April 3, 2025
Student Media Slam n Jam for the month of March aimed to celebrate and uplift women in honor of Women’s History Month. Those performing were asked to speak about a woman who impacted them. The night kicked off with a performance by NoliaJoy.
Akina then performed covers of a few songs, one of them “Plastic” by Moses Sumney.
Rue and his friend performed “Evergreen” by Omar Apollo, a song Rue dedicated to a woman who he lost a few years ago but meant everything to him.
Liv McCoy is a junior majoring in Sociology with minors in African and African American Studies and Communication Studies. She currently serves as The Sandspur's Photo Editor. Her photography and poetry have been published in Brushing Literary Journal.
Looking back at it, Juan Carlos may be a psychic.
He was sitting in a friend’s apartment in January, fiddling with the instructions for a bed frame they were putting together. Amidst the friendly chatter, he made a declaration: “I don’t know how it’s going to happen, but 2025 is the year I’m gonna be a full-time actor.”
It was a bold declaration, especially for a 20-something less than two years out of school. From a statistical standpoint, it was laughable.
Perhaps that’s why it was all the more magical when five minutes later, Carlos’s phone started buzzing.
He had landed a callback for Broadway.
That callback was to play Bob Newby in the Olivier-winning “Stranger Things: The First Shadow.” The play, which first premiered in 2023 on the West End in London’s Phoenix Theatre, is set in the world of the Netflix series “Stranger Things” and based on an original story by the Duffer Brothers, Jack Thorne, and Kate Trefry. Trefry also wrote the play, bringing it to life alongside director Stephen Daldry and co-director Justin Martin. The plot takes place prior to the events of the Netflix series and features the high school versions of several main characters—Newby among them. Performance previews began March 28 at the Marquis Theatre, ahead of an April 22 opening.
For any actor, Carlos included, this is a big gig—the sort of opportunity that vaults a creative into an elusive club where making art can be a full-time vocation. But often, debut roles are where we, the audience, first meet an actor. The moments of struggle and triumph, the years of hard work training craft, and the instances where a single choice ripples across a lifetime of could-have-been moments never getting honored amongst the rave reviews and questions of what next great thing is to come.
“Acting is an industry based on luck, and luck is opportunity meets preparation,” Carlos says to me.
It’s midmorning in March, and I’m speaking to Carlos over a web call from my dorm room in Florida. The sun is streaming in through the blinds, and Carlos is apologizing for a delay on the L train that had left him dashing home from an overnight stay with his girlfriend in Brooklyn. As he talks, there’s an enrapturing charisma about him—you can’t help but watch his eyes light up as he goes to crack a joke.
Carlos is incredibly lucky—he’s the first one to tell you that. “It’s not lost on me how big a deal this is,” he says. “Not only am I on Broadway, I’m originating a role on Broadway … from a Netflix Broadway production.” This is only Netflix’s second Broadway production, and the first that the company is credited as a Lead Producer on.
But luck isn’t the only thing Carlos is bringing to the table. He’s been involved in the dramatic arts since his teens with the Miami Children’s Theater (MCT), and it fostered some of his most meaningful relationships. Chief among them were owners Tim and Beth Faith.
“When I was 15, my mom became a single mom, and [Tim and Beth] really took me in,” Carlos said, continuing, “They gave me a job to help me provide for my family and start saving for college.”
Carlos’s eyes light up as he recalls stories of doing carpentry work with Tim in between homeschooling and rehearsals for productions. The two are still incredibly close—Tim and Beth were the first people he called after his family to say he would be on Broadway.
Still, his time in Miami didn’t leave him sure he wanted to be an actor. “I wanted to be an animator or a director. I always knew I wanted to do something in show business, but it wasn’t until later that I thought I should full-send acting.”
A Collegiate Interlude
When it came time to go to college, MCT once again offered a starting point. Carlos knew about Rollins College because the same sister who had introduced him to MCT was now a full-time undergraduate student in the College of Liberal Arts. But it was a Rollins alumna and MCT choreographer, Celia Potter, who wrote him the recommendation letter that would earn him the prestigious Priscilla Parker scholarship—a $40,000 audition-based departmental scholarship from the Theater and Dance department.
One of the stipulations of his scholarship required him to audition for every show he was able to. During his first year, this meant auditioning for Private Lies: an entirely improvised, long-form show produced by Dr. David Charles.
