#seniorseminar – Delaney Lento & “Architectural Stewardship and Politics: Florida State University’s Role in the Restoration of the Ringling Museum”

Hi, I am Delaney, and I'm planning to graduate from FSU in fall 2025. I'm double majoring in political science and History with a minor in communications, with a particular interest in American history and politics, and that's what I have focused on. All my electives have to do with American history. I had amazing History teachers from middle through high school and now in college. Studying History is so important since it helps us understand what has happened in the past so we can apply that knowledge to the future. I added Political Science as a major because I am also interested in how government operates.

Right now, I am hoping to take a gap year after graduation and work for a government agency. I see myself returning to get a master’s degree a few years later. I have done internships with a PR firm, a lobbying firm, and a law firm to make sure that I was passionate about my career in the future. I realized that I really like the PR and public affairs side of things.

I chose Dr. Conti’s senior seminar on architecture because of my love for American history. I had not taken a class on historical landscapes or buildings before – I wanted to push myself. It was a bit scary, given that we had to write a big paper, but I wanted to branch out into something new.

My senior seminar paper deals with Florida State University getting stewardship of the Ringling Museum in Sarasota in 2000. The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art was opened to the public in Sarasota in 1932. The museum was built on the grounds of the Ringling’s estate and houses European, Asian, and American art as well as a Circus Museum, historic theater and gardens. By the late 20th century, many buildings needed repairs, and the museum needed more funding, and the State of Florida transferred responsibility of the museum to FSU.

I investigated the back story, the politics that played into that decision. Senator John McKay, a Bradenton Republican and FSU alumnus, was the main force behind the Ringling going to FSU. The senator had been concerned about the state of the Ringling for some years. The then-FSU president Talbot D'Alemberte was very passionate about expanding FSU and the Ringling was a great educational resource.

I knew I wanted to work on the Ringling because I am from Sarasota. But originally, I had also wanted to look at the Askew Student Life Center and the King Life Sciences Building that were built on the Tallahassee campus at the same time. It became clear very quickly that that was just not feasible, so I pivoted and focused solely on the Ringling Museum.

It wasn’t easy getting started as I did not know where to look for sources. And I had also had the comparative project in mind. But when I pivoted to solely look at the Ringling, I found the minutes from meetings of the Florida Board of Control of the Ringling Museum from September 2000 to May 2020 and the FSU Foundation minutes about FSU’s stewardship of the museum, and I could see the money trail, and people’s reactions, and then things began to flow. All the material I worked with was available digitally through FSU’s digital repository. So, it was hard until I had identified my sources and saw where they were leading me. Seeing the pieces fall together was nice.

I am pretty good at time management, and I don’t procrastinate. I was able to finish the bulk of the paper fairly quickly, but it did involve some late nights. I worked on the paper every weekend, and when I received feedback from Dr. Conti, I would go over it immediately and make some changes. We had deadlines throughout the semester, first submitting a primary source analysis, then a first draft, a second draft, a third draft. It was when I was putting together the first draft that I realized my original project would not work, and I decided to concentrate only on the Ringling.

It struck me that the biggest difference between writing the senior seminar paper and a regular term paper is the amount of sources in play. For the senior seminar, I used upwards of 40 sources, while for a term paper, I might be relying on only 10 to 12. Staying on top of all your sources requires effective management of your material. Another difference is of course the time it takes to write the much longer paper. I learned a lot from writing the senior seminar paper, about how to structure my argument, how to write, and I am applying that now to my shorter papers. I need to be more concise and have to get to the point more quickly, but a lot of the insights I gained I can use across my coursework.

I did AP Research in high school and had to write a longer paper for that course. But I had a year to do it. For the senior seminar, I crafted a question, researched the topic, and wrote a 5000-word paper – all in 15 weeks. Now I have a writing sample that I can show to a future employer that illustrates what I can do. It was hard going at times and stressful too, but it was great to see it all come together in the end.

Overall, I have a couple of pieces of advice for fellow History majors about to embark on the senior seminar. The first is, definitely pace yourself, don’t get overwhelmed. There were moments when I freaked out because I felt I did not know what I was arguing or what I was doing. The second is, follow your sources. Pick your topic, find what archival material is available, and then just follow the sources, and you’ll find your argument. Note what your sources are arguing, if they are contradicting themselves, stating opposing things, point that. Most importantly, keep in mind that this is a large paper, and you are an undergrad. Give yourself grace.