On May 14, 2020, after twelve years of programming, Rollins College announced that programming for the Winter Park Institute (WPI) will not continue. Dr. Gail Sinclair, Executive Director of WPI, shared the announcement with a heartfelt message via email and a Facebook post addressed to friends of the institute.
Rollins launched Winter Park Institute in pursuit of its goal to advance scholarly discourse by bringing leaders from diverse disciplines, perspectives and philosophies to engage in speaking events for Rollins students and the Winter Park community alike. Since its inception in Fall 2008, the institute brought dozens of speakers including Sir Paul McCartney, Dr. Jane Goodall, Itzhak Perlman, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Martin Luther King III and Gloria Steinem.
Sinclair noted in her announcement, “This is a heritage of which the college can be proud, as I am, having been lucky enough to engage in this way.”
