Hillel students and community members came together in March

for a special Shabbat service and

dinner. Led by Hillel Rabbi Ed Rosenthal and Student Leader, Rachel Atwood, the students directed a spirited and engaging Shabbat service, which included traditional prayers and songs as well as contemporary ones.Participants engaged in a discussion about a spiritual cleansing, just in time for the upcoming Passover holiday. 

Everyone enjoyed a fabulous meal together and each other's company. Student Allison Whitcomb felt especially welcomed by the community and described her conversation with the woman

sitting next to her. "She said I would be welcomed anytime for a

home cooked meal. The whole evening felt like a home away from home." 

 

For more information on how you can support New College Hillel students, please contact

Marty Katz at mkatz@ncf.edu or 941-487-4743.

  

Tuesday, May 1, 2012, 5:30 p.m.

Sainer Pavilion

 

Dr. Frank Alcock, Senior Fellow at the Collins Center for Public Policy and Associate Professor of Political Science at New College, will conduct a Collins Center Conversation entitled "To Drill or not to Drill?" Collins Center Conversations explore important policy topics important to Floridians. This conversation will incorporate a 30-minute presentation followed by an extended Q&A session.

 

Dr. Alcock's presentation will reflect upon dueling narratives of the stakes involved with expanded drilling throughout the United States, in the Gulf of Mexico, and within Florida's coastal waters. It will suggest that both narratives are compromised by exaggerated claims and rigid policy stances that continue to paralyze energy policy. The presentation will illuminate tensions and tradeoff that exist in our energy policy goals and call for a more deliberative discussion of our options along with the political obstacles that must be overcome if we hope to successfully implement them

 

Dr. Alcock's work with the Collins Center has included a study on the potential impacts of drilling in Florida's coastal waters along and a forthcoming essay on lessons learned from the Deepwater Horizon accident. He is a former Director of the Marine Policy Institute at Mote Marine Laboratory and a former Director of Environmental Studies at New College of Florida. He spent five years as a policy analyst and economist at the U.S. Department of Energy.

 

This event is hosted by New College of Florida in partnership with the Sarasota and Manatee Tiger Bay Clubs. For tickets, call 941-487-4888 or go to donate.ncf.edu/events.

 

 

 

Now that our New Topics New College lecture series has drawn to a close, we'd like to thank the group of volunteers who so graciously helped us during the season by welcoming our guests, taking tickets and assisting with refreshments. Our deep appreciation goes to:

• Chris Aster
• Glenda Auxier
• Polly and Stephen Greene
• Evelyn and Albert Lerman
• Sue Mollicone
• Drew Morris
• Debbie Holt
• Debbie Shapiro

If you'd be interested in volunteering at next year's New Topics or other New College events, please contact Laurie Blake at lblake@ncf.edu or 941-487-4671.

May 24, 2012

All-day

Harry Sudakoff Conference Center

 

Join us as New College of Florida's best and brightest students present their thesis and research work to the Sarasota/Manatee community. Open to the public.

 

Contact Jeanne Viviani, Director, Office of Research Programs and Services for more information at (941) 487-4649 or jviviani@ncf.edu

  

A whopping 472 donors showed their enthusiasm for New College by participating in the 36-Hour Giving Challenge-a first of its kind online fundraising event in Southwest Florida, made possible by Community Foundation of Sarasota County, Gulf Coast Community Foundation, Manatee Community Foundation, and The Patterson Foundation.

 

The Giving Partner galvanized the entire New College community.  Alums, students, faculty, staff and friends participated with their wallets. The challenge raised over $81,000 in direct donations.  In addition, $15,570 of the donations made within the first four minutes, were eligible for matching dollars.  We are also proud to boast the college has won an additional $15,000 prize for the second most unique donors as well as several other smaller prizes. In all, the Giving Partner Challenge raised approximately $110,000 for New College.

 

Clint Monts de Oca, Interim Executive Vice President of the New College Foundation, was ecstatic.  "The New College community clearly rallied behind its favorite liberal arts institution. Through these gifts, we can ensure future generations of scholars will continue to benefit from small class sizes, personal relationships with professors, and an Ivy League quality education at a public college price," he said.