“I always loved improv, but I never thought I could do it,” he began. “I was so nervous… but David must have seen something in me that I couldn’t see in myself. The second the first rehearsal started, all those nerves went away.” Carlos would go on to spend the next three years as a member of the Rollins Improv Players (RIP), the troupe run by Charles that is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year.
“I think improv has shaped who I am as an actor for sure,” Carlos said as he reflected on his time on RIP. “David’s perspective [teaching] isn’t one of just go[ing] for the joke, go[ing] for the thing that’s funny. Funny will come. Go for the thing that’s truthful … that’s always going to matter more.”
A Trip Out West
By the end of his junior year, Carlos knew that he had to focus. In order to pursue acting at the intensity that he wanted, he would have to lift his foot off the break. No more time to contemplate what he wanted or if it was worth the risk—this mission had to be his only driving force.
“I made a goal for myself,” he recalled. “By my birthday, July 13, I want[ed] to be living in LA. I didn’t know how I was going to make that happen.”
He was right to be concerned. Sure, Los Angeles offered industry connections and a chance at the life Carlos was envisioning for himself, but the city was more akin to a casino than a gold mine. And unlike some of his peers, he wasn’t coming in with a stack of chips. If he was going to make this work, he would have to get creative and hope the dice were rolling in his favor.
By the time that first week of July rolled around, Carlos was not feeling optimistic. He thought he would have to shift focus—something that went against everything he believed in. But he ended up getting an interview to be a Residential Life Coordinator. It would provide income and housing—the two biggest barriers that could keep him from breaking into the LA bubble. It was all lining up. As the sun rose over his 22nd birthday, Carlos was making his dreams come true. With his friend Joe and brothers Carlos and Gustavo, he packed up the car and started making his way out west. It felt like everything he had worked for was suddenly blossoming.
“That was just a moment where I understood… if you are going to commit to a goal and you put it out into the world and you do the work, that will come true.”
That same day, the acting world was going to be turned on its head. After months of failed negotiations, SAG-AFTRA president Fran Drescher announced a strike the same day Carlos began his drive west. The strike, initiated by contract disputes pertaining to residuals from streaming services as well as the use of AI for digital recreation of actors’ performances, barred all members from participating in film or television productions negotiated under the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) contract. For those not in the industry, AMPTP controls all of the major film and television studios as well as several cable channels and streaming services. Barring work with AMPTP was almost synonymous with shutting down Hollywood.
So, for Carlos, he was an actor moving into an eye of an industry-wide hurricane with no concept of when or if normalcy would return.
Immediately, desperation set in. But, he said, “A therapist told me when I was 14: ‘Juan, make problems your opportunities.’” Sure, he was living through the largest worker’s strike in the history of his industry. Sure, he knew basically no one in town. Sure, by all predicted outcomes, he should have expected that his dreams were dashed. But damn it, he was going to try anyhow. With no other way to kickstart his new life, Carlos met up with Luke Sawyer, a college buddy he had done RIP with and the only guy he knew in LA. “We were kind of homies when we were at Rollins… we went to a couple parties together, but I didn’t really know him too well.”
In Carlos’s words, “good art comes from starvation and desperation. Growing up poor and on food stamps has fueled me more than any acting class or movie could have.” He and Sawyer were in the same situation. They were actors who, like the entire city, couldn’t work with the major studios who were being protested. So, if actors couldn’t work with studios, he would just have to make a film himself.
Carlos took Sawyer to lunch and pitched a short film idea that they would later title “Oh Brother.” The two became partners and got to work. “We had to be everything,” Carlos said. Along with starring in the film, Carlos and Sawyer were writing, producing, casting, financing, editing—it was entirely on them to make this idea a reality. When it came time to film, the two were pulling 20-hour days to make everything work. But as they called in favors to help rent equipment and get insights, Carlos’s dream seemed to be getting back on track.
Before he touched anything else, Carlos made demo reels for Sawyer and himself. A quick upload to Actors Access gave him an in for talent management, where he met RJ Joyner from 3G Management.
“I’ve always had a lot of trust in my gut,” Carlos said. “I immediately felt a connection.” Joyner treated Carlos differently than the bigger talent agencies did. Where other managers were talking about how long they wanted to train him before even considering auditions, Joyner was already making plans for how to get him in front of a camera.
