New College’s Sarah Lapton and Ringling’s Kelsey Van Horn, helped bring in 62 attendees (many of them students from both campuses). “Most of our students have been through some type of food insecurity or have close relations to someone who has,” Lapton said. “I wanted our students to be more educated on what their classmates might be going through. Food insecurity
happens to way too many people in the United States and around the world, and it is in correlation to poverty. Both are things that can change but it starts with awareness.” Raising awareness is the aim of Oxfam America, a global organization that works with people in more than 90 countries to create lasting solutions to poverty, hunger and injustice. Throughout the past 40 years, more than 850,000 people have attended Oxfam America Hunger Banquets. And the November event in Sarasota undoubtedly made an impact. As the attendees arrived, they each drew a card with a brief biography of a person that Oxfam has encountered in its work. The card and biography also determined each guest’s seating assignment. The cards included examples like Reshma, a 10-year-old girl from Pakistan who was forced by floods to flee her city; and Lai, a fisherman from Cambodia who was on the verge of losing his livelihood as the government planned to dam the river where he worked. Dani McCalla, the director of student activities and campus engagement at New College, drew the card of an affluent white man from Australia who was living off of his investments. Because McCalla was in the high-income group, she was one of 16 guests who was seated on the library’s patio (at tables for four that were set with glasses, two plates, stylish utensils and a lovely centerpiece). The guests were served salads and plates of pasta with sauce. Kaeli Williams, a New College fourth-year student working at the dinner, explained that “high-income” guests represented 20 percent of the global population, making more than $7,205 a year. “You have access to everything you need, and the security to enjoy it,” Williams told the group. The middle-income group of 24 guests sat at plain rectangular folding tables with paper plates and plastic forks, and lined up cafeteria-style for beans and rice. “Equality does not exist here,” said New College second-year student Daria Paulis, who also worked at the dinner. Paulis told the guests that, even in the wealthy United States, nearly 40 percent of people live at or below the poverty line. At one point, an event organizer introduced a middleincome guest as a successful farmer from Senegal (who had lost land to the government and livestock to polluted water). The organizer then directed the guest down to the lowincome group. New College first-year students Sierra Laico and Sofia Lombardi, in the low-income group, were directed to tarps and blankets on the lawn beneath the patio. In the middle of
Students gather at the Oxfam America Hunger Banquet to learn about global poverty.
the tarps was a single large pot of white rice. The students were not given dishes or utensils; instead, they had to temporarily swap a personal item for a paper plate and a spoon. Lombardi traded two bracelets just to find a way to eat, taking a few spoons of rice to save more for others in the impoverished group. “I was really surprised that, to be high-income, you can make less than $8,000 a year,” Lombardi said. “It’s insane what we take for granted.” Compared to her classmate, Lombardi did relatively well in her trade. Laico had to give up her handbag for her plate and fork after the servers refused her offer of a box of mints. “To see how many people live in poverty, that so many people live like this, while people like us have so much,” said Laico, her voice trailing off, “I don’t even know why we complain about anything.” McCalla, too, said the dinner made her think about everything she takes for granted. “It tugged on the heartstrings to physically see the disparity of how these ‘riches’ are shared,” McCalla said. “All this shows that the discussion and work we are doing is important, now more than ever.” For more information about Oxfam America, visit oxfamamerica.org.
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Coaching the Collegians The new Student Success Center offers one-on-one support BY A B BY W E I N G A RT E N ’0 0
Students connect at the Student Success Center.
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COACHING THE COLLEGIANS / FEATURE
WHEN NEW COLLEGE STUDENT BIANCA JEANPHILLIPE first started her thesis and graduate school applications, the pressure of completing both tasks in one year felt too daunting to face. Beck Tedeschi, knee-deep in biopsychology research, struggled to multitask and meet deadlines. And Angelica Velosa hit a mental roadblock every time she undertook a 10-page paper. All three students were on edge and overwhelmed by their workloads. They needed to regain their momentum and were not sure how to shift. But when the Student Success Center opened on campus in September 2019, it was an absolute game-changer. “On an emotional level, to be able to come into this office and say, ‘I’m overwhelmed,’ and to have a coach say, ‘OK, let’s talk about it,’ was huge,” said Tedeschi, a second-year student. “It’s like I was no longer shouting into the void.” This student sentiment of “shouting into the void” is all too common, and it is a major reason the Center (located in Hamilton Classroom 5) found its way to New College. The trials of undergraduate life and honors programs are real; they can lead to social/academic withdrawal and even dropping out entirely—a problem that the College, for years, has been attempting to mitigate. For students like Jeanphillipe, Tedeschi and Velosa, the Center and its peer coaches have been instrumental in their forward movement. The students are different people now: more confident, competent and well-groomed for scholarly (and ultimately, professional) progress. And their individual growth stories are early indicators of the Center’s future success.