 

New College was one of 109 organizations participating in the Giving Partner Challenge. In all, the challenge raised a total of $2,401,601 from 10,705 gifts.  The ultimate reach of the event extended beyond Southwest Florida, with donors coming from all 50 states and 24 countries, including the UK, Spain, Russia, Peru, Australia, Mexico and Canada.

 

On behalf of our New College students who benefit from the community's generosity, we offer our sincere thanks to all those who participated.  

 

Banking and non-profit executive, Clint Monts de Oca, has been appointed Interim Executive Vice President of the New College Foundation by New College of Florida President Mike Michalson. The appointment was made on the recommendation of the executive committee of the New College Foundation headed by Foundation Board Chair, Howard Isermann and is effective immediately.

 

Monts de Oca assumes overall leadership of the Foundation following the recent resignation of Foundation President Andrew Walker due to family medical needs.

 

"Clint brings with him an impressive background that will be immediately useful to New College's fund-raising efforts," said New College of Florida President Mike Michalson in announcing the appointment. "He has a stellar reputation throughout our region, and I'm very gratified that he has agreed to join the New College family at this point in his career."

 

Monts de Oca, who is past president of the State College of Florida Foundation Board of Trustees, has a distinguished background in banking, fund raising and wealth management. He has held vice presidencies at Barnett Bank, Sunbank/Gulf Coast, Harris Trust/Bank of Montreal, and Marshall and Ilsley Trust Co. and is considered a specialist in working with educational and non-profit organizations to aid them in investment management, planned giving administration and software services. He holds a M.B.A. as well as a B.A. in Economics, both from the University of South Florida.

 

"I have long admired New College and am most eager to contribute to the mission of funding excellence and ensuring the responsible management of our assets," said Monts de Oca.

Dr. Donal O'Shea named as next New College President

 

Dr. Donal O'Shea, Dean of Faculty and Vice President for Academic Affairs at Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, Massachusetts, has been selected as the next president of New College of Florida. He will succeed Gordon E. "Mike" Michalson, Jr., who will retire as head of Florida's honors college for the liberal arts and sciences on July 1, 2012. Dr. Michalson will return to the New College faculty following a one year sabbatical.

 

O'Shea's appointment was approved by the New College Board of Trustees following a recommendation by the Presidential Search Committee, which selected O'Shea following a national search led by Archer~Martin Associates of Nantucket, MA. The appointment was then approved by Florida's Board of Governors.

 

In announcing the Search Committee's unanimous recommendation, Board Chair Bob Johnson stated, "Donal O'Shea's intellectual abilities, his personal values and his visionary determination to make New College a national leader in the liberal arts really stood out from the other candidates we interviewed for the presidency and made him a natural fit to lead New College."

 

"Born fifty years ago in a decade of extraordinary social and intellectual ferment, New College of Florida has established itself as one of the world's most innovative and distinguished liberal arts colleges," said O'Shea in accepting the position as New College's fifth president. "I am pleased and honored (and still somewhat stunned) to now count myself a member of this extraordinary community of scholars, students, staff and supporters.  And I look forward to working with all to ensure that New College thrives as a beacon of educational excellence and innovation for the next half century."

 

Dr. Donal O'Shea has been Dean of Faculty and Vice President for Academic Affairs at Mount Holyoke College, a top 25 ranked private liberal arts women's college, since 1998.  During his 14-year tenure as dean, he has diversified the faculty, increased external funding, introduced post-tenure review, improved leave policies, made teaching load equitable, established professional programs and shepherded creation of a fiber optic network linking the Five Colleges Consortium in western Massachusetts. He has also introduced a first-year program to support new students in their transition to college, internationalized the curriculum, formed a group of presidents and deans of women's universities around the world, started collaborative programs among northeast liberal arts colleges for department chair development, overseen four building projects (including a $32 million science construction and renovation project) and consolidated science and arts programming and planning.

 

A Harvard-trained mathematician and an avowed advocate of liberal arts education, O'Shea has been at Mount Holyoke since 1980. He previously headed sponsored research and chaired the college's mathematics department. O'Shea earned his undergraduate degree in mathematics from Harvard University and his master's and doctorate from Queens College, Ontario, a prominent Canadian Research I university. He has been a visiting professor in major universities in the U.S. and abroad. He has six monographs to his credit and numerous research articles.