“Something that has always felt like a dream to me was now feeling like a timely goal that I was taking active steps toward when I was talking to RJ,” Carlos said.
And timely was the name of the game. Represented by 3GM, Carlos started getting cast in a bunch of shows. A guest spot on “The Sex Lives of College Girls” on Max, an appearance on “Grey’s Anatomy”—suddenly he was a burgeoning starlet.
And then came Broadway.
A Broadway Breakthrough
With his on-camera success, Carlos didn’t think he was going to be looking for stage roles anymore. He had gone to a couple auditions here and there, but he was finding his footing on screen. When “Stranger Things” came along, though, Joyner encouraged him to audition. “It was too good an opportunity to pass up,” Carlos said.
After a whirlwind week of callbacks and chemistry reads, Carlos got his official offer just 12 hours before rehearsals began on Monday. From there, it was 8-hour days, 6 days a week. For the first three weeks, he was living out of a weekend bag in a hotel the production put him up in.
The intensity has also taught him a lot, though. Where a 15-minute delay getting to a college production is annoying, on Broadway “that’s like thousands of dollars down the toilet if I’m 15 minutes late to rehearsal,” Carlos said.
“The scale that this is at is huge,” Carlos said. “Broadway’s seen nothing like this before and may never see something like this again.”
But it took him some time to get used to such a large production. “I wasn’t allowing myself to work hard and make good choices as Bob because I was too busy feeling like I was still auditioning and still needed to impress somebody because of the scale of this.” Learning to let go of that fear and trust in his skills was “a turning point” for his acting, Carlos said.
Other than scale, though, Carlos says the craft is the same. “It’s still just work,” he said.
For now, Carlos has his life figured out. He’s out of the hotel and into an apartment on the Upper East side, he has a year of steady employment in New York, his short film is almost ready to start being pitched to festivals, and he still has a number of TV projects to be released. It’s hard to think what more he could be doing.
As I ask him what he thinks is next, Carlos pauses. The light streaming into his apartment from a light source I can’t see reflects off his round tortoise-shell glasses. He furrows his brow in contemplation for just a moment before beginning.
“I’d be a fool to predict … [but] I’d be a fool not to prepare and plan,” he says. “Acting is an industry where you’re taught that you deserve nothing, and you should be grateful for everything—which always frustrated me. I want to build out my team. I want to grow as an actor. I’m striving for the next bigger thing always, and there’s no cap to that.”
After a breath, he continues. “I’m not going to close myself off and say that ‘this is it; I made it.’ This is just the first step. So, if a Netflix Broadway production that is one that you’ll have never seen before is my first step, step two is going to be even bigger than that.”
Jack is a senior double majoring in English and Sociology. He currently serves as an Assigning Editor at The Sandspur and has previously served as a Staff Writer and Managing Editor.
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Amid the staccato of hammer drills and the reverberation of excavators and cranes coming from construction across campus, another form of redesign is well underway.
The Rollins Accessibility Improvement Project (AIP) is a collaboration between the Accessibility Services and Facilities Services departments and is open to all members of the campus community. It first developed as a response to an audit done of the physical campus in 2019 but has since blossomed into much more.
Bethann Durlin, Director of Accessibility Services, said, “When I started in 2021, that project had been hijacked by COVID, so I reopened that initiative, and with the help of facilities, we created this committee. It’s a means by which our campus community members can be heard and be part of the prioritization of accessibility improvements on campus.”
Through a recent walkthrough of the campus’ physical accessibility in partnership with the Student Government Association, AIP was able to determine where their annual budget would go based on student responses. “I think that partnering with SGA and other student organizations is very beneficial. Students have great ideas, and when they can share their opinions about what matters to them, it helps us prioritize our work,” said Durlin.
SGA Special Projects Chair James Hall (‘26) and Accessibility Senator Ana Chust Puchades (‘28) were able to collaborate with AIP to make the walkthrough happen. “We distributed flyers across campus and publicized the event, which helped it reach people who wouldn’t otherwise be aware of accessibility-related activism on campus. We were able to get a good crowd of engaged students who had many suggestions and ideas for how to improve on-campus accessibility,” said Hall.
Post-event, AIP held a meeting to determine the most pressing and achievable improvements pointed out by students on the walk. Durlin said, “Participating students were able to identify areas of campus that they felt were not as accessible as they could be, talk those issues through with the group, and submit barrier reports through the Barrier Report form online.”
