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CATALYST
BRIEFS COFFEE MACHINES pg.
March 13, 2019 VOLUME XXXVIII ISSUE 5
Additionally, the administration has put a stop to hiring new professors until reNew College started the year with tention and enrollment rise. However if 835 students and hoped to have 860 by the student population continues to dethe fall of 2019, but it might not even cline, there may be repercussions at the have 800 next semester. This was the state level. bombshell that President Donal O’Shea “We had promised the state that dropped on the Board of Trustees (BOT) we would grow to 1,200 students [by on Feb. 26, sparking fears 2023],” O’Shea said. “We that New College may be hired a lot of new professors “This place at risk of failing its growth and things like that. We’re plan. probably okay for a while, is on fire.” “This place is on fire,” but we have to turn that Trustee John Lilly said around. We promised them at the BOT meeting after O’Shea an- we’d grow, we’d better do it.” nounced the falling enrollment. To find out what was depressing The issue of enrollment is not just retention rates, the administration hired that New College is failing to attract Arts and Sciences, a consultative and reenough new students to replace those search firm, to conduct surveys among who are graduating. In addition, the re- those who left. Some of the loss, about tention rate from first year to second year ten students, can be attributed to Hurrihas dropped precariously, to approxi- cane Irma in 2017, which tarnished the mately 75 percent. appeal of a coastal institution like New The immediate impact of the de- College. But the bulk of the problem creased student population is a decline in comes from the perception of New Colthe amount of tuition revenue available. lege’s social atmosphere as unwelcoming.
BY IZAYA GARRETT MILES
“Some students love the academic program but find the social climate challenging,” O’Shea said. “There were some students finding they couldn’t make a friend, and the Forum wars didn’t help. You’d have somebody, and something wasn’t going well for them, then they’d have this flame war on them, and that’d be the last straw.” Particularly, O’Shea noted challenges facing those with different political and social values than the majority of the student body. “We pride ourselves on being a very liberal place, but the result is that students who are more conservative don’t really feel welcome here,” O’Shea said. “They keep their mouths shut. If you don’t fit in, you’re ostracized. Students who are religious, sometimes they report feeling unwelcome. Some have a thick skin and don’t mind it, others do not.” O’Shea noted the particular toxicity
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DATA SCIENCE pg.
New College of Florida's student newspaper
In the midst of the growth plan, New College is shrinking
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Below are the potential solutions for increasing enrollment discussed at the town hall: 1. Increased faculty outreach to prospective students 2. Three new high prestige scholarships 3. The creation of new first-year courses dedicated to increasing retention, building resilience, helping students navigate the college and connecting students with professionals in other parts of the college 4. Printing physical copies of the course catalog for potential students to look through 5. Greater community events inside Area of Concentrations (AOC) Help students plan for their next semester 6. The creation of a committee to analyze state and federal policy that impacts the school and determine their effects on retention 7. More data collection on first-years’ issues 8. The conduction of student meetings about the campus’s social space and the electronic social space
SFA “Boots the Braids” at University of Florida BY KATRINA CARLIN
https://doc-0k-18-docs. googleusercontent.com/ docs/securesc/s7jurnmk912se8sp3mgg3hd8llrh0uos/obdpo7fpcdn719co01n4qb7
Every movement is born somewhere. The Student/Farmworker Alliance (SFA) was born in Feb. 2000, at the March for Dignity organized by the SFA’s longtime partner, the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW). The CIW is a worker-led human rights organization that is built on a foundation of farmworker community organizing. It has been internationally recognized for its achievements in social responsibility and combating human trafficking and gender-based violence in the workplace. The SFA is a national coalition of students organizing with the CIW to create a just, dignified working environment for farmworkers. Many New College students have organized with the CIW and their ongoing Wendy’s Boycott, and this March, have the chance to do so again. “The low wages and hostile working conditions faced by farmworkers isn’t something that gets enough attention when we talk about where our food comes from,” third-year Aiden Juge said. Juge has been involved with
photo courtesy of CIW
The SFA’s curent call to action is a “4 for Fair Food” tour from Mar. 2-14, 2019.
the SFA since learning about it through Students Targeting Oppressive Powers (STOP) his first year. The CIW created the Fair Food Program (FFP), a model for worker-driven social responsibility that involves the signing of agreements between farmworkers, growers and retail buyers to reduce human rights abuses in the supply chain. The SFA has continued to partner
with the CIW for the last 20 years in its fights for FFP agreements. FFP agreements have been established with several fast food companies through boycotts of those fast food establishments until they agreed to improve wages and working conditions for farmworkers in the companies’ produce supply chain. The SFA and the CIW have established FFP agreements with Taco Bell, McDonald’s,
Burger King, Whole Foods, Walmart and Subway. Wendy’s remains a core focus of their action, as Wendy’s—along with Publix—has held out on signing the agreement. The SFA’s “Boot the Braids” campaign is an attempt to force Wendy’s to come to the negotiating table. The SFA has organized this campaign on college campuses around the country, encouraging students to boycott Wendy’s and pressure their schools to eliminate licensing agreements with the corporation. The SFA’s current call to action is a “4 for Fair Food” tour, from Mar. 2-14, 2019. Farmworkers from Immokalee, Florida will be visiting University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC), Ohio State University (OSU) in Columbus, University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and University of Florida (UF) in Gainesville to spread the message about Wendy’s refusal to join other fast food companies in signing FFP agreements. “Since Florida is very involved in
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berry festival
Activist newsletter
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8 JACK CARTLIDGE