The… Catalyst?
Exciting News from TAM (the NCA Archives Committee)!
Before there was The Catalyst, there was nothing (in the form of 11 question marks). Despite the obscurity of the title, the soon-to-be-named Catalyst Vol.1, No.1 sauntered onto the scene as if it had been in publication for years. The left-hand column on the first page announces this new journalistic endeavor; the right states that furniture is indeed arriving for this brand new college.
We at TAM are super proud to exhibit digital copies of the first nine (9) volumes of The Catalyst*!
Reading through these Catalyst volumes, what struck me first was just how much the publication functioned to cultivate a cohesive campus and student body. Each editorial section, news article, and campus announcement paint the picture of those early years from a 10,000 feet up perspective, but the moments that hit hardest are the little ones that touch upon the interiority of the student body. The very last line in the very first issue of the Catalyst ends with “Please ask Dr. Wilson before you take, borrow, or use anything belonging to the library”, a direct plea, and one that hints at budding institutional policies.
These volumes are a valuable look into the emerging culture of the New College of Florida and the students who willed it, and include accounts of:
The founding of the New College Foundation
The origination of The Catalyst name
The construction of Hamilton Center
And much, much more!
This collection, though incomplete, provides an invaluable window into the lives of charter class students, faculty, and staff, and allows a glimpse of what New College looked like as it entered the 1970s.
There is so much more to come! If you’re interested in donating any material to the archive digitally (physical item donation by mail is being worked on!), click here.
If you’re interested in supporting us financially to support these endeavors, click here.
A huge, huge bay-sized thank you to alum Jonathan Lundell for sharing these with TAM for the benefit of Novos everywhere.
And finally, I’d like to end a poem published by Mac Miller in Vol. 9, No. 4 of ˆpublished in March of 1978.
*sans Volume six (6). If you have a copy, or know someone who does, please get in touch!