The Barrier Report form is a resource for students to report issues related to a lack of access on campus through the MyRollins portal and can be found under the “Report an Incident” button. The top five concerns were then discussed the following week, and “As of our February 19 meeting, the committee voted to move forward with the Orlando Hall bathroom remediation, pending approvals and budget,” said Jeremy Williamson, Assistant Vice President of Facilities Services.
Durlin also said, “One immediately resolvable issue that was brought to light through that walkthrough was that the door to the accessible entrance at Hauck Hall had been locked from the inside, preventing use of that entrance. We were able to partner with Campus Safety to resolve that issue immediately.”
While budget and timeline specifics have not been finalized yet, the changes to Orlando Hall will require one office space on the first floor to be relinquished for the new bathroom to be built, and AIP has already decided to roll over the 2024-2025 budget into 2025-2026 to make the project happen.
AIP’s hope is that by creating a new gender-neutral single-user bathroom on the ground floor, it will make Orlando Hall, an older building on campus, more accessible for those who cannot maneuver in the smaller two-stall restrooms currently in place, for those who cannot walk upstairs to the men’s restroom, and for those whose gender identities do not match to the two gendered restrooms currently in place.
The SGA walkthrough came about after a string of changes to Accessibility Services this academic year. In the fall 2024 semester, a campus-wide poll noted that a third of respondents felt that accessibility services had “diminished greatly,” specifically citing the physical accessibility of campus, note taking softwares, and the testing center in Olin Library.
Since then, many more changes have been made. “We were able to replace the incorrect privacy screens with solid, taller privacy screens on the testing pods in the testing center, [and] we are currently conducting student trials for three note taking software options and will use the feedback from student trials to choose a new product for launch in the fall of 2025,” said Durlin. She also noted that while the testing center has moved back to the first floor of Olin Library due to construction, the third-floor testing center is expected to be “fully back in operation for the fall.”
For the future, Williamson said AIP is looking forward to “increased involvement with students, staff, and faculty who are interested in joining these efforts and an increased awareness of the group’s purpose. Successfully executing a project that has been discussed and voted on by this group will also be a positive step.” Both Williamson and Durlin shared that one of the biggest challenges for the group has been engagement. Durlin said, “The AIP group is open to all, and we meet regularly to hear from students. If students are not able to attend these meetings, the AIP page on MyRollins has links for input via surveys, reporting of barriers, etcetera.”
The next Accessibility Improvement Project meeting will be held April 23 from 5:00-6:00 p.m. in the Van Houten room of Olin Library. Interested campus members may look for more details here.
Ali is a sophomore double majoring in English and Philosophy and minoring in Jewish Studies. She currently serves as a Copy Editor at The Sandspur and has previously served as an Assigning Editor.
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To be a Rollins student is more than knowing that one spring morning class will be canceled because it’s simply too nice outside—a day better spent at the beach than in a classroom. To be a Rollins student is more than walks to class lined with Mediterranean architecture in shades of pale manila and golden yellow. At the core of the Rollins experience is the support that comes from being surrounded by a small tight-knit community. For the past ten years, being part of that community has meant recognizing the blue Vespa that winds its way through the cobblestone paths of campus—and, more importantly, knowing exactly who’s riding it.
That signature blue Vespa belongs to Grant Cornwell, the college’s 15th president. Previously president of the College of Wooster in Wooster, Ohio, Cornwell began his presidency at Rollins College on Jul. 1, 2015. Under his leadership, the college has expanded student housing with the development of Lakeside Neighborhood in 2019 and the ongoing construction of The East-End Neighborhood, set to open in Fall 2026. Additionally, his tenure oversaw the expansion of the Alfond Inn in 2022 and the development of Kathleen W. Rollins Hall in 2020.
Beyond infrastructure, Cornwell’s presidency marked significant academic and cultural advancements, including the establishment of Rollins’ Phi Beta Kappa chapter, the implementation of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging initiatives, and the launch of Rollins Gateway, the college’s signature approach to liberal arts education.
Cornwell’s commitment to liberal arts education began with his own college experience, where he double majored in philosophy and biology at St. Lawrence University in New York.
“It’s a real liberal arts story,” said Cornwell, reflecting on his academic journey. “I wanted to be a doctor because my mom told me I did,” he admitted, but as he explored different disciplines, he realized that philosophy posed the questions that truly fascinated him.
