MINARET UNIVERSITY OF TAMPA’S NEWS SOURCE SINCE 1933
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Volume 77 Number 20
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February 17, 2011
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Driver Charged in Nicoletti’s Death Sentenced to 15 Years Tampa father of two convicted of hit-and-run and leaving the scene of a fatal accident
By JOSHUA NAPIER
News + Features Asst. Editor
Originally posted on Erik Nicoletti’s Facebook Page
Former communications major, Nicoletti, pictured above during a trip to Bangkok, was killed in November 2009 during a hit-and-run accident.
It has been more than a year since University of Tampa student Erik Nicoletti died in a hit-andrun accident. Last week, the man charged with his death was sentenced to 15 years in prison. According to police, in late November 2009 Nicoletti and Cree Riley, an acquaintance, were walking along Kennedy Boulevard late at night when Tampa man Andres Trujillo hit them with his vehicle. Both Nicoletti and Riley were taken to Tampa General Hospital, where Riley was treated for a broken arm and jaw. Nicoletti was pronounced brain dead a day later and was soon taken off life support. Trujillo, 29, was sentenced to
15 years in prison and 15 years probation following his release after being charged with leaving the scene an accident with death. Trujillo has also been ordered to serve 100 hours of community service and pay restitution to the victim’s families. In addition, he will permanently lose his driver’s license. Riley, 20, spoke to Trujillo at the trial last Tuesday. It was the first time she had seen him or spoken to him in person. “I just want to know why?” Riley asked through tears. “How could you leave people by the side of the road? You just left us there like we were nothing. How could you do something like that?” “Erik was unfairly robbed of his life at a young age,” said Nicoletti’s mother, Dorothy Nicoletti, in court.
See 2, Nicoletti
Master Class: University to Launch Creative Writing MFA By SHIVANI KANJI News Reporter
The University of Tampa is exploring new boundaries as they approve a new Master of Fine Arts Degree in Creative Writing. The degree will be offered beginning in January 2012 and will be a two-year program. According to the university website, “Students attend four 10-day working residencies on campus, capped off by a fifth, culminating residency. Each residency is followed by a five-month, one-on-one tutorial with a faculty mentor. As part of the requirements for the degree, students will complete a substantial manuscript of original work in a selected genre.” The Associate Dean of Graduate and Continuing Studies, Donald Morilll, explained, “The new low-residency MFA in Creative Writing has been approved, and the first residency will be held on the UT campus, Jan. 5-14, 2012.
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It will feature the inaugural and guest faculty listed on the UT web-page and program overview .pdf, as well as other guest writers yet to be named.” Tuition for the January 2012 residency is $7,200, with an additional $1,000 optional housing fee for universityarranged accommodations. Morrill also explained on the school website that “the program is designed to help poets, fiction writers and creative nonfiction writers advance their command of craft through exposure to literature from a writerly perspective and with supportive critique and mentoring.” “UT is also conducting a national search for a program director and hopes to have this person in place by June 1, 2011,” the website goes on to say. Some of the details about the program are yet to be finalized, but should be available to the public soon. The English and Writing Department is excited about
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this new step and for the new opportunities it will bring for future students. “It is the first graduate program for UT’s College of Arts and Letters and thus an exciting new venture for the college and the program’s home department, English and Writing, as well the university at large,” Morrill said. “Our aim is to make this program one of the finest in the country.” He said that the reason why the university decided on creative writing was because, “[The university] has a strong creative writing faculty in its English and Writing Department; and the College of Arts and Letters, and the university at large, is committed to adult students as part of its mission of encouraging life-long learning. “Across the country, there is an increasing demand for exceptional academic programs dedicated to the personal and professional growth of adult learners,” Morril went on to say. “The low-residency format is
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“The program is designed to help poets, fiction writers and creative nonfiction writers advance their command of craft.”
- Donald Morilll, Associate Dean of Graduate and Continuing Studies
a new paradigm for UT, and with the great flexibility it provides, we expect to draw students of all ages from across the country and make UT a preeminent literary community.” The Dean of the College of Arts and Letters, Haig Mardirosian added that, “No other MFA ideas in [the College of Arts and Letters] were ready for discussion outside of their departments. The Creative Writing MFA is the flagship MFA for the university.” “[The] curriculum is proposed and approved by faculty. Faculty in the English Department had
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been working on a proposal for graduate study in Creative Writing for many years. Clearly, it represents a strength in the College or Arts and Letters and across the campus as a whole as well as a field where there is demand from individuals already in the profession who seek to deepen their experience and abilities,” said Mardirosian. More information about the degree can be found on or by contacting the Office of Graduate and Continuing Studies. Shivani Kanji can be reached at shivani.kanji@ut.edu.
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