Eckerd College is a private liberal arts college in

St. Petersburg, Florida St. Petersburg is a city in Pinellas County, Florida, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 258,308, making it the fifth-most populous city in Florida and the second-largest city in the Tampa Bay Area, after Tampa. It is the ...

. Founded in 1958, part of the campus is waterfront and

beach A beach is a landform alongside a body of water which consists of loose particles. The particles composing a beach are typically made from rock, such as sand, gravel, shingle, pebbles, etc., or biological sources, such as mollusc sh ...

Boca Ciega Bay Boca Ciega Bay is a body of water connected to the Gulf of Mexico on the west-central coast of Florida. It is bordered by Gulfport, St. Petersburg, and other municipalities in Pinellas County.its own student volunteer maritime search and rescue team. Accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, Eckerd is a member of the Annapolis and Oberlin groups of national liberal arts colleges.

History

The institution now known as Eckerd College was founded as Florida Presbyterian College in 1958 as part of national growth in post-secondary education driven by GIs entering college after returning from

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

and later by the baby boom. The

United Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. The United Presbyterian Church in the United States of America (UPCUSA) was the largest branch of Presbyterianism in the United States from May 28, 1958, to 1983. It was formed by the union of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of Ameri ...

and the Presbyterian Church worked together to establish the college, receiving a charter from the Florida legislature in 1958 and opening in 1960. The college opened in temporary quarters at Bayboro Harbor with a

liberal arts Liberal arts education (from Latin "free" and "art or principled practice") is the traditional academic course in Western higher education. ''Liberal arts'' takes the term '' art'' in the sense of a learned skill rather than specifically th ...

focus and 154 freshmen; it had 310 freshmen and sophomores in January 1962, when it was about to expand with the addition of a junior class, and began the 1966–1967 academic year with 810 students. In 1971, drugstore magnate

Jack Eckerd Jack Eckerd (May 16, 1913 – May 19, 2004) was an American businessman and the second generation owner of Eckerd chain of drugstores. Biography Eckerd was born in Wilmington, Delaware, and graduated from Culver Military Academy and the Boein ...

donated $12.5 million to the college as part of his broader interest in Florida politics. The following year the institution's name was changed to Eckerd College.

Ruth Eckerd Hall Ruth Eckerd Hall is a performing arts venue, located in Clearwater, Florida, in the Tampa Bay area and is part of the Richard B. Baumgardner Center for the Performing Arts. The concert hall is named after Ruth Eckerd, the wife of businessman ...

, a 2,100-seat regional performing arts venue for concerts, plays and civic events in nearby Clearwater also benefited from Eckerd's philanthropy, and is named for Jack Eckerd's wife. Eckerd would serve as interim president of the college. Despite the name change from ''Florida Presbyterian,'' a covenant relationship is still maintained with the Presbyterian Church, and conferred degrees will have the text ''founded in 1958 as Florida Presbyterian College'' in the official seal. In the 1980s, college president Peter H. Armacost decided to spend much of the college's endowment on real estate development — specifically, building waterfront homes and a retirement center on college-owned land next to the main campus. In 2000, the Board of Trustees discovered that more than half of Eckerd's endowment had been spent without its knowledge or consent. Armacost abruptly retired, the college's vice president for finance resigned, and the college itself eventually lost the partially developed land. Armacost's retirement was met with controversy from both faculty and alumni, and despite the scandal, the main library on campus still bears Armacost's name. In February 2004, the college announced that it had regained solvency. Despite this, one of the first challenges Armacost's replacement, Donald R. Eastman III, faced was having the institution warned that it might lose its accreditation because of these financial problems. Partially in response, in May 2006, Miles Collier, then-chairman of the Board of Trustees, and his wife, Parker Collier, announced a $25 million challenge gift to the college; they subsequently increased this to $40 million. In November 2008, alumnus Grover Wrenn, a member of the founding Class of 1964, gave the college a $1 million gift, the largest at the time from an alumnus. Eastman's position at Eckerd became the second-longest of any president at the college. Although later in his tenure he came under criticism for statements about campus sexual assault, Eastman is still credited with doubling applications for admission to Eckerd, providing more student housing, and improving the college's stature after its financial scandal. Eastman was succeeded by Damián J. Fernández in July 2020. In the Fall semester of 2021, Eckerd had 718 first-year and transfer students, its largest incoming class yet.

