The first Eckerd College Climate Science & Solutions Summit drew 250 people to Fox Hall on Monday, Oct. 6. The summit, hosted by Marine Science Professor David Hastings and organized by the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, grew out of a meeting Hastings and other Florida scientists had with Gov. Rick Scott in August. The summit brought together scientists, business leaders, policy makers and the public to talk about solutions to climate change, focusing on job creation in the new low-carbon economy. "We have the science,"  St. Petersburg City Councilwoman and Eckerd graduate Darden Rice told The Tampa Tribune. "We have the technology. We have the ability to create more jobs. But we need the political will to implement these solutions."  Photo by Dirk Shadd, Tampa Bay Times

 Tampa Bay Times | Creative Loafing | 83 Degrees Media 

Two Eckerd College faculty members are among the 40 authors invited to participate in the 22nd Annual Tampa Bay Times Festival of Reading on Saturday, Oct. 25, at USF St. Petersburg. The festival, which began at Eckerd College, is free and open to the public. Emeritus Eckerd Professor and St. Petersburg Poet Laureate Peter Meinke (above, left) will discuss his new collection, Lucky Bones. Assistant Professor of Philosophy Nathan Andersen will discuss his book Shadow Philosophy: Plato's Cave and Cinema, a philosophical reading of cinema through the works of Plato, particularly  Stanley Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange.  RogerEbert.com  published an excerpt of the book and Andersen recently discussed the book with the Tampa Bay Times. 

Eckerd College returns to the 4th Annual St. Petersburg Science Festival on Saturday, Oct. 18, with a tent full of hands-on activities for all ages. The festival, which is free and open to the public, is held i conjunction with the 20th Annual Marine Quest at the Fish and Wildlife Research Institute. Last year's Eckerd exhibit was the biggest was rated the most popular by festival-goers. This year, visitors can build small molecular models, interact with marine life in a touch-tank, create silvered flasks, build and take home vortex cannons and - the most popular of all - create slime out of ordinary household products. The exhibit is intended to get kids excited about the wonders of science. The festival draws thousands of elementary, middle and high school students and their parents. It has grown each year, with last year's attendance estimated at 25,000 people. "I like to watch kids get excited about doing science,'' said Professor of Chemistry, David Grove, Ph.D., who oversees the Eckerd exhibit. "It really is fun for me. That's how I got excited--taking stuff and making useful stuff out of it." Read more.

The Eckerd College Men's and Women's Basketball teams, cheerleaders and dance team will be showcased at the 2014 Triton Tip-Off on Saturday, Oct. 11, at 9:30 p.m. in the McArthur Center. The women's team will host a shooting contest for fans and the men's team will host a layup/slam dunk line. Students can compete for prizes donated by athletic sponsors during the spirit contest, relay race and 20 second challenge. The Dance and Cheerleading teams will both perform routines on the floor. Terry Donald will bring out the 2014-15 Men's and Women's basketball rosters and coaching staffs for their official introductions. A dance line will conclude the night. Read more.

Randy Browne '06, Ph.D., assistant professor of history at Xavier University, returned to Eckerd last month for a Presidential Event Series  lecture titled, "The World the Slave Drivers Made: Slavery and Survival in the British Caribbean." Browne, pictured here with ECOS Vice President Gregory Johnson and Professor of American Studies Carolyn Johnston, discussed what life was like for enslaved Africans on Caribbean plantations and how they struggled to survive. Browne told WMNF-FM that he thinks repaying the debt is all about acknowledging and accepting the role slavery played in shaping the Americas. 

Tony Dokoupil, a senior writer for NBC News and author of a critically acclaimed memoir about his pot-smuggling father, will discuss the emerging business of legal marijuana on Thursday, Oct. 16, at 7 p.m. in Miller Auditorium. It is free and open to the public. The New York Times has called Dokoupil's book, The Last Pirate: A Father, His Son, and the Golden Age of Marijuana, "an exuberant memoir about the history of the American drug economy, the ambitions and failures of politicians and outlaws, fathers and sons." The Washington Post wrote that it has "the kind of narrative that screams out to be adapted into a gritty, layered cable TV drama." Dokoupil will discuss the book, and his recent work for NBC News reporting on the entrepreneurs who are growing and distributing legal marijuana, during his talk, "The New Pot Barons: They're Young, Well Educated, Politically Savvy--and Trying to Get Rich Making Marijuana Legit." Read more.

Lectures

 A Conservative Vision for Immigration Reform

Tuesday, Oct. 14

7 pm, Fox Hall

David Jolly

U.S. Representative, 13th Congressional District

Tampa Bay Estuary: Past, Present and Future

Wednesday, Oct. 15

4 pm, Lewis House Atrium

Holly Greening

Executive Director of the Tampa Bay Estuary Program

The New Pot Barons: They're Young, Well Educated, Politically Savvy -- and Trying to Get Rich Making Marijuana Legit

Thursday, Oct. 16

7 pm,. Miller Auditorium

Tony Dokoupil

Investigative journalist, Senior Writer for NBC News and Author.

Top Student,

Undocumented Immigrant

Tuesday, Oct. 21

7 pm, Fox Hall

Jose Godinez-Samperio

Special Advisor for Global Affairs to the President of Columbia University

St. Petersburg: A City 

on the Cusp

Wednesday, Oct. 29

4 pm, Lewis House

The Honorable Rick Kriseman,

Mayor of St. Petersburg

Iraq and the Global Order: A Roundtable Discussion
 

Thursday, Oct. 30

7 pm, Fox Hall

Adam Guerin

Assistant Professor of History, Eckerd College

Anthony Brunello

Professor of Political Science, Eckerd College

Anna Batta,

Visiting Professor of Political Science, Eckerd College

Mohsen Milani

Director of the Center for Strategic and Diplomatic Studies 

and Professor of Politics, 

University of South Florida

Theater 

A Simple Theatre: The Graduate

Tuesday, Oct. 14th

7:30 pm, Bininger Theater