The idea of sampling curriculum, savoring aspects of diverse academic disciplines like music, religion, art, science, and math, is central to the liberal arts experience. Advocating for this holistic approach has been a foundational aspect of Cornwell’s presidency. He co-authored “An Education for the Twenty-First Century: Stewardship of the Global Commons,” published in AAC&U’s Liberal Education among other academic works. His influence extends beyond Rollins as a past member of the board of directors of the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities (NAICU) and former chair of the Association of American Colleges and Universities’ (AAC&U) Presidents’ Trust. He has also served on the boards of AAC&U and Teach for America as well as on the Council on Foreign Relations’ Global Literacy Advisory Board.
For Cornwell, the value of a liberal arts education transcends obtaining a degree or job training; it fosters a lifelong pursuit of knowledge and personal growth. He described it as “the cultivation of humanity.” By engaging with multiple disciplines and perspectives, students are encouraged to challenge their own beliefs and biases rather than reduce college to vocational preparation.
The liberal arts emphasize “skill development, knowledge acquisition, and personal cultivation,” said Cornwell, a philosophy that underscores the deeper purpose of education.
In the current political climate, education is under intense scrutiny, with efforts to eliminate DEI initiatives and proposals to dissolve the Department of Education. Cornwell believes that advocating for the power and instrumental value of a liberal arts education is more critical than ever.
“Students should be public intellectuals,” he said, urging them to demonstrate how liberal arts education has shaped their professional, academic, and personal growth and to continue advocating for its significance.
Another essential part of the liberal arts experience comes from gaining knowledge and developing skills beyond the classroom.
Cornwell, an avid sailor, said, “A Rollins education is the totality of your experience here.”
A liberal arts education encapsulates everything from time spent in the classroom, to time devoted to extracurriculars, hobbies, athletics, or even social endeavors.
“When you’re having dinner with friends, or working for The Sandspur, that is a part of liberal education,” said Cornwell.
Cornwell points to performances, presentations, games, and matches as a cornerstone of his time at the college. He and his wife, Peg, have especially loved attending student productions, performances, and presentations—something they’ve both found a lot of joy in over the years and will continue to partake in as Winter Park locals.
“We love going out to see students be students— theatre production, music production, athletic contests, anywhere where we can see students be students,” said Cornwell.
Over the past ten years, Cornwell has experienced his fair share of Rollins traditions, from Fox Days to Lip-Sync, and has even started one of his own: the spotting of a blueberry Vespa on campus. When asked about his favorite moments at Rollins, he doesn’t hesitate, responding, “Fox Day! It is simultaneously one of the biggest pains in the neck and something that I love. I love that it’s playful. It’s important to remember that part of human happiness is having time to play. I love the anticipation in the student body.”
As Cornwell’s tenure comes to an end in June 2025, the college will welcome Brooke Barnett as its 16th president.
Aleks is a junior majoring in Environmental Studies and minoring in Sustainable Development . She currently serves as a staff writer for The Sandspur and hosts a radio show with WPRK.
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As you enter a conference room in the Olin Library, you’re greeted by stacks of comic books with bright hues of orange and blue. If you take a closer look, you’ll see imagery from classic Indian myths, stories, and epics: white horses lead chariots adorned with gold, gods and goddesses convene in the cosmos, and warriors wielding divine weapons clash on fiery battlefields.
On Wednesday, March 19, the recently formed Rollins South Asian Student Association (SASA) hosted a cultural showcase in collaboration with the Olin Library’s Olin After Dark program. The event took place in Room 230 of the Olin Library from 4 to 7 p.m.
The showcase featured a discussion on the lead-up to the war of succession between the Pandavas and Kauravas in the ancient Sanskrit epic, “The Mahabharata.”
Guests were invited to look through a selection of Amar Chitra Katha (A.C.K.) comics, one of India’s “first and most beloved comic book series.” SASA president Akash Yalamanchili (‘28), an international student from Hyderabad, India, described the impact of A.C.K. comics as the “equivalent of Marvel and D.C. comics in the United States.”
“These are the comics that I grew up reading,” he said.
The A.C.K. Epics and Mythology collection is now available in the graphic novel section of the Olin Library, to the right of The Grind Café. Yalamanchili hopes that the comics will allow students to learn about Indian mythology “in a way that is fun and educational.”