Presidents

* William H. Kadel (1958–1968) * Billy O. Wireman (1968–1977) *

(Interim, 1977) * Peter H. Armacost (1977–2000) * Eugene Hotchkiss (Interim, 2000–2001) * Donald R. Eastman III (July 1, 2001 – June 30, 2020) * Damián J. Fernández (July 1, 2020 – August 1, 2022) * James J. Annarelli (Interim, 2022–present)

Academics

Eckerd College is accredited to award Bachelor of Arts, Bachelor of Science, and Bachelor of Fine Arts degrees in more than forty majors, or students can design their own concentrations. Every student takes four years of classes across a wide variety of fields—art, literature, the natural and social sciences—regardless of their major. Often called General Education, these courses are designed to provide critical thought, the ability to make complex decisions and a commitment to lifelong learning. Every student is required to complete a set number of hours of "reflective service-learning" before graduation. New students take their first college course during a three-week orientation called "Autumn Term" that is guided by faculty and peer mentors. Eckerd College originated the 4-1-4 academic calendar, with the "1" representing the Winter Term during the month of January, in which each student concentrates on a single class, often studying abroad. Before graduation, students in nearly all majors are required to either pass a senior-year comprehensive examination or to complete a senior thesis project. All students must complete a senior seminar course in their final year. As there are no graduate programs, all undergraduate students have access to research opportunities including first-year research associateships, the Ford Apprentice Scholars Program (launched by a grant from the

Ford Foundation The Ford Foundation is an American private foundation with the stated goal of advancing human welfare. Created in 1936 by Edsel Ford and his father Henry Ford, it was originally funded by a US$25,000 gift from Edsel Ford. By 1947, after the death ...

), honor societies, an honors program and an annual research symposium. Notable projects include the Eckerd College Dolphin Project, the longest running undergraduate-centered dolphin research program in the world., and D.A.R.W.I.N., a computer science project (partnered closely with marine science) to automate dolphin dorsal fin recognition. A

United States Geological Survey The United States Geological Survey (USGS), formerly simply known as the Geological Survey, is a scientific agency of the United States government. The scientists of the USGS study the landscape of the United States, its natural resources, ...

center in St. Petersburg provides further research opportunities. The

Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) is a Florida government agency founded in 1999 and headquartered in Tallahassee. It manages and regulates the state's fish and wildlife resources, and enforces related laws. Officers ar ...

(FWC) received a $6.7 million grant in 2021 to design and construct a new Marine Mammal Pathobiology Lab on Eckerd's campus to augment the lab currently owned and operated by FWC on Eckerd property just outside the college's gates.

Phi Beta Kappa The Phi Beta Kappa Society () is the oldest academic honor society in the United States, and the most prestigious, due in part to its long history and academic selectivity. Phi Beta Kappa aims to promote and advocate excellence in the liberal ...

(Eckerd is one of the youngest colleges in the country to be awarded a chapter) and

Sigma Xi Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Honor Society () is a highly prestigious, non-profit honor society for scientists and engineers. Sigma Xi was founded at Cornell University by a junior faculty member and a small group of graduate students in 1886 ...

are among the nationally recognized honor societies at Eckerd College. The Ethics Bowl teams have consistently captured awards in intercollegiate competition, winning the competition for seven straight years (2004–2011). Students can study abroad, including at the Eckerd College Study Centre on

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

's Gower Street, with scholarship opportunities. On average, students travel 1,000 miles from home to attend Eckerd—from roughly 48 states and 35 countries. Eckerd also offers short-term English-immersion courses in a dedicated campus facility.

Rankings

Eckerd College was ranked No. 128 (tie) overall in the National Liberal Arts Colleges category of the 2022 '' U.S. News & World Report'' Best Colleges rankings. Eckerd is one of 40 liberal arts schools that was profiled in Loren Pope's

Colleges That Change Lives ''Colleges That Change Lives'' began as a college educational guide first published in 1996 by Loren Pope. Colleges That Change Lives (CTCL) was founded in 1998 is a non-profit, 501(c)(3) based on Pope's book. The book ''Colleges That Change Live ...

