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SRQ DAILY Feb 11, 2017

"tudents today live in a world where every indiscretion, every awkwardness, every bad judgment is potentially the subject of a tweet or Facebook posting, and consequent public shaming."

- Donal O'Shea, New College of Florida
 

[Under The Hood]  Calculating the Odds in Reno
Jacob Ogles, jacob.ogles@srqme.com

One can’t blame Sarasota City Manager Tom Barwin for taking interest in a vacancy in Reno. The city, with a population of 241,455, stands as the 87th most populous city in America and the third largest in Nevada. The last Reno city manager earned $195,763 a year, while Barwin was hired in Sarasota with a $175,000 salary. So since the announcement Barwin was among five finalists for Reno city manager, Sarasotans have asked two questions: What sort of shot does Barwin have at the job? And what happens at Sarasota City Hall if he goes?

On the first question, a complete answer requires a study of Reno politicians’ ambitions not easily discerned this far away. The most important question in front there may be whether to hire an official experienced with tackling the problems of a big city or if somebody who could turn the western municipality into more of a model community.

Other applicants for the Reno job hail from Clark County, Nevada; Tusa, Oklahama; San Bernardino, Calif.; and Rocklin, Calif. Sarasota is a smaller city, just 55,000 residents, than any of those jurisdictions, only about a fifth the size of Reno in population. Rocklin, a community of about 61,000, is the only other city comparable in size to here in size. San Bernardino, in contrast, boasts more than 216,000, and Tulsa is larger than Reno, with more than 403,000. It’s not quite fair comparing Clark County’s 2.1 million, since running a county is a different animal, though it’s notable that county includes mega-metropolis Las Vegas.

For me, I took special note San Bernardino’s city manager made the list. I lived outside that community about a decade ago, when gang violence dominated headlines. Since my year there, the community has suffered a high-profile terrorist attack and declared bankruptcy. City Manager Mark Scott, a Reno finalist, came into his position recently and helped lead the community toward financial stability. Of course, Clark County also famously deals with organized crime issues. Barwin’s own application to Reno highlights the decline in crime during his 4-and-a-half-year tenure in Sarasota, and the city has had issues with violence. The city had 425 violent crimes reported in 2015, according to FBI statistics, compared to 1,168 in Reno. By comparison, Las Vegas had 12,648. Barwin also boasts a background in law enforcement predating his move into city management, but Reno could decide they need someone experienced helming a metropolitan, urban department.

But Reno officials also have to decide what they want to become. Barwin’s time in Sarasota includes rocky discussions on homelessness, though he confidently says the city has found the right track and that recent workshops with county and regional leaders make him more confident in a working solution than ever. He’s also been here while conversations evolved on updating city codes and reimaging the Bayfront as a cultural gem instead of a dock and a parking lot.

Reno’s odds? Barwin concedes he starts with a 1-in-5 chance at job, but if you add in distance and community size, percentages go down from there. He stresses that recruiters asked him to apply for this job and he isn’t on the hunt for a new workplace. Since other applicants also attest they were recruited, there’s no reason to doubt that.

But has this whet his appetitie for a move? Mayor Willie Shaw this week asked Barwin what it might take to make him stay. “This has stimulated some conversation,” Barwin tells me. A higher salary never scared anyone away, of course, but it sounds like Barwin most wants job security. Sarasota historically employed some long-time managers, notably 38-year manager Kenneth Thompson, but tenures have gotten shorter in recent times even as the national average tenure for managers has gone above 7 years. Barwin’s predecessor in Sarasota, Bob Bartolotta, lasted 4 and a half years, about as long as Barwin has up until now.

There’s an election in March, most likely to be settled in May, when at least one more city commissioner join move into City Hall. If Barwin gets the Reno job after a Feb. 21 interview, filling his post becomes the biggest issue in this campaign Of course, the style of the sitting administrator has already become an issue on the trail. Even if Barwin doesn’t move on now, the commission this summer may have to decide if they make a commitment and investment to retain Barwin the next time a major American cities calls him on the phone.

Jacob Ogles is contributing senior editor of SRQ Media Group. 