Yalamanchili started to organize SASA during his first semester in the fall of 2024. On starting SASA, he said that his goal was not only to create an inclusive space for South Asian students but to celebrate South Asian cultures and traditions with the wider Rollins community.
The cultural showcase offered attendees a chance to try homemade murukku, a crunchy, spiral-shaped snack from South India made with rice flour, dal flour, and an assortment of spices. East met West on the snack table, where the savory murukku was served alongside vanilla Oreos.
Though the cultural showcase had a limited turnout of less than ten individuals at a time, Yalamanchili was not deterred. He hopes to have greater participation as the group leads more events in coming semesters. Currently, SASA plans to host a celebration honoring Holi in early April, paying tribute to the festival of colors that takes place across South Asia and around the world.
For updates on the upcoming Holi celebration and future events, you can follow the Rollins South Asian Student Association on Instagram.
Amit is a junior majoring in Critical Media & Cultural Studies with minors in Political Science and Film Studies. He currently serves as a Staff Writer with the Sandspur.
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It’s time for one of the most anticipated events of the school year: Rollins’ annual Lip Sync Battle. Sponsored by the Student Government Association, participants, hosts, and students come together to create an electrifying air of entertainment.
The event will take place on April 4 on Mills Lawn, with pre-show activities starting at 6 p.m. and the battle from 8-11 p.m. Additional information can be found in emails sent by the Student Government Association.
“I’m always interested in seeing all the groups perform, and I’m excited to see if any other organizations perform this year,” said student Bellamy Martin (‘25).
This year’s battle welcomes various organizations and groups to compete in a show of music and dance for the coveted Lip Sync trophy, with last year’s winner being Alpha Delta Pi and the Black Student Union the year before. During and after presentations, performances will be assessed by a panel of judges put together by SGA. Judges are chosen through nominated faculty and staff that are independent of each organization and/or group. Long before the judging even begins, energy and excitement are high as groups battle it out for not only the Lip Sync trophy but ultimate bragging rights and a sense of community.
While the outdoor concert feel adds to the energy, the beloved event has not always been outdoors. It started the outdoor hosting in 2022, only after a brief hiatus from COVID-19 complications.
“It used to be in the Alfond Sports Center, and COVID-19 is what brought it outside, and it created that culture of like the music festival vibe,” said Events Chair Sophia Cassa (‘25). “I think it’s funny how COVID-19 made it better when usually we hear the reverse.”
Part of the event experience will include a pre-show with amenities such as food trucks and activities, like a Lip Sync history Kahoot. Along with this, in honor of their Founder’s Day, members of Sigma Gamma Rho will be delivering a speech followed by strolling. Additionally, as part of his final year at Rollins, students will have the ability to participate in a segment roasting President Grant Cornwell, where the hosts will read roasts submitted by students.
In all of the fun that is set to happen, there lies a hopeful air of relaxation and ease for participants and spectators.
“I think this year with everything going on in our political climate and all the uncertainties and anxieties, we need something to just have fun,” said Cassa. “A lot of students are now struggling with everything getting frozen and uncertainties about their home, so I think this more than ever, is really important, because it’s something that they can look forward to.”
Rachelle is a sophomore majoring in Business Management. She currently serves as a Freelance Writer for The Sandspur.
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On any given day, the airspace around Washington, D.C. is one of the busiest in the country.
Sometimes, busy means fatal.
On Wednesday, Jan. 29, 2025, many Americans living in the D.C. metro area were settling down for the night when news broke that two planes had collided over the Potomac River, a mile from Ronald Reagan National Airport.
While on final approach, an American Eagle Bombardier CRJ collided with a U.S. Army Sikorsky UH-60L helicopter, resulting in the deaths of all 64 passengers aboard the CRJ and three Army crewmembers.
With an average of 800 takeoffs and landings per day, the main runway at Reagan National is the busiest runway in the country. The D.C. airspace sees flights taking off from not only Reagan National but Dulles International to the west in Chantilly, Virginia; Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport to the north; and Andrews Air Force Base to the east. This traffic, coupled with the restricted flight zone around Washington D.C.— established after 9/11, preventing planes from flying over the White House—resulted in both the Army helicopter and CRJ flying on the same flight path.
What resulted was the deadliest plane crash in U.S. history since 2009, when fifty people were killed in a Buffalo plane crash.
