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CATALYST
APRIL 12, 2017 VOLUME XXXV ISSUE VII
New College of Florida's student-run newspaper
SYRIA STRIKES PRIDE BALL pg.
8
pg.
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INTERFAITH PASSOVER pg.
10
Who is to blame for bias?
New College and Herald-Tribune debate data that inspired judicial oversight bill BY JASMINE RESPESS AND PARIESA YOUNG A study authored, but not released, by Director of Data Science Patrick McDonald and several data science graduate students is making waves in the headlines and legislature. The study called into question the findings of a Sarasota Herald-Tribune report, which revealed that Florida judges unfairly sentence Black defendants to more time in jail than White defendants. New College President Donal O’Shea decided to get McDonald involved in the research, because he believed that judges were being specifically targeted as biased, especially Judge Charles Williams, a Black man. “There was something serious going on in there, but to blame the Black judges seemed to me to be just [...] like an old story,” O’Shea said. “Whether you
Giulia Heyward/Catalyst
At the April 9 Towne Meeting, Donal O'Shea appeared to answer students' questions about the recent Herald-Tribune article.
should assign that to judges is difficult and whether you should say the judges are biased is another thing.” In sociological studies by professors at places such as Northwestern University, it has
been proven that people of color face bias in the criminal justice system. Reporters from publications such as the Washington Post have used these findings to report that racial bias causes Black Americans to face greater
challenges at every stage of the justice process. When Black individuals are three times more likely to have their car searched by police, twice as likely to be arrested for drug possession and given sentences 10 percent longer than white counterparts, according to Slate, there is not much room for debate over whether racial bias occurs in the criminal justice system. Yet the debate over whether a judge, the foremost authority in the courtroom, plays a role in this bias still rages on. Bias on the bench The findings of the Herald-Tribune report specifically highlight the role that judges play in an implicitly biased system. By analyzing sentencing data from across Florida, the paper found that despite legislative mechanisms in
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Growth Planning Charrette designs future of New College BY JORDI F. GONZALEZ New College is in the midst of a transformative era with the four-day long (Apr. 3 to 6) Growth Planning Charrette finished and the Sweet Sparkman Architects design team delivering creative ideas for impactful improvements on campus. All of this is tentative until a final decision is released by the Board of Governors’ Budget and Finance Committee whether the over $70 million will be granted to fund the large scale project. The charrette was meant to investigate the desires the New College community had for alterations of the campus. In architectural education, a charrette occurs when a group of students are given a challenging task to complete in a short time. Groups usually pull all-nighters and work intensively until the task is done. That’s just what Jerry Sparkman and the rest of the design team did to have a clear illustrative mapping of future endeavors. “The idea of this process is that we will end up with a pretty clear
WHAT’S INSIDE
idea of what the construction might be,” Professor of Sociology and Environmental Studies David Brain said after the first charrette on Apr. 3. “So, if we get the funding, then we’ll kick into gear and do the next step” of finding the right contractors and workers to finally start sticking shovels in the ground. The design team mainly concentrated on community feedback and was most interested in fulfilling needs expressed by participating students, faculty and staff. They focused on gathering and assembly areas, food service, multi-purpose recreation, student organization spaces and more. Multi-Purpose Facility The most popular idea at the first brainstorming meeting was a sort of multi-purpose assembly and gathering area. From graduations that could house up to 1,500 people to having more food service options and more student-use space, the proposed facility may be built where the Counseling and Wellness Center (CWC) and the Palmer buildings stand currently. The complex would include outdoor gathering space that may
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TITLE IX HIRING
Jordi Gonzalez/Catalyst
Illustrations of the New College campus helped attendees visualize how designs would impact the area
include a water feature and vegetation to provide shade. The design team was persistent proposed a wider overreaching top floor to provide efficient shade for the outside ground level as well. Housing Additional residential space would be added just behind the aforementioned multi-purpose facility.
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GOT DIGNITY?
The school may acquire land which would create significantly more room for housing to the west side of campus. Unfortunately, B-Dorm could be gone, so this is an attempt at replenishing those lost spaces and going beyond what once was.
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FREESTYLE CONTEST