“A Space for Everyone”
The Center is the brainchild of Anjali Cadena, New College’s director of student success and advocacy. She envisioned the space as a welcoming, unintimidating hub where students could come for guidance, camaraderie, or just to hang out and work on their laptops. Cadena insisted
that the coaches be students (and sometimes, alumni), and adopt a one-on-one approach to mentoring by using positive reinforcement techniques. The office’s aesthetic was also deliberate, with its vibrant rugs, modern furniture, fresh coffee, and boards with encouraging sticky notes. On a wooden table surrounded by sofas is a motivation jar filled with uplifting sayings on colorful paper scraps. The building does not look like an office; it has the vibe of a cozy bookstore or coffeehouse. “We want this to be a space for everyone,” said Cadena, who holds a master’s degree in student development, and built a student success program at a large northeastern university before joining New College. “We want everyone to feel welcome and we designed the Center to feel that way.” As students begin to feel at home, they are more inclined to open up and connect. They become receptive to learning new skills and get comfortable asking for help from the coaches, who have all been there themselves. They know what it’s like. They can relate and empathize. “For years, colleges and universities have operated from the model of, ‘If you can’t hack it, you’re not college material.’ Then, college retention numbers caused everyone to pay attention to the reasons that students were not succeeding,” Cadena said. “You may know how to get good grades, but that doesn’t mean you necessarily know how to communicate well, collaborate or present your work. We all are really good at different parts of our lives, and we have had to work harder to be competent in other parts of our lives.” So what does it mean to cultivate a well-rounded student— one who is not only intellectually adept but who can also be punctual, responsible and socially adjusted? It takes listening, care and time. Students might be referred to the Center by a professor or academic adviser, or they might wander into the office on their own. They might need guidance with note taking, goal setting, prioritization, organization, stress management or simply finding friendship.
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FEATURE / COACHING THE COLLEGIANS
“The idea is to teach them how to do things on their own, and it is a really empowering model of help. I think there’s sometimes an idea that, because it’s an honors college, the students don’t need help, and that’s just not true.” -Provost Barbara Feldman
To address these needs, coaches at the Center regularly organize group events like “Breaking Down Your Independent Study Project (ISP) and Managing Your Time,” “Picking a Planner for the New Year,” “Managing Distractions and Dealing with Procrastination,” “Motivation and Maintaining Energy,” and “Spring Prep: Creating Your Systems for Success.” Drawing from science-based best practices compiled by national experts, the Center’s staff members (now about five coaches) create individualized programs for the students. The coaches typically schedule meetings with the students for an hour each week for as long as they need the services. The students can pick their coaches by looking at the biographies on the Center’s online portal and selecting appointment blocks. Office hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.
The Realities of Retention
According to Barbara Feldman, Ph.D., New College’s provost and vice president for academic affairs, the Center “is long overdue” and part of an overarching effort to retain students. As students transition to New College academically and socially, the very first year is pivotal. Students who do not feel connected to the campus community within their first 40 to 60 days are more likely to leave, administrators have said. Before the Center launched, other recent retention efforts at New College were already affecting the attrition rate. The percentage of first-year students who returned for their second year increased from 76 percent in 2018 to 85 percent in 2019. The provost’s office is now training faculty members to better recognize early signs of student difficulties, and placing more teaching assistants in classes with higher rates of unsatisfactory student evaluations. While New College’s Center is too much in its infancy to show numerical trends, other national figures offer a glimpse into the current state of student success. The 2019 National Freshman Motivation to Complete College Report by the researchers at Ruffalo Noel Levitz (RNL) is a document that Cadena often references. It is a “study of the challenges and opportunities for completing a college degree” based on an analysis of more than 95,000 college freshmen. RNL researchers have been tracking freshman motivations
annually for more than a decade, and 2019 saw significant shifts in key areas. For example, 95 percent of incoming freshmen said they were deeply dedicated to finishing college, but 23 percent also questioned if college was worth the time, money and effort. Nearly one in four entering freshmen were unsure if college was worth the cost, and about one in four students had some level of confusion about their career choices. “While the trends have stabilized, many students still deal with difficult financial issues that distract them from their studies and career goals,” the report stated. “More question if college is worth their investment.”