. Eckerd College ranked No. 2 in the nation, among baccalaureate institutions, for the number of students who participate in short-term study abroad and No. 3 for the total number of study abroad students in the 2018–2019 academic year, by the

Institute of International Education The Institute of International Education (IIE) is a 501(c) organization which focuses on international student exchange and aid, foreign affairs, and international peace and security. IIE creates programs of study and training for students, educa ...

. Eckerd ranks No. 1 in the United States in the number of

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (abbreviated as NOAA ) is an United States scientific and regulatory agency within the United States Department of Commerce that forecasts weather, monitors oceanic and atmospheric conditio ...

Hollings Scholars it has produced since that undergraduate scholarship program's inception in 2005. Eckerd ranked No. 3 among small schools on the list of

Peace Corps The Peace Corps is an independent agency and program of the United States government that trains and deploys volunteers to provide international development assistance. It was established in March 1961 by an executive order of President John F ...

top volunteer-producing colleges and universities in 2020. Eckerd was profiled in The

Princeton Review The Princeton Review is an education services company providing tutoring, test preparation and admission resources for students. It was founded in 1981. and since that time has worked with over 400 million students. Services are delivered by 4,0 ...

's Best 386 Colleges as well as its Guide to Green Colleges in 2022. Eckerd was named the No. 4 best college "by the sea" by BestCollegeReviews.

Campus

Eckerd College has a suburban campus on Frenchman's Creek and

Boca Ciega Bay Boca Ciega Bay is a body of water connected to the Gulf of Mexico on the west-central coast of Florida. It is bordered by Gulfport, St. Petersburg, and other municipalities in Pinellas County.Gulf of Mexico The Gulf of Mexico ( es, Golfo de México) is an ocean basin and a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, largely surrounded by the North American continent. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the United ...

beaches. The campus is near residential and commercial neighborhoods of St. Petersburg. The college has various sustainability efforts, including bikesharing systems and efforts to reduce plastic waste. The school is ranked on the Princeton Review's list of Green Colleges for its sustainability efforts. In 1958, the founders of Eckerd College hired the Chicago architectural firm of Perkins and Will to design the college's campus and first buildings. The result is one of the world's largest intact collections of midcentury modern educational buildings designed by some of the 20th century's most important school architects. A common feature is the use of glass and external views to emphasize a connection with the environment. Recent campus additions include the Armacost Library, Iota residential housing complex, sports facilities; renovations to the student center, residence halls, and Miller Auditorium were also completed. Other campus buildings include those designed and used for classrooms, laboratories, offices, conferences, theatrical productions, musical instruction, art exhibits, athletic events, and student services. Armacost Library is a $15 million facility that opened in January 2005. The two-story library is located near the college's student center and residence complexes. It houses book and periodical collections and features seating for about 400, including 17 group-study rooms and 58 computer stations. Both high-speed cable and wireless connectivity are available throughout the library. In addition to aquarium rooms, a marine sediment core facility, an oceanography lab, and a computer lab, the Galbraith Marine Science Laboratory, which was renovated in 2014, features a continuous flow-through system that pumps seawater into the building, so students can study marine organisms without harming them. The James Center For Molecular and Life Sciences, a ,

US$ The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...

25 million laboratory facility, opened in February 2013. On the western side of campus, the Doyle Sailing Center was completed in 2016 to become the new home for the Eckerd Sailing teams. In 2018, The Helmar and Enole Nielsen Center for Visual Arts opened at the cost of a U.S. $15 million. This 33,000-square-foot (3,066 m2) center nurtures art forms from ancient to contemporary to not-yet-invented. All three projects incorporate green initiatives and feature natural landscaping to accent the facilities.

Peter H. Armacost Library

Opening

In March 2002, anonymous donors contributed $13 million, the largest donation ever given to the college, to establish the 58,000 square foot (5,388 square meters) 2-story library named for past president, Peter H. Armacost. Fox Hall was demolished to make room for the library.$13-million given for Eckerd library - Document - Gale In Context: Biography The donation was taken as a "vote of confidence" from Eckerd College donors after an endowment shortfall during the Armacost administration. It was later revealed that the donors involved were John and Rosemary Galbraith, a former Eckerd trustee and board chairman, as well as a retired mutual fund executive and philanthropist. The library was planned to hold 300,000 books and be twice as large as the previous library at the Cobb center, opened in 1962. Construction of the library would be left to Ayers/Saint/Gross interdisciplinary design firm. The groundbreaking ceremony was held December 2002 with Armacost and his family in attendance. "I am humbled and deeply grateful to those who made that possible," Armacost said in response to the library being named after him. During then Eckerd president Eastman's speech, he said, "This library, and the national reputation this college has achieved in the blink of an eye, are nothing less than dreams that have come true." With a Friends of the Library membership, the public would be able to borrow books for $30, $40 for families.