Trump, DEI, and the FAA
Nine days prior to the collision in D.C., Donald Trump was sworn in as the 47th president of the United States. The very same day, Michael Whitaker, head of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), resigned from his post. Whitaker had previously clashed with Elon Musk over the FAA’s oversight of SpaceX, with Musk posting on X in September 2024 that Whitaker “needed to resign” after the FAA levied fines against SpaceX for launching uncrewed missions without FAA clearance and other violations. It was not until Thursday, Jan. 30, the day after the accident in D.C., that a new head of the FAA was appointed.
Controversy arose when in his first press conference after the accident, Trump implied that diversity, equity, and inclusion programs (DEI) could be to blame for the crash. When pressed by reporters about if he was getting ahead of the investigation by blaming DEI efforts, Trump responded, “I have common sense.” This came only a week after the administration executed “Keeping Americans Safe in Aviation,” an executive order which rolled back DEI protections in the FAA, stating that it “harms all Americans, who deserve to fly with confidence.” Many pilots argue that there is no evidence that DEI is the cause of safety issues within the aviation industry, despite Trump’s claims, which were backed up by Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, DEI hires—defined here as women, African Americans, Asian Americans, and Latinos—make up roughly 25 percent of employed pilots (statistics that do not support Trump’s claims of DEI being the reason behind aviation safety issues). That has not stopped the accusations from rolling in. Following an incident where a wheel fell off a Boeing 757 taking off at Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport in January 2024, Donald Trump Jr. posted on X, “I’m sure this has nothing to do with mandated Diversity Equity and Inclusion practices in the airline industry!!! Wheels don’t just fall off planes without gross incompetence in the equation!”
The truth remains that until Jan. 29, 2025, there had not been a fatal commercial crash in the United States for sixteen years. Is it simply a coincidence that the Potomac River crash occurred only nine days after the head of the FAA resigned, leaving the aviation industry in political limbo, or is air travel becoming unsafe?
Safety and the Future
Air travel is still safe.
At least, that is what the experts are saying.
That has not stopped the declining confidence in air travel. According to a poll conducted by the Associated Press in February 2025, 63 percent of Americans deem planes to be safe, down from 71 percent in January 2024. While not a significant drop, after the D.C. crash, the Philadelphia crash two days later resulting in the deaths of six people, the crash in Toronto that ended with the Delta Bombardier CRJ upside down, and an incident at Denver International Airport where an engine caught fire on an American Airlines 737, uncertainty regarding air safety surrounds the American public.
The aircraft themselves have not changed; FAA requirements are some of the strictest in the world. Thomas Higgins, a mechanic for Flexjet, said, “For an aircraft to be deemed airworthy, it must meet the specifications and requirements called out for in the Type Certificate Data Sheet. Every non-experimental aircraft has one.” The data sheet includes all the information needed by the FAA to certify the aircraft for flight and what needs to be done for planes to remain safe for the public. Following the March 2019 crash of Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 that resulted in the deaths of all 157 people aboard, the FAA placed a temporary grounding on the Boeing 737-MAX due to the Flight Control System until December 2020. The plane was later re-grounded due to a blown door plug aboard an Alaskan Airlines MAX-9 in January 2024. Flying these aircrafts is not simple on the airlines’ side either, as pilots need at least 1,500 hours to gain their Airline Transport Pilot certification, meaning that even with or without DEI, FAA certified airline pilots are some of the most qualified in the world.
There is no direct evidence leading to assume that DEI is to blame for the accident in D.C., nor for any of the ones that followed. The lack of evidence also makes it premature to assume that air travel is becoming more dangerous as the summer travel months approach. As Higgins said, “after the D.C. crash, air travel is just the new news cycle.”
Molly is a freshman intending to major in history and hopes to double minor in American Studies and English. This is her first year writing for The Sandspur and she currently serves as a Freelance Writer.
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100 women came together on Mills Lawn for what Felicia Wright described as “radical rest.” The event featured four speakers who performed poetry and a student who sang an original song. One standout lyric was, “It’s about doing something with a goal that helps all of us.”
After, there was a guided meditation. The rest of the event flowed naturally, with attendees meditating on their own, chatting with others, or simply relaxing in the sun.
Liv McCoy is a junior majoring in Sociology with minors in African and African American Studies and Communication Studies. She currently serves as The Sandspur's Photo Editor. Her photography and poetry have been published in Brushing Literary Journal.