A Path to Progress
As these national figures move, New College administrators are watching and working to keep students fully invested. Their goal is to point students in a common direction and, as Feldman put it, “all roads lead to the Student Success Center.” While it is not always clear at first what a student requires to prosper, the Center offers a space for at least beginning the dialogue. “Sometimes, students don’t even know what they need. The ability to take the time to sit with students and figure out what they need is really special,” Feldman said. “The idea is to teach them how to do things on their own, and it is a really empowering model of help. I think there’s sometimes an idea that, because it’s an honors college, the students don’t need help, and that’s just not true.” Since the Center opened, paid student coaches (who work 12 to 14 hours a week) have met with about 34 students, said alumna Kaylie Stokes ’12, the assistant director of student success programs. “A lot of students here are really bright and they’re sort of perfectionists, and they’re dropped into this place with a lot of other bright people. For the first time, something doesn’t feel like it’s coming quite as easily or naturally to them, and that is a super common experience,” Stokes said. “That Impostor Syndrome starts to kick in and, a lot of times, that leads to avoidance and shutting down and feeling anxious. Just talking through that and being like, ‘More than half of the people around here are probably feeling this way. Here are some ways
Anjali Cadena (left) and Kaylie Stokes ’12 (right) lead the Student Success Center team.
we can kind of tackle that’ makes a big difference.” While Cadena and her coaches pull from content that is standard in the student success arena, they individualize the practices to meet the nontraditional needs of Novo Collegians. “The argument is that honor students shouldn’t need all of this, and that’s a very flawed concept. This is a different ballgame here. The other thing is, life is happening in real time, so all the challenges you’re facing are things that—if we don’t provide help for them—will cost us a student,” Cadena said. “If you want to keep students, you want to give them momentum, have them connected, and let them know what they’re leaving behind should they choose to leave. If they do leave, they’re losing momentum and time, and that costs money.” Nicholas Pracko, a student coach at the Center, hopes to destigmatize the idea of asking for help. “I think there’s a stigma associated with student success centers or any structures of support. People might see you reaching out for support as showing some kind of weakness, but that’s not the case at all,” Pracko said. “You’re just getting the help you need so you can keep moving forward.” The signs of students pushing forward (and upward) are already visible. “I think we’re already seeing some evidence of retention. Our efforts are helping us identify students who need help earlier,” Feldman said. “I think, in another year or two, we’ll have statistics about exactly what the impact is.”
Successful Students
The statistics may not be in yet, but the students’ personal experiences speak volumes about the Center’s impact. For Tedeschi, the Center continues to be transformative. As a first-year student, Tedeschi had been looking for time-management resources on campus but the ideal avenues did not seem to exist. The following year, the Center opened
and Tedeschi began working closely with Stokes. “It’s definitely very grounding, coming in here. I think students often try to work things out on their own and there’s no reason that they need to,” Tedeschi said. “Being able to reach out and find the resources to help is also a skill that’s really useful overall.” Velosa, a second-year student concentrating on biological psychology and neuroscience, was so impressed with the Center’s services that she started working there. “When I was a first-year, it was harder than I thought it would be. Looking back, I see how much support I needed and how much energy it took to go from high school to college,” Velosa said. “I was not doing well in writing and almost failed a class because I didn’t know how to write a 10-page paper. It really affected me as a student. Now I’m more compassionate and able to put myself in other students’ shoes.” Jeanphillipe, a fourth-year student concentrating on American studies, has worked with coach Annabelle Wilson and is now on her way to finishing her undergraduate career. “Before I started coming here, I didn’t even know when my deadlines were. Whenever people would talk about grad school, I would jump, like ‘Oh, that’s right! I need to be doing that,’” said Jeanphillipe, who wrote most of her thesis at the Center. “Time management was nonexistent for me.” For her, something as simple as learning how to use a tool like Google Calendar revolutionized her entire outlook. “I know what I’m doing every day and I get things done now. I show up to meetings on time. I think it just makes me better as a person in every realm,” Jeanphillipe said. “You know, I really think the hardest part in getting anything done is just starting. This Center is a place where you can start things.” And this is just the start.
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ALUMNI FOCUS
2020 Reunion a Success! Nearly 300 alumni from 28 states and three countries gathered on the New College campus for the two-day 2020 New College Alumni Reunion on February 21 and February 22. Alumni had the opportunity to attend lectures and talks, take guided campus tours, revisit academic divisions, and break bread together at the convivial New College/New Table community dinner in College Hall on Friday night. “It was a remarkable celebration of everything New College,” said Dan Stults ’77, a co-chair of the event. “Several generations of alumni joined to share stories, reconnect, celebrate their alma mater’s 60th anniversary, and enjoy the natural splendor of our beautiful campus. It was a powerful affirmation that our roots run deep, no matter where our individual journeys have taken us.”
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GORDON MICHALSON / PROFILE
The Negotiator Gordon E. “Mike” Michalson Jr. led New College through challenging years BY DAVID GULLIV ER
AT THE HOME OF HUMANITIES PROFESSOR Gordon E.
