This week…

State University System

FGCU students send message to legislators
WZVN-TV
Florida Gulf Coast University students are sending a message to state legislators. Monday, the student government was almost at its goal of reaching 3,000 signatures for a petition that will be sent to state legislators after a round of budget cuts forced the school to cut library hours…

‘Sneak Peek’ offers look at latest technology
Tallahassee.com
Innovations and technologies with commercial business potential will be on display Thursday at Florida State University’s annual Sneak Peek event…

Students this week deciding Reitz Union’s future
Gainesville Sun
University of Florida students are providing input this week on the future of the J. Wayne Reitz Union, in more ways than one. The architects of the student union’s expansion and renovation talked Monday with students about the project and are having more discussions today. The effort is meant to gather opinion on how to make the union into more of a home for students, said Roland Lemke, principal at the Arlington, Va.-based architecture firm Cannon Design.

UF’s College of Education getting $25M
Gainesville Sun
The University of Florida’s College of Education is getting $25 million over the next five years to improve the teaching of children with disabilities. UF officials announced on Monday that the U.S. Department of Education has granted the first of five annual $5 million awards to the college for the effort. The money will be used to establish a center supporting the development of both general and special education teachers to better serve students with disabilities…

FBI asked to help in search for missing University of Florida student Christian Aguilar
MiamiHerald.com (registration)
As authorities in Gainesville continued searching for any trace of missing University of Florida student Christian Aguilar, his father on Monday asked the FBI to assist in the case and for volunteers to distribute fliers on campus in hopes that someone saw or heard something that can narrow the search.

List Of Free Online University Courses Grows
WBFS
New additions include five public institutions: Ohio State University, the University of Florida, University of Pittsburgh, University of Maryland and University of California, Irvine. So who’s taking these free classes and what are they doing with them?

UNF Student Government says OK to Chick-fil-A
Florida Times-Union
Chicken sandwich chain Chick-fil-A will come to the University of North Florida’s campus, despite a handful of students opposing the company’s presence. Student senators with UNF Student Government voted 30-7 to bring the fast food restaurant to a spot that now houses pizzeria Sbarro’s…

Opportunity Knocks: Not Your Average Speakers, Tampa
83degreesmedia
Turn south on Franklin Street and take a look at the University of South Florida’s Center for Advanced Medical Learning and Simulation (CAMLS) – one of the best examples of public-private partnerships in the country, let alone the Tampa Bay region…

Creator of Winter’s “Dolphin Tale” sees boom
Bay News 9
The movie has been the driving force for more than 70 percent of all visitors.  That’s an estimated economic impact of about $580 million in 2013, according to a recent study by the University of South Florida…

State College System

Candidate forums tonight at Brevard Community College
Florida Today
Two incumbents and their political challengers will meet tonight in the first of three FLORIDA TODAY/Brevard Community College candidate forums at the college’s Cocoa campus.

Accreditation, appropriations could be impacted by problems at FSCJ
Florida Times-Union
The clock could be ticking for Florida State College at Jacksonville leaders tasked with fixing problems that have the potential to create roadblocks in the accreditation process and the legislative session.

FSCJ makes loans available to students affected by delayed financial aid
Florida Times-Union (blog)
Florida State College at Jacksonville vocational students affected by a delay in issuing Pell Grants and loans can request short-term loans, according to the college…

More calls for reform at FSCJ
WOKV
Another call for change at Florida State College at Jacksonville from another big Florida name. Florida Governor Rick Scott now wants to see change in college leadership, “from the top down.”

595 Express Bus Service Expands
NBC 6 Miami
The 595 express bus will take commuters from the Westgate Square shopping center in Sunrise to the Miami Civic Center in about an hour, every weekday morning and afternoon.  It makes a few stops, including Jackson Memorial Hospital and Miami-Dade College…

Independent Colleges and Universities

Bethune-Cookman University convenes first Board of Trustees meeting
Daytona Times
After a productive three day session, the Bethune-Cookman University Board of Trustees concluded its first meeting of the year…

Don Estridge High Tech Middle to close to students on day of Lynn presidential …
Palm Beach Post (blog)
Students at Don Estridge High Tech Middle School in Boca Raton will get to stay home from school on Oct. 22 while the rest of their Palm Beach County classmates go to classes. The reason: their school is being used as a staging site for the presidential debate being held at Lynn University that evening. Don Estridge, which is located across Military Trail from Lynn University, will serve as the staging site for media credentialing, as well as other debate logistics…

Launch Pad accelerator takes off in Miami
Upstart (blog)
The new program was developed by The Launch Pad at the University of Miami, which was started in 2008 by a team that has helped students and alumni launch more than 80 businesses that have raised more than $10 million and created more than 150 …

Yip Yap: Noted and Quoted FLHE Voices from Around the State

Editorial: Flunking Amendment 12
Tbo.com
Near the end of a long, complex November ballot, Florida voters will come to one more little puzzle called Amendment 12. If you have to that point managed to make sense of the impenetrable verbiage in some of the other amendments, you might want to take on the challenge of trying to figure out how you feel about this minor one. Otherwise, it’s safe to just vote no. Amendment 12 would change the state constitution “to replace the president of the Florida Student Association with the chair of the council of state university student body presidents as the student member of the Board of Governors … and to require that the Board of Governors organize such council … .”