Upgrades

Since its opening, Armacost Library has had several changes to the building. In 2018, the Current, Eckerd's campus newspaper, students were concerned about the lack of gender-neutral bathrooms in the library. As of 2022, construction was completed on gender-neutral bathrooms on the library's first floor. In 2021, the first Seed Library was established within the Armacost Library by the librarians.

Student life and activities

Eckerd College maintains a regular series of on-campus events for the benefit and enjoyment of campus and community. The music, theatre, and visual arts programs are active in staging concerts, dramatic productions, and exhibitions, respectively, throughout the academic year. On-campus speakers have included, among many others, the late nobel laureate in economics

Milton Friedman Milton Friedman (; July 31, 1912 – November 16, 2006) was an American economist and statistician who received the 1976 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for his research on consumption analysis, monetary history and theory and the ...

, the late Israeli Foreign Minister

Abba Eban Abba Solomon Meir Eban (; he, אבא אבן ; born Aubrey Solomon Meir Eban; 2 February 1915 – 17 November 2002) was an Israeli diplomat and politician, and a scholar of the Arabic and Hebrew languages. During his career, he served as For ...

Jimmy Carter James Earl Carter Jr. (born October 1, 1924) is an American politician who served as the 39th president of the United States from 1977 to 1981. A member of the Democratic Party, he previously served as the 76th governor of Georgia from 1 ...

Michael Collins Michael Collins or Mike Collins most commonly refers to: * Michael Collins (Irish leader) (1890–1922), Irish revolutionary leader, soldier, and politician * Michael Collins (astronaut) (1930–2021), American astronaut, member of Apollo 11 and Ge ...

, Anderson Cooper,

Jared Diamond Jared Mason Diamond (born September 10, 1937) is an American geographer, historian, ornithologist, and author best known for his popular science books '' The Third Chimpanzee'' (1991); ''Guns, Germs, and Steel'' (1997, awarded a Pulitzer Priz ...

, Gerald Ford, Jesse Jackson,

Coretta Scott King Coretta Scott King ( Scott; April 27, 1927 – January 30, 2006) was an American author, activist, and civil rights leader who was married to Martin Luther King Jr. from 1953 until his death. As an advocate for African-American equality, she ...

, Stephen King,

Henry Kissinger Henry Alfred Kissinger (; ; born Heinz Alfred Kissinger, May 27, 1923) is a German-born American politician, diplomat, and geopolitical consultant who served as United States Secretary of State and National Security Advisor under the presid ...

Richard Leakey Richard Erskine Frere Leakey (19 December 1944 – 2 January 2022) was a Kenyan paleoanthropologist, conservationist and politician. Leakey held a number of official positions in Kenya, mostly in institutions of archaeology and wildlife conse ...

Dennis Lehane Dennis Lehane (born August 4, 1965) is an American author. He has published more than a dozen novels; the first several were a series of mysteries featuring recurring characters, including ''A Drink Before the War''. Of these, four were adapted a ...

(a 1988 Eckerd grad),

Seyyed Hossein Nasr Seyyed Hossein Nasr (; fa, سید حسین نصر, born April 7, 1933) is an Iranian philosopher and University Professor of Islamic studies at George Washington University. Born in Tehran, Nasr completed his education in Iran and the United St ...

Paul Rusesabagina Paul Rusesabagina (;"Paul Rusesabagina, Rwanda's ...

Peter Singer Peter Albert David Singer (born 6 July 1946) is an Australian moral philosopher, currently the Ira W. DeCamp Professor of Bioethics at Princeton University. He specialises in applied ethics and approaches ethical issues from a Secularit ...

James Van Allen James Alfred Van Allen (September 7, 1914August 9, 2006) was an American space scientist at the University of Iowa. He was instrumental in establishing the field of magnetospheric research in space. The Van Allen radiation belts were named aft ...