“Mike” Michalson Jr., Ph.D., there is a football sitting in a transparent case. A gift from former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, it bears a signed message: “To President Michalson - Stay Undefeated.” The football was an appropriate farewell to Michalson when he stepped down as New College’s president in 2012, and it is just as fitting now, as Michalson retires after 28 years at the College. Michalson has served New College through some of its most tumultuous and critical times. From 1992 through 1997, he was dean and warden while the College was part of the University of South Florida (USF). Douglas Langston, professor of religion and chair of the search committee for the dean and warden position, recruited Michalson. “I said [to Douglas], ‘What makes you think I’d be good at it?,’” Michalson recalled. “And he said, “‘Because you can talk to people.’” And it took a particular sort of talking during the USF years. For example, at the time, New College faculty members were underpaid compared to their USF counterparts. So there were arguments to be made and people to be persuaded. Michalson’s background in religion and philosophy proved useful “in the sense of discovering premises and discovering flaws in arguments,” he said. When New College became independent from USF in 2001, Michalson was named president and served until June 2012. He shepherded New College through a gauntlet of tasks: accreditation, adoption of a campus master plan and the creation of the necessary back-office infrastructure. “It was a nightmare, that first year of our independence,” Michalson said, chuckling. “We worked really hard, covering for our despair.”
But the most daunting challenge, perhaps, was dealing with expectations that New College could not survive on its own. “A lot of people wanted us to fail,” he said. “They were very public about it.” Crucial to New College’s survival was building its reputation with the state legislature, members of the newly formed board of governors, and staff members of both. So Michalson, senior staff members and retired Sen. Bob Johnson (a universally respected lawmaker and supporter of the College), traveled to Tallahassee to make New College’s case. “My mantra from day one was that a quality liberal “I came away arts education is not a realizing, and deeply partisan matter. And that has the advantage of being appreciating, that true,” Michalson said. “The the real energy of things we give our students this place, year in here might not seem and year out, is relevant to job training but provided by the the ability to learn how to learn (and to do critical students.” thinking both individually and in a group setting, to learn how to cooperate, to learn how to think across boundary lines), these are keys to success. And who’s going to argue against those if they’re correctly communicated and understood?” Michalson’s commitment to these ideas made an impression on government officials and, over time, he built relationships with key players like Gov. Bush. “In meetings with the college presidents, Gov. Bush would say, ‘How’s that football team doing? Still undefeated?’ And I knew we were in,” Michalson said. Hence the autographed football from Gov. Bush when Michalson stepped down as president. Looking back through all the changes that New College has endured, the constant that defines it is the students, Michalson said. “I came away realizing, and deeply appreciating, that the real energy of this place, year in and year out, is provided by the students,” Michalson said. “Student bodies have changed quite a bit over the last 20 years, but that sense of intellectual curiosity is the electricity of this place.”
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PROFILE / STEPHEN MILES
The Composer Stephen Miles looks back on more than three decades of creativity at New College BY DAV ID GULLIV ER
WHETHER HE WAS PERFORMING IN A CONCERT OR RUNNING A FACULTY MEETING, New College of Florida music professor
Stephen Miles, D.M.A., always seemed at home. After more than three decades at the College, where his duties included chairing the humanities division and serving as provost, Miles is retiring this year. Artists are somewhat rare in higher education administration, but Miles says making music and managing are more in sync than you’d imagine. “In a way, it’s a lot like composing,” he said. “The definition of composing is to take things and put them together. Composing is also about structure and process, and that’s true of academic administration. We can have a vision of what we want to accomplish at the college, but often what’s needed is just a better structure of some kind, a structure that allows the faculty and students and staff to be fully creative. But there has to be a structure. Just wanting to be creative isn’t enough.” Miles came to New College from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1988 and, after earning tenure, became the chair of the humanities division. In 2011, he was named provost, the College’s top academic officer, and bridged the tenures of presidents Gordon E. “Mike” Michalson Jr. and Donal O’Shea. “Steve worked tirelessly to ease my way into New College culture,” O’Shea said. “He is an extraordinary administrator, scholar, musician, performer and teacher. And he is unfailingly cheerful.” In 2016, O’Shea, Miles and the College’s leadership team got the chance of a lifetime. The Board of Governors for the State University System of Florida, in essence, told them to make their best case for millions of dollars in new funding. Miles’ role was to work with faculty to develop plans for new programs and positions. A year later, the board and the state government delivered $5.4 million, launching the first phase of New College’s growth plan.
