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CATALYST
SNOOTY MEMORIAL NCF BILL BREAKDOWN
SEPTEMBER 18, 2017 VOLUME XXXV ISSUE I
New College of Florida's student-run newspaper
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CAMPUS MAKEOVER pg.
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Awaiting Irma
How New College's president and administration responded to the hurricane BY GIULIA HEYWARD
Hurricane Irma was projected to hit the Tampa Bay area on the evening of Sunday, Sept. 9 before heading north Monday morning. Florida governor Rick Scott told Floridians to evacuate the state at a news conference on Sept. 9. Among congested traffic and skyrocketing plane tickets, over 200 students were left on New College’s campus, awaiting Irma. “Scary,” New College President Donal O’Shea said when asked to recount his experience with Hurricane Irma in a phone interview. “I don’t want another one.” An emergency response team comprised of the New College Police Department (NCPD), Student
photos courtesy of Mark Stier
New College President Donal O' Shea was on campus during Hurricane Irma.
Affairs and Physical Plant staff was formed and hurricane shelters at the Harry Sudakoff and Academic Center of Excellence (ACE) buildings were opened. "It starts with looking at the forecast,” O’Shea, who slept in Physical Plant during the hurricane,
along with Provost Barbara Feldman, said. “We didn’t want to send out an evacuation too soon because it was looking for a while like it was going up the east coast.” O’Shea moved into Physical Plant on Saturday because it was near the Dort and Goldstein dorms.
He recounts that it was eerie listening to the wind. “ACE is more sound proof than Physical Plant and there was some water leaking [into the building].” Residence Hall Director (RHD) and New College alum Kaylie Stokes (‘12) mentioned the emotionally intense experience for administration during the hurricane. “As a side note, our staff are also people and were feeling fear and concern about this storm as well, while being separated from their families so that they could be here to support students during the storm and assist with preparation,” Stokes said. continued on p. 9
Building Heiser: cost, collaboration and community spaces BY JACOB WENTZ It’s hard to miss; the large white geometric structure lines the top of Dort Promenade, sporting various light blue rectangles around its exterior. Some say that it’s an eyesore, others say that it’s a massive improvement to the campus. Construction on the 22,000 square foot building began in Oct. 2016 and is nearing its completion after just one year. The official grand opening is scheduled for Oct. 12, though students and professors alike are already using the new features that the space offers. Each year, more than one-quarter of students declare an area of concentration in mathematics or sciences, making New College the second highest natural sciences provider in the state of Florida, behind the University of Florida (UF). As the college intends to increase its student body, an updated, larger science building fits in well. Numbers, costs and data Funded by the state, the 9.7 million dollar project increased the size of the natural sciences building by more
WHAT’S INSIDE
Jacob Wentz/Catalyst
The new addition not only creates new collaborative, open spaces, but also attempts to bring the outdated building up to the standards of 21st-century science.
than 50 percent. According to Milton, the breakdown of expenses are as followed: around $750,000 dollars was spent on design, over one million dollars was spent on furniture, fittings and equipment and the rest—around $7.5 million—was spent on construction. “The way that the finances work, there is a formula from the state that
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gives you the amount of money based on square footage,” Milton said. Based on the money that was received, the building should have been around 20,000 square feet. “We managed to push the envelope to 22,000 square feet,” Milton said. This addition, combined with the 34,000 square feet of the original
9 INTERNET ARTISTS
wings, creates a total 56,000 square foot complex that the natural sciences department desperately needed. “It’s long overdue,” New College of Florida President Donal O’Shea said. “When we originally built the building, it was supposed to have three wings. For some reason it got delayed, and then there was a time of inflation in building prices and the last wing got value engineered out, so they built a smaller building than they’d intended.” A collaborative procedure A building committee of professors from each of the different Natural Science disciplines created lists of requirements for the new wing and reviewed all of the possible layouts and designs. “Katie Walstrom really shepherded the whole thing,” O’Shea said. “Don’t let her tell you it was an easy job; everyone always has different ideas of what to do and she was really masterful at making sure that everybody was heard.” Among the list of requirements
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