, Elie Wiesel,

Yevgeny Yevtushenko Yevgeny Aleksandrovich Yevtushenko ( rus, links=no, 1=Евге́ний Алекса́ндрович Евтуше́нко; 18 July 1933 – 1 April 2017) was a Soviet and Russian poet. He was also a novelist, essayist, dramatist, screenwriter, ...

Gloria Steinem Gloria Marie Steinem (; born March 25, 1934) is an American journalist and social-political activist who emerged as a nationally recognized leader of second-wave feminism in the United States in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Steinem was a c ...

Billy Collins William James Collins (born March 22, 1941) is an American poet, appointed as Poet Laureate of the United States from 2001 to 2003. He is a Distinguished Professor at Lehman College of the City University of New York (retired, 2016). Collins ...

, Bill McKibben,

Piper Kerman Piper Eressea Kerman (born September 28, 1969) is an American author. She was indicted in 1998 on charges of felonious money-laundering activities, and sentenced to 15 months' detention in a federal correctional facility, of which she eventually ...

, Opal Tometi, and Ibram X. Kendi. Eckerd's student government, the Eckerd College Organization of Students, gives an annual total of more than $500,000 to more than 100 student-run clubs and organizations, including Eckerd's student newspaper (''The Current''), a student literary journal (''Eckerd Review'') a student radio station (WECX), a student activities board (Palmetto Productions) sports clubs, cultural clubs, religious clubs, political clubs, community service clubs and various academic-related clubs, such as those for anthropology, art, biology, chemistry, philosophy, law, and foreign languages. Among the service clubs are campus chapters of Colleges Against Cancer and the Public Interest Research Group (PIRG). Eckerd College also has hosted the EC Coalition for Community Justice, a group seeking to raise campus housekeepers' wages, and is one of only a few schools in Florida to join the nationally recognized

Prep undergraduate certificate program—helping adventurous students prepare to serve humanity after graduation. Eckerd's Waterfront Program is a center of watersport activities—such as sailing,

kiteboarding Kiteboarding or kitesurfing is a sport that involves using wind power with a large power kite to pull a rider across a water, land, or snow surface. It combines aspects of paragliding, surfing, windsurfing, skateboarding, snowboarding, and wak ...

, paddle boarding, kayaking, and fishing. An award-winning student group, Eckerd College Search and Rescue (EC-SAR), helps the

U.S. Coast Guard The United States Coast Guard (USCG) is the maritime security, search and rescue, and law enforcement service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the country's eight uniformed services. The service is a maritime, military, mul ...

in rescue operations throughout the Tampa Bay area. The student-run Eckerd College Emergency Response Team, composed of professionally trained

emergency medical technician An emergency medical technician (EMT), also known as an ambulance technician, is a health professional that provides emergency medical services. EMTs are most commonly found working in ambulances. In English-speaking countries, paramedics a ...

s, not only prepares undergraduates for careers as first responders but is committed to aiding campus community members during medical emergencies About 90% of Eckerd students live in on-campus residence halls. Eckerd College has 12 residence hall complexes, most with a name from the Greek alphabet. Among these, Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, Epsilon, Zeta, Kappa, and Iota complexes offer traditional dorm-style housing. Omega and Nu complexes house upperclass students, and are organized around suites on each floor. Sigma and West Lodge offer an on-campus hotel style of living, with each room having its own individual bathroom. The newest dorm complex, Iota, opened on September 30, 2006. Since 1973, Eckerd College has set aside pet-friendly housing for students wishing to bring small animals to campus. Every spring, a separate graduation ceremony is held for graduating seniors' pets, complete with certificates presented by the president. The college also built a pet park in 2014 for community use.

Environmental sustainability

In 2011, the Eckerd College Sustainability Program was founded. In 2013, Sustainability Fellow (now Director) Evan Bollier '11 started "Trash to Treasure," an initiative where volunteer students collect abandoned items after students move out and sell them to students returning the next year. The college has several other green initiatives including a bike sharing program, campus recycling and composting. In 2013, the college installed a 50-kilowatt solar-powered system, the first solar initiative on campus. In 2019, then-President Donald R. Eastman III signed a pledge to prohibit college funds from being used to buy most nonessential single-use plastics. In 2021, Eckerd College appeared on the

's list of Green Colleges for its sustainability efforts, and it continues to participate in the Tree Campus USA program as it works to sustain a healthy community forest in its natural Florida setting. In 2022, Eckerd was named one of six colleges and universities in the second cohort of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine Gulf Research Program's "Gulf Scholars Program," a pilot program designed to prepare undergraduate students to address the most pressing environmental, health, energy and infrastructure challenges in the Gulf of Mexico region. It was the smallest institution so awarded: the others were the

University of Central Florida The University of Central Florida (UCF) is a public research university whose main campus is in unincorporated Orange County, Florida. UCF also has nine smaller regional campuses throughout central Florida. It is part of the State University ...