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Miles points to that growth funding as New College’s biggest success in his time here. “There is nothing that will have had a greater impact on the College’s future than that,” he said. “Finally, we’re in a position to develop New College as we see fit—in keeping with our vision but also in response to the world as it has changed.” Beyond his administrative work, Miles’ interest as a musician and professor at New College often focused on how composition shapes relationships, particularly in live performances. And from that fascination was born his most tangible legacy: the New Music New College concert series. Now in its 22nd year, the series has brought truly groundbreaking performers to campus and has even involved students in performances. “For me, it brought everything together. It brought my teaching and my composing and my performing and my service all into one program,” Miles said. “What most people see is the series, the tip of the iceberg. The series is the public part of it. All the work with students, the work behind the scenes, the students who are composing and experimenting, and the educational activities—those are all things that are important to New Music New College, and contribute to what people eventually see in the performances.” In a way, New Music New College brings Miles’ career full circle. A musician and teacher named Mark Dancigers first came to New College as a performer in the concert series. In January, the College announced that Dancigers, now the assistant professor of digital media and music, would be the next director of New Music New College. The experimental character of the concert series, Dancigers said, aligns perfectly with New College’s experimental character. And it was that character that Miles consistently nurtured during his time on campus. “I could tell that this would be a great place to teach and a great place to learn,” Miles said. “And so, for 32 years, I’ve been teaching here, and I’ve been learning.”
FRANCINE BLUM / PROFILE
The ABCs of Financial Literacy Francine Blum lends her expertise to New College students BY S U BYRO N
A STELLAR CAREER IS RARE. Financial expert and student mentor Francine Blum had several. The New College Foundation board member forged paths in the highly competitive fields of publishing, real estate and high finance. She held seats on the New York Stock Exchange, and mastered the art of global stock and option exchanges. Upon retiring, Blum co-authored Think Rich! Get Rich! Stay Rich! (Outskirts Press, 2015), a witty guide to financial independence for women. And after joining the Foundation’s board in 2017, Blum put her monetary acumen to work for the College and its students. “Most of our undergraduates depend on financial aid,” Blum said. “They need to stretch their dollars and cents today and start building for financial freedom tomorrow. I’m here to help.” And Blum has helped, in every way she can. She was recently invited to teach a crash course at New College on financial literacy, in which she covered credit cards, budgeting, lease agreements and the baby steps to investing. Above all, she stressed the dangers of debt. “Debt remains constant until it’s paid off. We’ve all heard student debt horror stories, but that’s only one pitfall. Credit card debt can hit hard if you miss a payment,” Blum said. “And if you take out a car loan, the bank doesn’t care if you lose your job. The monthly payment still comes due regardless of income.” To ease students into the financial realm, Blum took groups
to the David Kotok and Cumberland Advisors Bloomberg Lab at the University of South Florida Sarasota-Manatee (its 12 Bloomberg terminals offer real-time data from markets around the world). “These terminals are windows into the financial universe,” Blum said. “New College students can find stats on every listed public corporation. They can access this wonderful asset through the Cross College Alliance.” Smartphones also provide a wealth of financial data, Blum said. “Years ago, you had to sit in a stockbroker’s office to find a real-time stock quote,” Blum said. “Now, if you know the name of a public corporation, your iPhone can instantly tell you what a stock is selling for.” Blum even organized a visit to TD Ameritrade in Sarasota to have students meet financial advisors and see how stocks are traded in real life. Did the students emerge as Wall Street wizards? “Of course not,” Blum “They need to stretch laughed. “Taking the mystery their dollars and out of the stock market was my goal. Uninitiated students can cents today and start be terrified of investment. But building for financial knowledge drives out fear.” freedom tomorrow. Blum’s recommended first I’m here to help.” steps for first-time student investors? “The S&P 500 is a wonderful basket of stocks. Returns are solid. Students should invest with familiar companies: Apple, Tesla or McDonald’s,” Blum said. “Even a single share will offer a better interest rate than a savings account and will grow over time if you reinvest the yield.” In addition to her work with New College students, Blum is leading the committee that is rejuvenating the Four Winds Legacy Society, which recognizes donors who have included New College in their estate plans. “Legacy donors are an inspiration to all who share a vision for New College’s future and want to invest in the leaders of tomorrow,” Blum said. “They share a common cause and passion: New College. From our students to our faculty, these people are truly exceptional. The more time I spend with them, the more passionate I become about empowering their full potential in the future.”
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PROFILE / STEVEN LUBKA ’13
Cryptocurrency and the New College Connection Steven Lubka ’13 shares his industry insights BY M ART Y FUGATE WHEN PHILOSOPHER MARSHALL MCLUHAN SAID, “The future belongs to the generalists,” he might have been looking at Steven Lubka ’13 in a crystal ball. After graduating from New College with a general studies area of concentration in 2015, Lubka jumped into the emerging field of cryptocurrency. In 2019, the entrepreneur and global consultant pioneered a bitcoin donation system for the New College Foundation website, making New College one of the first schools in the state to adopt the cutting-edge system. Lubka believes the concept is the perfect way to invest in the future of the College and its students.
