Victoria Weaver

Did you know that Florida State University was at one time a women's college? While it had existed for years before in many different forms, the university would become known as the Florida State College for Women in 1909, when “the Buckman Act reorganized Florida's six colleges into three institutions segregated by gender and race” in 1905. By the year 1933, “the Florida State College for Women was the third-largest women's college in the U.S.”*  It wouldn't be until 1947 that the school would become known as Florida State University and return to a  co-educational university, largely due to the influx of returning soldiers looking to take advantage of the G.I. Bill.

Content warning: this article contains brief mentions of suicidal ideation and attempts, historical homophobia and racism.

The year was 1972, and it was a hot summer day when John Wojtowicz and his two partners in crime would attempt to rob the Chase Manhattan Bank in Brooklyn, NY. It was a botched-robbery-turned-hostage-situation that would go down in infamy as one of the first instances of what we have come to refer to as a “media circus.” A few years later, it would be adapted into Sydney Lumet’s 1975 film, Dog Day Afternoon, starring Al Pacino as Sonny, the film counterpart of Wojtowicz.