Louisiana State University Louisiana State University (officially Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, commonly referred to as LSU) is a public land-grant research university in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The university was founded in 1860 nea ...

, the

University of South Alabama The University of South Alabama (USA) is a public research university in Mobile, Alabama. It was created by the Alabama Legislature in May, 1963, and replaced existing extension programs operated in Mobile by the University of Alabama. The first ...

, the

University of Southern Mississippi The University of Southern Mississippi (Southern Miss or USM) is a public research university with its main campus located in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. It is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools to award bachelor's, ma ...

and Texas A&M University at Corpus Christi.

Athletics

Eckerd College is a founding member of the Sunshine State Conference (NCAA Division II) fielding 14 athletic teams in coed and women's sailing, men's and women's basketball, men's and women's soccer, men's baseball, women's indoor volleyball and beach volleyball, men's and women's golf, men's and women's tennis, and women's softball. The Eckerd Varsity Sailing team competes nationally as a member of the SAISA (the South Atlantic Intercollegiate Sailing Association) and is a member of the ICSA (Intercollegiate Sailing Association), having made an appearance in the Match Race Nationals in 2019. The college's basketball and indoor volleyball teams play in the McArthur Physical Education Center's gymnasium. A swimming pool, adjacent to the gym, is open to all students. Eckerd's mascot is the Triton, and the school's colors—teal, navy and black—were adopted by the Athletics program in 2005; previously the school's colors had been black, red, and white. In 2006, for the first time in the 24-year history of the Eckerd College Women's Volleyball program, the Tritons qualified for the NCAA South Region tournament. In addition to Division II teams, Eckerd students participate in club sports such as men's and women's

rugby Rugby may refer to: Sport * Rugby football in many forms: ** Rugby league: 13 players per side *** Masters Rugby League *** Mod league *** Rugby league nines *** Rugby league sevens *** Touch (sport) *** Wheelchair rugby league ** Rugby union: 1 ...

lacrosse Lacrosse is a team sport played with a lacrosse stick and a lacrosse ball. It is the oldest organized sport in North America, with its origins with the indigenous people of North America as early as the 12th century. The game was extensiv ...

, and ultimate. The men's club lacrosse team finished the 2006 season ranked No. 3 in the National Collegiate Club Lacrosse Poll, with a 13–1 record. Since its founding in 2003, the team captured two state championships, a regional championship, and a third-place national finish. In 2000, the Eckerd's men's club

volleyball Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Sum ...

Team won the NIRSA Division II Sports Club Volleyball Championships in Reno, Nevada. In 2020, the college received the Presidents’ Award from the

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges an ...

after boasting an Academic Success Rate (ASR) of 94—marking the 10th consecutive year Eckerd has achieved an ASR of 90 or above. Also in 2020, the Eckerd Athletics Department was a finalist for the NCAA Division II Award of Excellence for its work with the 10th annual Christmas for Kids event held in December 2019. Eckerd Athletics was recognized for conducting events that promote student-athletes giving back and serving as leaders within their communities or on their campus.

Notable people

Alumni

Arts

Dorothy Allison Dorothy Allison (born April 11, 1949) is an American writer from South Carolina whose writing focuses on class struggle, sexual abuse, child abuse, feminism and lesbianism. She is a self-identified lesbian femme. Allison has won a number of a ...

(1971), writer. *

Hank Green William Henry Green II (born May 5, 1980) is an American vlogger, science communicator, entrepreneur, author, internet producer, and musician. He is known for producing the YouTube channel Vlogbrothers with his older brother, author John Green ...

(2002), author, professional vlogger and entrepreneur. *

Levi Hummon Levi Hummon is an American country music, country musician. Hummon is the son of fellow country musician Marcus Hummon. Levi Hummon released his first self-titled EP in 2016. In 2018, he released his second EP titled ''Patient''. Hummon has opened ...