What fascinates you about cryptocurrency? I see it as the natural evolution of money. A global currency not issued by a central government is a natural extension of the trajectory money has taken. What motivated you to set up a bitcoin donation option on the New College Foundation website? I thought it was a good move for the College on several fronts. However, my key motivation is gratitude for what New College did for me. I wasn’t a tech or science major. I majored in general studies, where I learned to jump into new fields and take charge of my own education—all the skills I needed to succeed. It also taught me I don’t have to settle for a single specialty. I feel strongly that my experience enabled me to jump into an emerging technology field. I recognized that New College made my success possible and I wanted to pay it back. And online bitcoin donation was a great way to do that? Definitely. I realized it offered huge potential for the College. I had the expertise, I had a solution to make it possible, and the New College Foundation ultimately agreed. What are the benefits of bitcoin donation? First, it allows New College to tap into previously untapped donor assets. A host of investors have made millions in bitcoin. Once they cash in, they get hit with capital gains tax galore. Instead of writing a check to the Internal Revenue Service, most investors would prefer making a donation with impact, and New College is the ideal candidate for their philanthropy. Practically, online bitcoin donation
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offers ease of use. Philosophically, bitcoin is very much in the spirit of New College; it’s cutting-edge tech for a cutting-edge school. Was New College the first higher education institution in Florida to integrate bitcoin donations? Officially, yes, although Florida Gulf Coast University took a single bitcoin donation in 2014. On the national level, Harvard University was the first to invest its endowment in cryptocurrency tokens and funds. Do you think other colleges will follow New College’s example? Absolutely. Most colleges now accept donations in stocks and bonds and other non-cash assets. Bitcoin is simply another asset. Practically speaking, how do you make a bitcoin donation on the New College Foundation website? At the donation portal, you’ll see a button to donate via bitcoin. Click on that and you get an address to send it to. Enter the amount and send it. That’s it. Of course, you’d need a bitcoin account to do that. Along with your information technology work, you also do concierge physical therapy. What’s the connection? New College! It taught me I don’t have to confine myself to a narrow specialty. I did my thesis on the effects of physical mobility on well-being. Physical therapy is a big part of my life. New College taught me I don’t have to give it up.
FOUNDATION FOCUS
New College’s 41st Clambake Raises $318,000 for Student Scholarships
Nearly 400 people gathered on the New College campus for the 41st annual Clambake on November 7. Guests enjoyed the beautiful sunset, invigorating company, and an inspired feast. They also gathered to celebrate New College’s faculty and students who comprise its community of scholars. This year’s Clambake netted $318,000 for student scholarships!
New College Four Winds Legacy Society
Legacy Society chair Francine Blum welcomed guests to a luncheon event on January 9 and thanked them for their support. “Legacy donors serve as an inspiration to all who share a vision for New College’s future and want to make an investment in the leaders of tomorrow,” she said.
Downton to Gatsby: Jewelry and Fashion from 1890 to 1929
Andrew Prince has created dazzling collections of jewelry for Downton Abbey and for such prestigious institutions as The Victoria and Albert Museum. He shared his insights about the intersection of jewelry, fashion and history in the opulent era at the turn of the 20th century at a fundraising event in January at College Hall.
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CLASS NOTES
WE THANK YOU. 1960s Lawrence Paulson ‘65 wanted people to know that Frederick (Rick) von Behren ’64 died March 10 after a long illness.
New College of Florida is profoundly grateful for the support of our alumnae/i who reached out to members of the Florida legislature to express support for New College retaining its independence. Your efforts made a real difference in halting House Bill 7087 that would have merged New College with the University of Florida. We appreciate all of you who rallied, testified, and advocated for this extraordinary institution. Your efforts will allow us to deliver on our mission to prepare intellectually curious students for lives of great achievement.
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A novel by David Rottman ‘66 entitled Sex, Love, and Therapy was recently published and is available on Amazon. Lynwood (Shiva) Sawyer NC ’69 Pigtown Books (publishers of Frank Hickey’s Dancing Max Royster Mystery series and cult film director Richard Haines’ 24-Frames-perSecond Thrillers series) has published my romantic thriller, Windswept. How far would you go to protect the only man whom you ever loved and who loved you in return? A man targeted for assassination by his employer, a voracious multinational corporation enraged by your lover’s selfless action to protect an endangered island tribe. What boundaries would you cross? Which of your most cherished scruples would you violate to save his life?
