On Apr. 11 at approximately 9 a.m., a work crew sprayed the Confederate Jasmine vine on the overpass connecting the residential and academic sides of campus, with an at-the-time unidentified chemical in an incident lasting about 15 to 20 minutes. Students quickly took notice and…
The most recent wave of CARES Act: Higher Education Emergency Relief funding distributed at New College on Apr. 7—an act passed by Congress in 2020 and which allotted $2.2 trillion to provide direct aid to those impacted by the coronavirus pandemic—was met with a lot…
Phishing—that is, a cybercrime where a target is contacted by email, phone or text message by someone pretending to be a legitimate institute or person in order to trick the target into revealing personal information, such as passwords or credit card details—is hardly a new…
As COVID-19 restrictions have begun to lift across the state and the early stages of the New College Challenge underway, there has been a resurgence of interest from students on campus in reconnecting with New College’s bizarre history and traditions, as both a “return to…
New College’s Theater, Dance and Performance Studies (TDPS) program usually offers four shows each academic year: one fall and one spring theatrical production, one dance performance piece and an Independent Study Project (ISP) show. This semester, however, is noticeably different. Instead of a full-fledged faculty-sponsored…
On Mar. 18 during a Catalyst interview, President Patricia Okker alluded to something called the “New College Challenge,” described it at the time as a wide-scale renovation of New College’s spaces and places, and promised to release more information at a later date. That date…
Something that is rarely discussed about the New College undergraduate experience—although perhaps it is universally understood—is that time is never quite on our side. Many students have lofty ideas of clubs and organizations they could kickstart, issues they wish to advocate for and change on…
The last time that the Catalyst spoke exclusively with President Patricia Okker, it was in May 2021—shortly following the Apr. 20, 2021 Board of Trustees (BOT) meeting where she was selected as New College’s next president, but before her tenure had begun on July 1,…
Spring Break is rapidly approaching, and with it, many of us find ourselves in a limbo of too much and not enough—of either wrapping up midterms or only just starting them. Of a vacation come just in time, full of travel and time spent with…
Since mid 2020, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has worked to implement initiatives meant to return Florida to normal as much as possible in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. Even at times when these initiatives conflicted with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC)…