(2012), country music artist, singer and songwriter. * Douglas Lain, novelist. *

(1988), writer, ''

Mystic River The Mystic River is a riverU.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed April 1, 2011 in Massachusetts, in the United States. In Massachusett, means "large estuary," alluding to t ...

'' and ''

Gone Baby Gone ''Gone Baby Gone'' is a 2007 American crime thriller film directed by Ben Affleck Benjamin Géza Affleck (born August 15, 1972) is an American actor and filmmaker. His accolades include two Academy Awards, three Golden Globe Awards and a ...

,'' former writer-in-residence, and co-founder/co-director of
Writers in Paradise
'. *

Arto Lindsay Arthur Morgan "Arto" Lindsay (born May 28, 1953) is an American guitarist, singer, record producer and experimental composer. He was a member of the pioneering 1970s no wave group DNA, which featured on the 1978 compilation '' No New York''. I ...

, guitarist,

singer Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or withou ...

record producer A record producer is a recording project's creative and technical leader, commanding studio time and coaching artists, and in popular genres typically creates the song's very sound and structure. Virgil Moorefield"Introduction" ''The Producer as ...

and

experimental An experiment is a procedure carried out to support or refute a hypothesis, or determine the efficacy or likelihood of something previously untried. Experiments provide insight into cause-and-effect by demonstrating what outcome occurs when a ...

composer. *

Jay Baron Nicorvo Jay Baron Nicorvo (born August 21, 1976) is an American novelist, poet, and essayist. Life Nicorvo was born in Perth Amboy, NJ and was raised in Sarasota, FL. He's married to the writer Thisbe Nissen and they live on an old farm outside Battle ...

(1999), writer.

Economics

Mark Tluszcz Mark Tluszcz is co-founder and CEO of Mangrove Capital Partners, a venture capital firm he set up in 2000. He also serves as Chairman of Wix.com (NASDAQ:WIX), a popular website building platform. His achievements include turning a $2m investment ...

(1989), venture capitalist known for Skype and Wix.

Politics

* Jeffrey J. Berger (1978), state representative, District 73 district,

Connecticut House of Representatives The Connecticut State House of Representatives is the lower house in the Connecticut General Assembly, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Connecticut. The house is composed of 151 members representing an equal number of districts, with ...

. * Frank Farkas (1993), former Florida State Representative. * Bob Gualtieri (2000), law enforcement officer, lawyer, and politician * Michael P. Hein (1987),

county executive A county executive, county manager or county mayor is the head of the executive branch of government in a United States county. The executive may be an elected or an appointed position. When elected, the executive typically functions either as a ...

Ulster County, New York Ulster County is a county in the U.S. state of New York. It is situated along the Hudson River. As of the 2020 census, the population was 181,851. The county seat is Kingston. The county is named after the Irish province of Ulster. History ...

. * Janet C. Long (2002), member of the Florida House of Representatives.

Science

Bill Curtis Bill Curtis (born 1948) is a software engineer best known for leading the development of the Capability Maturity Model and the People CMM in the Software Engineering Institute at Carnegie Mellon University, and for championing the spread of ...

(1971), software engineer who lead the development of the Capability Maturity Model. * Tessa M. Hill (1999), associate vice provost for academic programs—public scholarship and engagement,

University of California, Davis The University of California, Davis (UC Davis, UCD, or Davis) is a public land-grant research university near Davis, California. Named a Public Ivy, it is the northernmost of the ten campuses of the University of California system. The inst ...

Aaron D. O'Connell Aaron Douglas O'Connell (born March 5, 1981, in Allentown, Pennsylvania) is an American experimental quantum physicist. While working under Andrew N. Cleland and John M. Martinis at the University of California, Santa Barbara, he created the ...

(2005), creator of the world's first

quantum machine A quantum machine is a human-made device whose collective motion follows the laws of quantum mechanics. The idea that macroscopic objects may follow the laws of quantum mechanics dates back to the advent of quantum mechanics in the early 20th ce ...

. * Mark Pauline (1977) founder and director of Survival Research Labs. * James W. Pennebaker (1971), American social psychologist. * Stephen Updegraff (1984), early contributor of

LASIK LASIK or Lasik (''laser-assisted in situ keratomileusis''), commonly referred to as laser eye surgery or laser vision correction, is a type of refractive surgery for the correction of myopia, hyperopia, and an actual cure for astigmatism, sinc ...

