If anyone thought the 2021 Legislative Session was as partisan as Tallahassee can get, they obviously haven’t paid attention during a redistricting year.

Florida just last month received the first bit of data about U.S. Census numbers, learning Florida will pick up just one Congressional seat this decade; most people expected tow or three. What’s that mean for Sarasota and Manatee counties? Preliminarily, one would guess there will be a little less disruption, as more districts means more squeezing in strange places. Most expect a new district to land in Central Florida. Had a second seat materialized, it could have been between Tampa and Fort Myers.

But the region today is represented by two Republican Congressmen, Vern Buchanan and Greg Steube. The population here hasn’t exploded in a way that merits more, and since both districts are relatively safe Republican holds (yes, including Buchanan’s), I don’t anticipate major changes. My guess is Buchanan would happily shave the northernmost Hillsborough County portion of his district away to get some of Sarasota back, and he has enough friends/flesh and blood in the Legislature to make that happen. But Steube, who lives in Sarasota as well, also wants to keep a good chunk of the area.

We won’t know for sure what may happen until September when more geographically specific data comes out. That’s when the carving knives come out, and the legal definitions of gerrymandering will be explored. My guess is the action locally will be with legislative seats.

In the state Senate, Manatee neatly falls within District 21, represented by Sen. Jim Boyd, R-Bradenton. Sarasota just as cozily falls entirely within District 23, where Sen. Joe Gruters, R-Sarasota, serves. Both senators would likely keep these districts as if they had their way, and as chairman of the Republican Party of Florida I suspect Gruters will get a lot of things he wants out of redistricting. But either county would likely be well served doubling

Something worth keeping an eye on just outside the district will be the population growth in St. Petersburg, particularly its Midtown area. Rep. Michele Rayner-Goolsby, the only Democrat representing this region, hails from Pinellas County, as will always be the case with District 70 (or whatever number befalls it next year). But right now her community snakes through Manatee and Sarasota grabbing every minority neighborhood along the way. But there’s a good chance the district will be more compact. That means Democratic strongholds will have to shift either to districts represented by Reps. Tommy Gregory or Fiona McFarland.

The latter would be hugely consequential. The district is already one of the most competitive in Southwest Florida. Before McFarland won it in a good tear for Florida Republicans in 2020, Democrat Margaret Good ran and won there twice in a 10-month period in 2018. No one in the term limit era has represented the district eight years in a row. So will the Republican legislature risk putting more Democrats in this district? If they don’t, it could be something challenged by Democrats as a violation of Florida’s Fair Districts amendment.

Then again, if those minority communities stay in a jurisdiction represented by a minority lawmaker like Rayner-Goolsby, there may be less hunger to go to court. For all the finger-pointing about gerrymandering. Its notable that heavy majority districts in Florida were first born of a strange bedfellows alliance between NAACP leaders and Republican leaders in the early 1990s.

That’s just one of the many complicated issues that needs to be worked out when lawmakers convene next year, and why the process of drawing lines on a map never proves to be as simple as it sounds. Will there be shenanigans? Almost certainly. Will maps end up in courts? Honestly, regardless. But even the most egregious gerrymanders could still be in place for an election cycle or two.

Jacob Ogles is contributing senior editor for SRQ MEDIA.  

New College has worked hard to better prepare our students for post-graduation success by augmenting our liberal arts and science program with practical, career-focused programs that also teach real-world skills.

These efforts are clearly paying off. 

This past year, for example, we added two new certificate programs in finance. On April 8, a team of students from the programs participated in the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) Society Tampa Bay 2021 Ethics Invitational—a prestigious virtual competition designed to increase students’ awareness of the ethical dilemmas they may face as investment management professionals.

New College’s four-student team won “Best Analysis” (akin to second place), demonstrating their aptitude for evaluating complex ethics cases in the business, finance and investment arenas.   

“We are very excited and super proud to have participated in this event,” says New College Associate Professor of Economics Sherry Yu, Ph.D., who served as the team’s faculty adviser and was instrumental in their success. “I was able to recruit a group of enthusiastic students, with a variety of backgrounds and expertise, to compete.”

In March 2020, Yu set up an official university affiliation for New College with the CFA Institute—a professional association for investment management professionals with the highest level of international legal and regulatory recognition of finance-related qualifications. The affiliation allows New College students to more easily pursue careers in the financial industry.

It also provides New College students with free access to all three levels of the CFA Program curriculum eBook, the sample exams for each level, and invitations to CFA Tampa Bay seminars and events like the recent Invitational.

New College thesis student Agnes Bartha was the team leader at the April 8 event, joined by thesis student Connor Rupp, third-year Jacob Adkins and first-year Justin Barbour. They went up against students at four other Florida schools: Florida Gulf Coast University, the University of Florida, the University of Miami and the University of South Florida.

Student teams from each institution were given an ethics case to analyze and then asked to make recommendations in 8-to-10-minute video presentations. The judges based their decisions on the quality of the team’s understanding of the ethical issues involved, as well as the quality of their analyses, their recommendations and their presentations.

“The participants from FGCU, UF, USF and UM were all business school students, with a mixed combination of both undergraduate and graduate students. As a first-time contestant, New College was disadvantaged to begin with—with no business program, no designated CFA ethics courses and no graduate students,” says Yu, adding that New College was also invited to the 2020 competition but the event was canceled due to the pandemic. “The four team members from New College were able to meet quickly and analyze the competition case in great detail, and they prepared the required video presentation within 10 days.”

Each of the students won a $100 gift card for their “Best Analysis” award, and New College received a trophy to honor their hard work.

“The award also reflects our liberal arts students’ superior knowledge on business ethics, which usually isn’t emphasized in formal business school programs,” Yu says. “Despite the disadvantages, our students did not shy away from the time constraint and peer pressure. I’m super proud of their accomplishment and aim to compete every year.” 

On behalf of her team, Bartha is thrilled to have won.

“It is a real honor to win ‘Best Analysis’ at this competition, seeing as all schools we competed against had dedicated finance departments and majors, which would have surely given them a leg up in their performance,” says Bartha, expressing gratitude for Yu and industry mentor Gail Neujahr. “As a team, we also agree with the competition's outcome as to who deserved the ‘Most Creative,’ ‘Best Recommendation’ and ‘Best Analysis.’ It was a pleasure to work with my team at New College.”

In addition to the CFA affiliation, New College offers a certificate program in Bloomberg Market Concepts, which gives students a visual introduction to financial markets and the core functionality of the Bloomberg terminal.

These two offerings help New College students stand out from their peers, signaling how well they will do in the ever more competitive workforce.

Dr. Donal O’Shea is president of New College of Florida. 

Photo of New College Assistant Professor Sherry Yu