CLASS NOTES
Trapped in a life-or-death struggle against an adversary with endless patience, seeming omniscience and limitless funds, New Yorker Meghan Joyce is about to find out. “There are a lot of fun elements in this story as it makes use of different settings around the city…well-drawn characters…An often enjoyable romp.” (Kirkus Reviews) “Inside every woman lurks a little bit of Meghan Joyce. Maybe a lot. And you?” (Valdivia Beauchamp; Stigma) “Windswept is a thrilling romantic, tension-filled ride that takes the nailbiting reader through the quirks of the Big Apple.” Cynthia Webb; No Daughter of the South). Watch the teaser, directed by Linzy Attenborough and starring noted British actor Jonathan Hansler, at youtube.com: sawyer - windswept novel.
1970s David Silverman ‘70 After 39 ½ years of practicing communications and trademark law in Washington, D.C., I finally graduated (some would say “retired”) on Dec. 31, 2019. Since then, I have been traveling and preparing tax returns for low and moderate income folks through the IRS’ VITA (Volunteer Income Tax Assistance) program in Alexandria, Virginia. Later this year, I will be knocking on doors for the U.S. Census, all while trying to avoid any contact with the coronavirus. It was truly great to see my former classmates and friends at the reunion in February. Herb Guggenheim ’74 was published in the fall of 2019 by Ecclesiastes Press. The Nothingness Imperative is a novel, and available in paperback and ebook formats from Amazon and other major booksellers. The audiobook version is available from Amazon, iTunes, and Audible. From the back of the book: “Washed up English professor and recovering narcissist Skip Gershwin doesn’t expect time travel to be a part
of his daily life. Nor does he anticipate becoming a member of a nihilistic death cult. But when a mysterious silver cylinder falls into his possession, his life path takes a series of bizarre turns. Sought after by an elusive cult leader, a band of impudent millennials, his laconic girlfriend, and a duo of unorthodox federal agents, Skip is forced to confront a disturbing truth— The Nothingness Imperative!” Herb is the author of two novels and two books of poetry. He’s been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and a Best of the Net award. His first novel, Violations of Causality, was a finalist in the 2016 Foreword INDIES Book of the Year competition. Herb does most of his writing at a seedy all-night diner in Rockville, Maryland. John Connelly ‘76 was elected to the New College Alumni Association’s board of directors in September 2019. Along with the rest of the board, he is committed to strengthening alumni influence and support of the school for the present and future. Please donate to support New College of Florida! Molly O. Hoopes ‘78 After living on a sailboat for the past three years while I worked as a seasonal park ranger on Hart-Miller Island, I recently bought a house across from Herring Run Park in Baltimore City to be closer to my new job as a naturalist for Baltimore City Recreation and Parks. In this capacity, I work at Cylburn Arboretum four days a week and the H.P. Rawlings Conservatory in Druid Park one day a week. My areas of responsibility include school field trips, homeschool lessons, family fun days with arts and crafts workshops, interpretive nature hikes, guided Cylburn Mansion tours, trail maintenance, botanical art classes, and organizing annual botanical art exhibits. I was featured in the newsletter of Johns Hopkins School of Education (from which I received my master of arts degree in teaching) and have been invited to participate in a “Dream Job”
panel discussion at Hopkins in January. My second job is as the Baltimore area coordinator for the Monarch Sister Schools Program, for which I connect schoolchildren here with those living near the Monarch Butterfly Reserves in Mexico. Every year in February, I will co-lead a tour to the sanctuary with a focus on drawing and painting nectar flowers and butterflies, in case anyone is interested in joining us. I had an extra special holiday this year as my two sons returned from San Francisco for an extended visit. My youngest daughter is about to begin her nursing studies. She wants to become a nurse-midwife after having given birth to both her children at home with no midwife. My oldest daughter has a pair of four-year-old twins and a full-time job and is working towards her M.B.A. They all live in Baltimore near me, which is really a treat!
1980s Scott Nelson ‘84 received a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship in 2019-20 for a history of cheap American wheat and its role in the collapse of the Russian and Ottoman empires. Having taught for 22 years at The College of William & Mary, he’s now UGA Athletics Association Professor of the Humanities at the University of Georgia, where he teaches history. He still uses his New College notes from Doenecke’s US survey, Snyder’s Medieval France and Spain course, and his Russian language class. Ray Drainville ’88 Last September, I started working as an assistant professor, teaching design and digital culture at the University of Waterloo’s Stratford School in Canada.