Opinion Roundup: Cost of college is surging
Florida Times Union
If you’re a typical boomer, you don’t recall taking out loans being the norm while in college, especially not loans that approximate the cost of a new car or a mortgage…

Editorial: UWF growth continues
Pensacola News-Journal
It was a pretty busy week on the University of West Florida campus. In addition to classes and sports, there were two events worth noting…

Broward College professor discovers new prime number
Sun-Sentinel
John Perretta, who teaches math and computer science, used a powerful homebuilt computer to make the discovery, announced Monday by Broward College and verified by a University of Tennessee website that keeps prime number records. Prime numbers are divisible only by themselves and by 1. Perretta’s number, among the 5,000 largest yet found, would take nearly 300,000 digits to write…

CCU to host Hispanic Heritage Series
SCNow
The last event of the series will feature Juan Izaguirre, director of Multicultural Affairs at Florida Atlantic University. Izaguirre will host “Yo Sueño” on Wednesday, Oct. 17, at 7 p.m. at the E. Craig Wall Sr. College of Business Administration located at 119 Chanticleer Drive East, Conway. Izaguirre will discuss the goals, aspirations and heritage of Latinos in America…

Matt Reed: Jobs bloom, but politics loom
Florida Today
“Right now in Brevard, I have us adding about 200 jobs per month,” said economist Mike Slotkin of Florida Institute of Technology in Melbourne. Compare that to job losses of 1,000 per month in 2007 and 2008, when the housing bubble started deflating…

Drury candidate has learned ‘to move across cultures’
Springfield News-Leader
After the tour, [David] Steele was asked about his departure as dean from the College of Business at the Florida Institute of Technology, in Melbourne, in 2006. He said he was fired because he did not believe that the institute’s plans to hire a private company in Tampa to set up online distance-learning courses was either the correct step ethically or in the best interests of trying to gain accreditation by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business…

Brevard Authors Publish Cloud Computing For Software Testing Book
Brevard Times
Florida Institute of Technology computer science faculty member Scott Tilley and co-author Tauhida Parveen sought to highlight the usefulness of cloud computing for software testing in their recently published book, Software Testing in the Cloud …

Nicol Rae named new dean of MSU College of Letters and Science
Montana State University
Nicol Rae, senior associate dean in the College of Arts and Sciences at Florida International University, has been selected as the new dean of Montana State University’s College of Letters and Science, university officials announced Monday…

Undocumented law grad goes to court to gain entry to Florida bar
Chicago Tribune
An undocumented immigrant who hopes to become a practicing lawyer will have one of his biggest days in court on Tuesday before he even has a law license. Jose Manuel Godinez-Samperio, 26, plans to be a spectator in the Florida Supreme Court while his attorney makes a case on why the Eagle Scout, high school valedictorian and graduate of
Florida State University‘s law school should be admitted to the Florida Bar…

Coach Vernette Skeete takes over at GCSC
WJHG-TV
Enter Vernette Skeete who will assume that title as head coach of the Gulf Coast State College women’s basketball team…

Lynn University Finds Clear Trends in Necktie Preferences During Presidential …
Broadway World
“According to Mark Twain, if clothes make the candidate, then both candidates could very well be sending out some nonverbal cues for the debate in their tie selections,” said Lisa Dandeo, associate professor, fashion management at Lynn University. “The colors of red and blue are also thought by psychologists to improve brain performance and receptivity to advertising. Additionally, as red is the trend color to watch this debate season, it is also known to boost performance on detail-oriented tasks such as memory retrieval.”

Voter Purge Over Citizen Status Sours Floridians on Republicans
Bloomberg
“This is incredibly untimely for Republicans,” said Paul George, a professor who teaches Cuban-American history and politics at Miami-Dade College in Miami.