[]  Mental Health and the University
Donal O'Shea, doshea@ncf.edu

This year, the members of the State University System Board of Governors voted unanimously to request a $14-million state allocation to improve Mental Health Counseling Services and security at all state universities. The twelve state university presidents endorsed the request. Board of Governors’ members, for the most part very successful CEOs or managing directors, work hard to maximize taxpayer dollars devoted to higher education. University presidents loathe spending that does not enhance the academic enterprise. So the unanimity on this issue is both surprising and notable. Let me explain why I support the request.

I, too, would prefer investing in things that directly affect teaching and research: more faculty, laboratories, books, curricular enrichment... But universities teach people. A student paralyzed by anxiety, too self-conscious to speak aloud, too plagued by self-doubt to imagine succeeding, has difficulty learning anything, much less mathematics, literature, sociology, or chemistry. So do students devastated by depression or too restless to concentrate.

The Board discussion elicited the usual questions about whether universities could refuse to accept students with mental health difficulties. And it affirmed that this strategy is not only impractical (who is going to admit to something that would bar admission?), but is often illegal (think privacy of medical records) and runs counter to our universities’ missions. Our state and our country need college graduates, and just as most students will need to see a physician at some time in their college years, for the flu if nothing else, most will need counseling at some time in those years.

Today, two different things are happening.

First, more students are attending university. This is good, but the increase in the number of mental health professionals employed by the state universities has not kept up. In days when a much smaller proportion of the population attended university, those sending the students could better afford interventions and private help. Universities were also much more willing to tolerate high dropout rates. Over half the students with whom I entered graduate school in mathematics did not finish. They did not “fail” for lack of talent or interest, but because depression, or addiction, or a seemingly insuperable personal reverse made it impossible for them to study and to think. We can no longer afford to waste human capital like this. Increasingly many jobs require a university education, and appropriately so. Our students are entering a world where almost all will switch careers many times and work at jobs that we cannot yet imagine. They must learn to learn, and our society and they, personally, are hobbled if they do not graduate.

The second thing that has changed is that a larger proportion of current students need mental health counseling. There are over 300,000 students in the SUS system. Directors of counseling centers report that 26 percent are on psychiatric medication, more than double the proportion twenty years ago. Far more entering college students have been on psychiatric medication for over a decade. Well over half (57 percent) of all students report “overwhelming anxiety” at some point in the previous year, and over a third felt so depressed that that it was “difficult to function.” These proportions were up 10 percent from the year before last.

This second thing is more worrisome. Critics say that universities have morphed into ninny-versities. They allege that current students are spoiled and fragile, and blaming parents and universities for enabling them. Mental health professionals speculate that causes have more to do with information and technology overload, increased financial stress, and an ineffectual mental health care system. I think that the professionals are closer to the truth. The critics, perhaps, have never needed a mental health professional, but no one can live fully without experiencing periods of intense mental distress. And students today live in a world where every indiscretion, every awkwardness, every bad judgment is potentially the subject of a tweet or Facebook posting, and consequent public shaming.

Whatever the reasons, both trends (more students and a larger proportion with mental health difficulties) are real. The average number of students per counselor in the State University System has grown to 2081 to 1, which nearly 600 more that the minimum professional recommendation of 1500 to 1. To be sure, $14,000,000 is a lot of money, but at less than $40/student, it gets us caught up, and will be amply repaid by increased student success.

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



[SCOOP ]  Sarasota Opera's 2017-2018 Fall and Winter Festival Season

Sarasota Opera announced its 2017–2018 Fall and Winter Festival Season which includes the return of Giuseppe Verdi, the 6th Sarasota Youth Opera world premiere and operas by composers such as Vincenzo Bellini whose music has never been heard from the Sarasota Opera stage. In addition, Sarasota Opera will introduce the Beyond Verdi: Italian Masters Series, a new series dedicated to presenting operas by composers directly influenced by Giuseppe Verdi. 

Sarasota Opera

[SCOOP]  Foster Care Needs in Manatee County

With the heroin and opioid epidemic impacting many aspects of a healthy community and causing dramatic increases in the number of children requiring foster care, the Charles and Margery Barancik Foundation has awarded a grant to the Manatee Community Foundation to convene stakeholders around the issue. They will create an action plan providing solutions that private and foundation philanthropy can help address. Staff and volunteers from charitable organizations and local governments will meet at Manatee Community Foundation in a series of six discussions over the next two months. According to the Florida Department of Children and Families, 439 children in Manatee County were removed from their homes from January 1 through October 31, 2016. Not all removals were connected to drug addiction.  