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CLASS NOTES
1990s
friendlier lifestyle. (Find out more at sustainabilitymadeeasier.com.) One of the surprising things Jesse has learned since starting the project is that she enjoys creating podcasts. On the Sustainability Made Easier Interviews podcast, she conducts brief, but insightful and inspiring interviews with authors, researchers, and innovators as they share how they are making sustainable practices accessible to new audiences and making a difference for our planet. New College alum Sean Patton ‘11 and former New College student Rebecca Wood ‘99 have been featured on the podcast. You can find the Sustainability Made Easier and the Sustainability Made Easier Interviews podcasts on all major podcasting platforms. Jesse is always looking for folks to collaborate with. If you or someone you know is working in the sustainability or environmental fields, please reach out to her at SustainabilityMadeEasier@gmail.com or on Twitter @EasySustainable.
Rebecca Davidson ’05 is a yoga and meditation teacher (RYT-500). In May 2019, she finally finished her B.A. in studio art at Delaware State University. She is currently pursuing her M.F.A. in painting at Savannah College of Art & Design. Rebecca resides in Delaware with her 11-year-old daughter. You can find her work on her website, rebeccadavidsonart.com.
Katharine Stevenson ‘08 recently accepted a new position with AI company CrowdANALYTIX.
Kelley Wiley Lane ‘00 This year, look for us as we hike 800 miles alongside the Alaska Pipeline, from Valdez to Prudhoe Bay. We’ll blog about it on adventuresbyfoot.blogspot.com.
Laine Forman ‘04 and her husband, Brendan, welcomed their first child in December, Bina Madrone. They couldn’t be happier watching this little one grow! Bina does all the good things babies do, including cooing, snuggling, and paying rent. And she’s always excited to have visits from fellow bay-area alumni, Heather Normandale and Miriam Schwartz Kanani.
This is an exciting year for Jesse Palenchar ‘00. Her son, Edon, who many of you may remember as a baby, will be graduating from high school and St. Petersburg College, earning his A.A. degree and high school diploma simultaneously. He will be heading to the University of Florida in the fall to study mechanical engineering. Jesse has embarked on a new project called Sustainability Made Easier. It is a multiplatform resource that provides busy people with simple, impactful actions to create lasting changes towards an eco-
Matt Newton ’05 has been elected chairman of the Hillsborough County Human Relations Board. The Board reviews complaints filed under Hillsborough County’s Human Rights Ordinance, which promotes fair treatment and equal opportunity for people regardless of race, religion, color, sex, national origin, age, disability, marital status, sexual orientation, and gender identification or expression. Matt Newton is attorney and doublecertified mediator (circuit and appellate) in Tampa, Florida.
Eric S. Piotrowski ‘93 recently dropped two books in one day. Class Consciousness gathers reflections and advice from 20 years in the classroom, from social management to self-care to political impact. Cancel the Apocalypse offers young people a primer on a range of issues from feminism to anti-racist activism to human rights. Both books incorporate a cornucopia of pop culture allusions, practical information, and perspectives based on personal experience. They’re available for Fugazi-style prices at just-text.org.
2000s
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David ‘07 and Courtney ‘08 Belew welcome the newest member of their family, Eleanor “Ellie” Rahe Belew, born on January 23.
Lane Silberstein ‘08 I’ve written about Jews and socialism for Jacobin, Jewish Currents and Cosmonaut. Mostly I spend my time as a humble cheesemonger in Queens, New York. I recently took a cruise to the Caribbean with my girlfriend where I contracted coronavirus. We had a lovely time! If you’re ever near the Ditmars stop in Astoria, I will give you some free cheese. Hope everyone’s voting for Bernie.
2010s Taylor Parker ‘10 I graduated from law school in 2017 and started working at New College in January doing Title IX and anti-discrimination law compliance! It feels so great to be home!
THE NEW COLLEGE FUND
PLEASE, REMEMBER TO GIVE. Your support of New College is vital to our mission to prepare intellectually curious students for lives of great achievement. June 30 marks the end of the New College Foundation’s fiscal year. In order for your annual fund gift to be included in the 2019-20 year, be sure it is postmarked or received online no later than June 30. For more information, or to make a gift, visit ncf.edu/inspire or mail a check in the enclosed envelope in this issue of Nimbus. Thank you!
NEW COLLEGE ALUMNI ASSOCIATION NEW COLLEGE FOUNDATION, INC. THE KEATING CENTER 5800 BAY SHORE ROAD SARASOTA, FL 34243-2109
Connect with New College facebook.com/NewCollegeofFlorida facebook.com/NewCollegeFoundation facebook.com/NewCollegeAlumAssociation youtube.com/NewCollegeofFL twitter.com/NewCollegeofFL, @NewCollegeofFL
ON CAMPUS
Real-World Success By hosting job-market-minded events throughout the year—from career fairs to information sessions—the Center for Career Engagement and Opportunity (CEO) gives students a taste of what they will find beyond campus parameters. Recent gatherings have included a STEM networking event, a Fulbright information session, a Job Shadow Day, and a virtual Reverse Career Fair.