News

Student Center, Art Building ready for student use

By Brittany Hackett | bhackett@flagler.edu

The landscape of Flagler College has changed over the summer with the completion of two major construction projects.

The 42,000-square-foot Ringhaver Student Center, located on the corner of Sevilla and King streets, is ready to become the center for student life. In addition to the dining and lounge areas, it will be home to the college bookstore, a multi-purpose room, five classrooms, a theatre-style classroom, group study rooms, faculty offices and the student and career services offices.

Photo Gallery: Construction Complete

From Staff

Flagler College’s new, multimillion-dollar Ringhaver Student Center is almost finished.

Major construction of the 42,000-square-foot building on the corner of Sevilla and King streets has wrapped up. The center will open its doors this month, offering students an Internet café, modern recreation lounge and more.

From Staff

Flagler College’s campus newspaper, The Gargoyle, is an online finalist in the Pacemaker Awards, a national competition widely regarded as “the Pulitzer Prize of student journalism.”

Associated Collegiate Press chose The Gargoyle Web site to compete in the Online Pacemaker contest alongside online student newspapers from George Washington University, Temple University, College of William and Mary, San Francisco State University and others.

Photo contributed

By Summer Bozeman

Flagler’s Society for Advancement of Management garnered six awards at this year’s International Business Conference, including its seventh win in the Management Case Competition, breaking its previous record of six wins. The win eclipses all other schools, who have never won more than three.

With this year’s win, Flagler has taken 32 percent of MCC titles since the award’s inception, and has beaten out Villanova University, Florida Institute of Technology and Texas A&M University, among others.

By Richard Harris

Last month the St. Augustine City Commission voted to make Sevilla Street permanently one-way. Stipulations in the vote required elimination of street parking, as well as the eight live oak trees that border the western side of the street.

Flagler College President William T. Abare, Jr., asked the city to consider the safety of students crossing the street, as well as increased foot traffic once the student center and Crisp-Ellert Art Gallery are completed, when he proposed that the street become one way at the March 26 city commission meeting.

Different plans can be a bit confusing for those looking to get insured

By Brittany Hackett

Allison Denman is graduating this semester and has no idea what she’ll do about health insurance.

“I’m just hoping nothing happens to me until I find a job and I hope that they cover me,” Denman said. “It’s naive, but I don’t really worry about that stuff like I should. I just think it’ll all work out.”

Denman said she knows that she can remain on her parents’ insurance plan for a while after she graduates, but admits that she has not done any research to find new coverage on her own.

From Staff

Members of Flagler College’s faculty are forming a Faculty Senate that will give them an official, collective voice on decisions that shape the institution.

When the Faculty Senate convenes in September, it will bring faculty representatives from every college department together with administrators, including President William T. Abare, Jr. and Dean of Academic Affairs Paula Miller. The group will examine educational policy issues ranging from the college calendar to student activities and admissions, according to Barbara Blonder, an assistant professor of natural sciences and member of the Senate.

Flagler College’s Molly Wiley Art Building is nearing completion of a $5.7 million facelift that will introduce cutting-edge studios and creative possibilities, while it preserves the 120-year-old structure’s historic details.

The first phase of the project – the conversion of a boiler room annex into a two-story studio, gallery and office complex – will wrap up in May. The original building will be rehabilitated in the next and final phase, which should be complete by the start of fall classes.

Congress examining bills that lower cost of college

By Laura Higley

After graduating from Flagler College in the spring of 2007, Stephanie Snyder will have incurred over $14,000 in student loans, and dreads the debt that looms ahead.

“I feel pressured to find a good job right away, so I can pay it all off,” Snyder said. “Throughout my whole college career, I have always been conscious of my debt, which at times can add a lot of extra strain and stress.”

As the recording industry cracks down on illegal downloading, students and big-name colleges become targets of major lawsuits. Flagler’s preventive measures provide legal safeguard.

By Bill Weedmark

While Flagler College has measures in place to prevent illegal music downloading on campus, downloading from your home can still get you in trouble both legally and from the college.

Recently, the Recording Industry Association of America launched a new legal campaign against colleges in an attempt to curb on-campus downloading. More than 800 letters were sent out to major universities offering illegal downloaders an option to settle before lawsuits are filed.