Manatee Community Foundation

[SCOOP]  Marc Chagall, Flowers, and the French Riviera

Beginning in February 2017, Marc Chagall’s nature–inspired artwork will be on view Marie Selby Botanical Gardens presented by The Jewish Federation of Sarasota-Manatee. As the first botanical garden to exhibit Chagall’s work, The Color of Dreams examines the context of the prolific artist's love of flowers and nature. Accompanying cultural performances, special events, classes and lectures will be part of the exhibition, which encourages visitors to use all five senses, immersing themselves in the dream world created by Chagall in his artwork. 

Marie Selby Botanical Gardens

[SCOOP]  Goodwill's Cup of Kindness

Since the launch of the Kindness Community back in December, Goodwill Manasota has teamed up with Local Tea Company to create a whole new initiative, Cup of Kindness, to keep the momentum going. First formally recognized in 1995, National Random Acts of Kindness Week is a seven-day celebration with the goal of demonstrating that kindness is contagious. The Cup of Kindness Tea, which is available for purchase through Goodwill’s website for $20 per bag, has 15 sachets of tea featuring the flavors of exotic fruits and herbs including apple, coconut, hibiscus, rose hip and pineapple to delight the palate. Sales of the tea will support Goodwill’s Special Emergency Resources for Veterans (SERV) program to help veterans and their families in need of emergency financial assistance for housing, education and food.  

Goodwill Manasota

[KUDOS]  Betty Schoenbaum To Be Honored At Renaissance Legacy Luncheon

The Women’s Resource Center is honoring philanthropist Betty Schoenbaum for her 30–year support of the center’s legacy scholarship program for nontraditional women students at its 2017 Renaissance Luncheon on March 21 at Michael’s on East. “Her generosity has empowered hundreds of women to pursue a post-secondary education and enhance their lives and the lives of their families. Betty believes that the joy of giving is the joy of living. She lives by this credo and has positively impacted the lives of thousands of people in our community. We’re honored to honor her. Her legacy has an ongoing impact,” says Ashley Brown, president and CEO of the Women’s Resource Center.  

The Women's Resource Center

[SCOOP]  Designing Daughters Teams Up With Roskamp Foundation

Designing Daughters of Sarasota, a charitable society of young professional women dedicated to enhancing the community and cultivating the next generation of philanthropists through strategic granting, is teaming up with The Roskamp Foundation to allow significant growth and permit Designing Daughters to focus additional attention on the fundraising goals of 2017 and beyond. With no overhead, nearly 100% of funds raised by Designing Daughters will go to selected local nonprofits. Starting March 1, Designing Daughters of Sarasota (DD) will be working alongside the Roskamp Foundation to raise funds for local charities. This past year alone Designing Daughters raised over $70,000 for area nonprofits, with grants ranging from $2,000 to $5,000. Photo Credit: Cliff Roles  

Designing Daughters of Sarasota

[KUDOS]  Aimee D. Cogan Named to Chairman's Club at Morgan Stanley

Morgan Stanley announced that Mrs. Aimee D. Cogan, CFP®, CIMA®, Managing Director- Wealth Management and Financial Advisor in its Wealth Management office in Sarasota, has been named to the Firm’s prestigious Chairman’s Club, an elite group composed of the firm’s top Financial Advisors. The appointment recognizes Aimee’s consistent creativity and excellence in providing a wide range of investment products and wealth management services to  her clients. Aimee, who has been with Morgan Stanley Wealth Management since 2006, is a native of Sarasota, Florida.  She holds a bachelor’s degree from University of Florida with Honors in Finance 

Morgan Stanley

SRQ Media Group

SRQ DAILY is produced by SRQ | The Magazine. Note: The views and opinions expressed in the Saturday Perspectives Edition and in the Letters department of SRQ DAILY are those of the author(s) and do not imply endorsement by SRQ Media. Senior Editor Jacob Ogles edits the Saturday Perspective Edition, Letters and Guest Contributor columns.In the CocoTele department, SRQ DAILY is providing excerpts from news releases as a public service. Reference to any specific product or entity does not constitute an endorsement or recommendation by SRQ DAILY. The views expressed by individuals are their own and their appearance in this section does not imply an endorsement of them or any entity they represent. For rates on SRQ DAILY banner advertising and sponsored content opportunities, please contact Ashley Ryan Cannon at 941-365-7702 x211 or via email

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