Sports

Craig Albernaz Craig Francis Albernaz (born October 30, 1982) is an American professional baseball bullpen and catching coach for the San Francisco Giants of Major League Baseball (MLB). He played college baseball for Eckerd College. Albernaz signed with the T ...

(2005),

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

coach for the

San Francisco Giants The San Francisco Giants are an American professional baseball team based in San Francisco, California. The Giants compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) West division. Founded in 1883 as the New Y ...

Steve Balboni Stephen Charles Balboni (; born January 16, 1957) is an American former Major League Baseball player, who played for the New York Yankees, Seattle Mariners, Kansas City Royals, and Texas Rangers. He was a player with home run power and a tendency ...

(1978), former

New York Yankees The New York Yankees are an American professional baseball team based in the New York City borough of the Bronx. The Yankees compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East division. They are one of ...

first-baseman. *

Bill Evers William Joseph Evers (born January 29, 1954) is an American professional baseball coach and a former minor league player and longtime manager and instructor. In November 2018, he was named a coach on the staff of Rocco Baldelli, the manager of ...

(1976), bench coach of the

Tampa Bay Devil Rays The Tampa Bay Rays are an American professional baseball team based in St. Petersburg, Florida. The Rays compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East division. Since its inception, the team's home ve ...

, former

player. *

Joe Lefebvre Joseph Henry Lefebvre ( ; born February 22, 1956) is an American former professional baseball player and coach. He played all or parts of six seasons in Major League Baseball with the New York Yankees (1980), San Diego Padres (1981–83) and Phila ...

(1979), former outfielder for

and Philadelphia Phillies. *

Jim Mecir James Jason Mecir (born May 16, 1970) is an American former Major League Baseball pitcher who played for five teams over an 11-year career between and . Mecir is notable for having overcome a birth defect (namely club feet) to become an effect ...

(1992), former

player. * Jon Mueller (1992), college baseball coach at Albany. *

Brian Sabean Brian R. Sabean (born July 1, 1956), nicknamed "Sabes", is a former baseball executive. He was the executive vice president of baseball operations of the San Francisco Giants. He served as the team's general manager for eighteen seasons, from 1997 ...

(1978), general manager of the

. *

Jay Washington Anthony Jay Washington (born November 10, 1981) is a Filipino-American professional basketball player for Yokohama Excellence of the Japanese B.League. College career Born in Zambales, Philippines, Washington played for the Eckerd College Tr ...

(2004), professional basketball player in PBA.

Retired or Part-time Faculty

* David Eugene Henry, artist (former part-time faculty) *

, writer, ''Mystic River'' and ''

'' *

Jamsheed Marker Jamsheed Marker (24 November 1922 – 21 June 2018), was a Pakistani diplomat and a former cricket commentator. The recipient of Hilal-e-Imtiaz, he was associated with diplomatic career for over 42 years. He was notable for his tenure as A ...

, diplomat (former diplomat-in-residence) *

Peter Meinke Peter Meinke (born 1932 in Brooklyn, New York) is an American poet and author. He has published 18 books of poems and short stories. ''The Piano Tuner'', won the 1986 Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction. His poetry has received many awards, ...

, writer, Florida poet laureate (retired faculty member) *

James Michener James Albert Michener ( or ; February 3, 1907 – October 16, 1997) was an American writer. He wrote more than 40 books, most of which were long, fictional family sagas covering the lives of many generations in particular geographic locales and ...

, writer (former part-time faculty) * John Prevas, writer (former scholar-in-residence/faculty) * Sterling Watson, writer (1969 alumnus, retired faculty, and co-founder/former co-director of
Writers in Paradise
') * Elie Wiesel, Romanian-born American writer, political activist, Nobel laureate, and Holocaust survivor (visiting faculty 1993–2016)

References

External links

*
Official athletics website
{{authority control 1958 establishments in Florida Education in Pinellas County, Florida Education in St. Petersburg, Florida Educational institutions established in 1958 Liberal arts colleges in Florida Universities and colleges accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Private universities and colleges in Florida Universities and colleges affiliated with the Presbyterian Church (USA) Tourist attractions in St. Petersburg, Florida