It’s that time of year when snowbirds migrate to Southwest Florida. Rosemary Thomas joined the flock a few weeks ago, accepting a job as FGCU’s new vice president of university advancement.

Thomas buzzed around the campus ballroom Wednesday during her first foundation board of directors meeting, swooping in and out of conversations. After 20 days on the job, she already feels at home, or should I say, at the nest.

FGCU’s mascot is the eagle. She previously worked at Salisbury University in Maryland, home of Sammy the Sea Gull. She’s also worked at Fairmont State College in West Virginia, which has a falcon as its mascot. She earned a master’s degree from the University of South Carolina, which proudly sports the gamecock as its mascot.

“There is a question as to whether I can get away from the birds,” Thomas joked.

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The phrase is “six degrees of separation,” but these days, it doesn’t seem to take that long to connect the dots.

On Monday, former FGCU athletic director Carl McAloose was named AD at Clayton State University, an NCAA Division II program near Atlanta. It’s a college in a different state, in a different NCAA division and in a different conference. Yet, there was a connection.

Clayton State’s president is Tim Hynes, who is not a stranger to FGCU. He was a quarterfinalist in FGCU’s presidential search in 2007, but a search committee didn’t advance him from a pool of 10 to the semifinalist round.

The connection doesn’t stop there, though. The man McAloose is replacing, Mason Barfield, also is familiar with FGCU’s athletic program, having interviewed for the AD position here in 2000. McAloose, obviously, got the job while Barfield kept his position at Clayton State, but retired during the fall semester.

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Spring break is right around the corner, and everyone knows what that means. Coed Magazine recently named its 10 Trashiest Spring Break Destinations, and area tourism leaders probably aren’t thrilled Fort Myers Beach made the list at No. 8. The write-up talks about strip clubs, liquor, Girls Gone Wild and daily “booty contests” near Lani Kai.

While attending a conference Thursday on FGCU’s campus, one speaker’s short sentence caught my attention.

“They wanted more booty,” he said.

Sounds like he read the write-up.

No, David Bachrach, associate professor of medieval history at the University of New Hampshire, was talking about reasons why conflicts and wars erupted many centuries ago. They wanted more booty, you know, treasures and other objects seized during battles. What were you thinking?

Coed Magazine must have been a little confused in its entry, referring to Fort Myers Beach, Fort Myers and Fort Meyers (where’s that?) as if it were the same place. The first spring breakers of the season start arriving this weekend; hopefully they have Mapquest.

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Two decades ago, when state officials authorized the creation of FGCU, local leaders hailed the university as a destination for local students. No longer would they have to leave Southwest Florida for a four-year degree.

They still don’t have to leave town, but Florida Gulf Coast University is no longer “our” school. Fall 2011 marked the first time more freshmen came from outside the five-county region than within Southwest Florida. The college cannot give preferential treatment to local students by awarding bonus points in the application process, but President Wilson Bradshaw doesn’t object to the demographic change because those same students will join locals in rebuilding the region’s economy.

“We see that as importing talent, but we also want to nurture the talent that we have,” Bradshaw said. “We can provide an educated workforce. We have all of the pieces; we just need to put them together in ways that make sense.â€�

Data show just 35 percent of this year’s freshmen were from Charlotte, Collier, Glades, Hendry and Lee counties. Overall, the proportion of local students is 50 percent, so if the trend continues, expect next year’s student body to be the first where locals are in the minority.

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