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In the dark morning hours of a surprise day in Spring, a fox is called out to spark an annual tradition at Rollins. He’s hidden away until the perfect time, a day deemed too nice for class, where students swap class or study sessions for a day at the beach or games on Mills Lawn. Tars might even start the day off by staking out Tars Plaza for a glimpse of the well-renowned fox statue as opposed to preparing for an 8 a.m. class. Even prior to the fox statue being revealed, students start investing in “Fox Day Roulette,” banking on the luck of the fox to save them from homework and exam preparation.
President Hugh McKean said it best: “Rollins itself has a long tradition of doing things its own way”. He began this school-wide holiday 69 years ago when he inherited the artifact from President Hamilton Holt. It came as a pair with itself and a cat, but she, unfortunately, was smashed to pieces in a prank. When complaints rolled in claiming there was nothing the college did together, McKean brought the fox out from his hiding hole to unify the school.
During the Vietnam War, Fox Day took a pause. The atmosphere was simply too grim for much festivity. Before becoming Rollins 12th President, Thaddeus Seymour tried to introduce a similar day-off event at his previous institution, Dartmouth. He longed for such “a day to celebrate nature and being a human.” Unfortunately, it didn’t happen. In a 1988 interview with The Spokesman (archived by Google), Seymour said, “The students were serious about Vietnam… It seemed too frivolous.”
In another interview in 2015, he said, “Vietnam became a factor and a point of awareness because of the draft and the change in the mission of people who were drafted. On the campus, I think because of that, inescapably every student was touched by these options and possibilities, and awareness of the war was just more and more a fact of life.”
After moving onto other positions, Seymour finally came to Rollins College and realized there had been the existence of that holiday he wished for just a decade earlier. Though it had taken a pause due to the anxieties with the recent war, he eventually reinstated the holiday in 1978.
“Selecting Fox Day is the one decision I make by myself. No committee, no faculty votes. I hold my finger to the breeze. I know if it’s right. If I’m ready for it, I’ve got to feel it in my bones,” Seymour said in 1988. He also said that if students wanted their beloved fox to come again the following year, they all needed to gather in Knowles Memorial Chapel at 10 a.m. “as a family” to certify his return. Though the unique tradition didn’t quite catch on at Seymour’s other colleges, Fox Day continues to bring the Rollins community together to this day.
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Powerful words to describe a powerful movement.
“Take Back the Night” is a movement dedicated to ending all forms of sexual violence and supporting survivors. The slogan, “Take Back the Night”, originated in response to the fear of violence that women experience when walking alone at night. Events, protests, and marches occur at universities across the country. The first protest took place in the 1970s at the University of Southern Florida. There, women dressed like witches and demanded a change: a change in improved safety and resources for women walking alone at night.
This change is essential as the statistics of violence are staggering. “1 in 3 women worldwide experience some form of sexual violence or intimate partner violence.” The movement has expanded to include people of all identities, adding international events and even more resources. After sixty years, much work has been done, yet there is still more to continue.
On March 20, 2025, Rollins College held its first “Take Back the Night” event since 2013, led by campus organization, Voices. Voices is an intersectional feminist organization that works to support, empower, and educate all people.
The event started on Mills Lawn with an opening statement led by Gabriela Tirado (‘25) and Sydney Boswell (‘25), executive board members in Voices. Next, the keynote speakers gave powerful messages with words of bravery and hope for a future where sexual violence is no more. Olivia Oropeza from the Victims Service Center of Central Florida said to “challenge the silence” so that we can all “exist freely and safely.” Olivia Littleton from the One More Child nonprofit group said that “one more victim is one too many.”
The walk began down Holt Avenue, took a left on French Avenue, and ended with a march into the French House on campus, where the group gathered for the Speak-Out. There, courageous survivors shared their stories, both anonymously and not, and found support in the Rollins Community. Dr. Briscoe, the Dean of Religious and Spiritual Life, led the candlelight vigil and a moment of silence for the experience that the group shared. It encouraged the survivors in their healing journey and shared a message of hope for the future. Finally, a closing statement by the organizers was shared.
This event opened the conversation on campus about sexual violence and supporting survivors. It is a large part of education, challenging the harmful narratives and refusal to be silent in the face of violence.
Support survivors and demand justice.
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