ncfcatalyst.com | @ncfcatalyst
CATALYST
VERN BUCHANAN LAW CLUB pg.
SEPTEMBER 18, 2019 VOLUME XXXIX ISSUE II
3
LGBTQ+ FILM FEST pg.
New College of Florida's student-run newspaper
BY IZAYA GARRETT MILES
5
pg.
9
Bahamas devastated by Dorian
Hurricane Dorian: while its menace was largely diminished by the time it reached Florida, it caused a crisis in the Bahamas as it stalled over early Sept. It was the most powerful storm to ever hit the island nation. Entire neighborhoods have been leveled by the hurricane, at least 50 people have died and thousands more remain missing according to the Royal Bahamas Police Force. On Sept. 1, Dorian came to the islands of the Grand Bahama and Abaco. The storm slowed down significantly while it was over the islands, at some points moving as slow as one mile per hour. Throughout this time, it still raged with 185 miles per hour winds. The Bahamas endured two full days of the storm’s devastation after it made landfall. The damage Dorian inflicted on the Bahamas was staggering. The electrical grids of the Grand Bahama
photo courtesy of U.S. Coast Guard Atlantic Area Many homes were completely obliterated by Hurricane Dorian.
and Abaco were shut down during the storm. While most of the Grand Bahama’s electrical grid has been repaired, Abaco remains powerless as of Sept. 12. In total, Dorian was estimated to have beget $7 billion worth of damages to a country with a gross domestic product of $12 billion. The human cost of Dorian only adds to the tragedy. Officials esti-
mate that over 70,000 people have been rendered homeless by the storm, almost 18 percent of the island nation’s population. There have been 50 people confirmed killed in the immediate aftermath of the hurricane and 2,500 more are still reported missing. Authorities suspect that the death toll will only climb as the search progresses.
The stalling of Dorian over the Bahamas may be reflective of a new regular occurrence. Dorian slowed because the high atmospheric pressure system that had been guiding it over the Atlantic stalled almost completely. Without the pressure pushing it, Dorian lingered in one place and was able to inflict more damage. This is demonstrative of a wider trend that meteorologists have noticed. According to a June 2019 study, hurricanes have slowed over the last year by roughly 10 percent. The study puts forward that the changes in atmospheric dynamics are the result of the overall warming of the Earth’s climate. As the Earth warms, more storms are going to linger after they make landfall, subjecting those areas to even harsher weather than they otherwise would receive. continued on p. 5
Art & Science Group presents findings on enrollment BY HALEY BRYAN
https://doc-0k-18-docs. googleusercontent.com/ docs/securesc/s7jurnmk912se8sp3mgg3hd8llrh0uos/obdpo7fpcdn719 co01n4qb7t57rv346b/1 506448800000/0533393 9401667025082/025783 83506865688437/0B4ze ECbsUTILVjVXY25YUU 52ZUk?e=download
With regression rather than progress among plans to grow the student body, harrowing trends in new student enrollment have been a central threat to the academic, financial and social livelihood of New College. A third-party investigation conducted by the Art & Science Group has recently extended the school a lifeline to gain insight on factors impeding student growth and possible avenues for change at an institutional level. The Group presented their internal findings, which will feed into an official report on student enrollment and attrition, before the campus community at the Sainer Auditorium on Thursday, Sept. 12 and Friday, Sept. 13. The independent firm, the Art & Science Group, specializes in investigating the effectiveness of institutional strategies for achieving their primary goals. In the case of New College, the Art & Science Group
WHAT’S INSIDE
focused on explaining the nuanced elements that drive aversive behaviors of the school among both current and prospective students in an attempt to inform institutional approaches for recruiting and retaining students. The Group designed its study by reaching out to constituencies of interest to find out information about what sets New College apart from comparable options. "What we [at the Art & Science Group] do is to start by intensively trying to understand what New College is, what makes it tick, what people value and what are the kind of things we might want to do differently," a spokesperson for the firm said during the forum discussion. The Art & Science Group began its report of New College by designing instruments to analyze central decisions affecting enrollment at New College. Figures from the firm visited faculty, students and staff to collect data from observations of
4
Berlin Wall Replica
campus life. The Group also conducted preliminary and follow-up phone interviews with some 300 individuals qualifying in the school's applicant pool to collect data to inform modeling strategies. Together, information across current and prospective students fed into methods described as "simulated decision modeling" to approach the unconscious and conscious factors shaping students' behaviors of New College relative to competing institutions. The Group acknowledged the admirable degree of mentorship and personally-resonating curriculums accessible at the school before discussing significant institutional challenges, including issues around a diffuse set of competitors and a disengaged pool of prospective students. Regarding disengagement, the Group noted that data from twothirds of participants during phoneinterviews were rejected based on
6
"Homelessness in Focus"
the extent that the students were disqualified or too disinterested to be considered prospects of New College. In addition, more than half of the interviewed students that were known to have applied to the school did not mention New College while listing institutions they had applied to. Accordingly, the Group concluded that New College does not rank highly among individual considerations of possible undergraduate schools. The Group also discussed measures of strength of New College's competitive position across different institutions. "On a ten-point scale of overall appeal of institutions that non-applicants are preferring right now, nonapplicants have to travel 5.3 points to get to the same level of appeal for New College: a very, very long distance—it always is—but longer than we [the Art & Science Group] usually see," the spokesperson said. "[New continued on p. 5
12
New Faculty Hires