Graduate Tampa Bay: The College Advantage
83degreesmedia
Panelists included Dr. Anthony Carnevale, director and research professor at Georgetown University’s Center on Education and the Workforce; Mick Fleming, president of American Chamber of Commerce Executives; Teresa Lubbers, Indiana Commissioner for Higher Education; Dr. Eduardo Padron, president of Miami Dade College…

Tickets on sale for Sarah Palin speaking engagement
Bay News 9
Tickets are on sale now to hear former Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin speak at Southeastern University in March…

Family of Brailynne Corr searching for missing Univ. of Central Fla. grad …
CBS News
Relatives of recent University of Central Florida graduate Brailynne Corr are searching for the 22-year-old woman who has been missing since Sept. 17., the Orlando Sentinel reports. Corr, who moved in with her parents in Brandon, Miss. after graduating in the spring with a degree in molecular biology and microbiology, told her parents on Sept. 16 that she was going to visit friends in Hattiesburg, Miss.

Florida business sales have record July
Sarasota Herald-Tribune
“It’s largely consistent with an ongoing recovery,” said Sean Snaith, a University of Central Florida economist…

A Recent History of GOP Voter Suppression in Florida
The Nation. (blog)
According to University of Florida political scientist Daniel Smith, 800,000 voters in Florida cast ballots during early voting hours in 2008 eliminated by the GOP…

Dr. APJ Kalam speaks to Indo-US Chamber
First Coast News
Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, a former President of India, visited the University of North Florida Monday night. It’s the first time any president of India has visited Jacksonville. He spoke to a crowd of over 400 people at the University Center…

USF wide receiver suspended after arrest
SI.com
The University of South Florida has suspended sophomore wide receiver Chris Dunkley from the football team after he was arrested and charged with domestic battery.

Candidates have differing goals in Wednesday’s presidential debate
STLtoday.com
If one candidate is bashing the other, I think it will be terrible for turnout,” added Susan MacManus, a government professor at the University of South Florida.

Snakes may harbor deadly virus
NBCNews.com (blog)
“There must be a way that the virus manages to overwinter. We think it’s the snakes, because they do overwinter in these sites,” said Dr. Thomas Unnasch of the University of South Florida, who led the study…

Local students benefit from scholars program
Pensacola News Journal
Eleven Pensacola State College students and 24 University of West Florida students are beginning their freshman year as part of the inaugural class of Pensacola Pledge Scholars. The program, established by Pensacola business leaders Quint and Rishy Studer, awards PSC students $1,200 per year and UWF students $2,000 per year. That is a total of $60,000 in total scholarships given this year…

Releases and Web Stories

Medline Partners With Florida Atlantic University to Help Reduce Hospital …
MarketWatch (press release)
MUNDELEIN, Ill., Oct 1, 2012 (GlobeNewswire via COMTEX) — Starting today, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) will impose severe reimbursement penalties to hospitals for avoidable and costly re-hospitalizations, which, according to CMS, cost the U.S. health care system an estimated $17 billion a year. Since almost one in four hospital patients who are transferred to nursing homes are readmitted to the hospital, Medline Industries, Inc. and Florida Atlantic University (FAU) today announced a major initiative to help hospitals and nursing homes reduce these avoidable hospital readmissions and improve quality of care…

Florida International University and CareCloud Partner to Provide Health …
MarketWatch (press release)
MIAMI, Oct 01, 2012 (BUSINESS WIRE) — The Chief Technology Officer of CareCloud, a Miami-based provider of cloud-based practice management, electronic healthcare record (EHR), revenue cycle management and medical billing software and services for medical practices, headed back to school at Florida International University (FIU) the other day. Tom Packert showed up for class in the Master of Science in Health Informatics and Management Systems program, but not as a student. Instead, he came to launch a unique partnership between CareCloud and FIU that will let students in the Master’s program access CareCloud Charts, its electronic health record software, as if they were physicians or practice administrators with their own practices.

Public prayer: Flashpoint issue to be focus of UNF symposium
Florida Times-Union (blog)
“A Community Conversation on Public Prayer: A Program in Civil Discourse” will be held 7 to 9 p.m. Oct. 30 at the University Center banquet hall, 12000 Alumni Drive on the University of North Florida campus, accordint to a news release.

Evolving Field of Behavioral Epigenetics
University of South Florida
Scientists call this phenomenon epigenetics – the turning up, down or off of gene expression, which influences the traits plants and animals take on. Now, University of South Florida researchers Christina Richards and Lynn Martin, both professors in the Department of Integrative Biology, have published a new guide in the journal Behavioral Ecology on how scientists can understand how epigenetics guides rapid adaptation…

Meet the “Fat Kid Rules the World” Author
University of South Florida
(Oct. 1, 2012) – The Hipple Collection of Young Adult Literature is one of the University of South Florida Library’s many treasures used by future and current English teachers, researchers, budding authors and people simply interested in the genre. In support of this part of the library’s Special & Digital Collections, the USF community will have the opportunity to meet an author whose work is featured there. K. L. Going, author of “Fat Kid Rules the World,” which has just been adapted for film, will be speaking and signing books in the Library’s Grace Allen Room Tuesday, Oct. 2 at 4 p.m…