Presidents’ Day Bonus!
Don’t bother walking to the mailbox today… The third Monday in February is set aside as Presidents’ Day! Enjoy this new infographic on cost created using data from the new College Scorecard introduced in last week’s State of the Union address:
New College Scorecard helps parents, students compare value
Orlando Sentinel
Here’s something you should know if you’re planning to go to college in Florida. Florida International University in Miami has the lowest overall price tag among public universities — an average of $9,225 a year for tuition, books, housing and other expenses after grants and scholarships are taken out. The most expensive: The University of South Florida in Tampa, where the annual net cost, on average, is $12,503…
National Reports
The Cost of College Attrition at Four-Year Colleges and Universities (Press Release) (Report)
The Educational Policy Institute
This report estimates the cost of lost revenue due to student attrition at 1,669 four-year colleges and universities in the United States. The author claims student attrition leads to $16.5 billion in lost revenue annually.
Doing Away with Debt: Using Existing Resources to Ensure College Affordability for Low and Middle-Income Families (Press Release) (Report)
The Education Trust
This report calls for overhauling the federal financial aid system to increase college completion, reduce student debt and close opportunity gaps for low- and middle-income students. Among many reforms, the author calls for guaranteeing that low-income and working-class students be able to attend college debt-free and allow middle-income students to graduate with interest-free federal student loans and an affordable repayment plan.
The SREB Data Exchange Indicators Report (Press Release) (Report)
Southern Regional Education Board (SREB)
This report includes key statistics on postsecondary education in the 16 states of the Southern Regional Education Board (SREB), including data on enrollment, student persistence/graduation, college funding and faculty compensation.
State University System
FAMU law school warned it is not meeting standards
MiamiHerald.com
Embattled Florida A&M University has been warned that its decade-old law school is not meeting the standards it needs to maintain its accreditation. It’s yet another blow for the university, which is already on a year-long probation due in part to the hazing scandal that surrounded the November 2011 death of drum major Robert Champion. The American Bar Association this week sent a letter to FAMU officials detailing problems it found with the law school based in Orlando.
American Bar Association reviewing concerns at FAMU law school
Orlando Sentinel
The American Bar Association has sent a report to Florida A&M University expressing concern that its law school in Orlando does not appear to meet all the standards necessary to maintain accreditation. A bar association committee, which accredits law schools nationwide, sent a 31-page report to FAMU this week in which it outlines areas where the law school might fall short of accreditation standards and asks for evidence of compliance…
FAMU law school facing deadline
Tallahassee.com
Administrators at Florida A&M University, already coping with a 12-month probation ruling from their primary accrediting agency, now are being asked to provide additional documentation to maintain good standing at the College of Law in Orlando.
FIU turns to partnership firm for international online degrees
MiamiHerald.com
With its state funding shrinking — and online college classes rising in popularity — Florida International University is banking on students from abroad to boost its finances and expand its academic reach. In that endeavor, the college is turning to Academic Partnerships, an experienced, successful (and politically connected) player in the fast-growing Internet education industry. FIU first teamed up with the Dallas-based company in 2009 — creating an online-only Corporate MBA program in which tuition revenue is split between the two parties. Now, FIU is poised to ink another deal: Known as “FIU Global,” the proposed new contract would create an online jointly operated degree program targeting students in Latin America and, eventually, maybe China.
Five reasons to enter the Business Plan Challenge
MiamiHerald.com
You have three weeks left to participate in the 2013 Miami Herald Business Plan Challenge. If you are on the fence about whether to enter, here are five reasons to get moving: 1. Motivation. You’ve been meaning to write a business plan — this might just be that kick in the pants. Or perhaps you have a plan but need to refine your short version — those are in vogue this year. Whether you are entering the Community Track, open to all of South Florida, the FIU Track open to students and alumni of that university, or the High School Track, entering the Challenge will help you get moving.
FIU medicine opens at Broward Health
South Florida Business Journal
Florida International University’s Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine has its first practice in Broward County…
Despite last year’s promises, Florida Polytechnic asking for more cash
Miami Herald
One of the biggest selling points Sen. JD Alexander made as he pushed to create a new state university last year is that it would cost little to no extra money initially. He told everyone that the tax dollars already allocated for what was then University of South Florida-Polytechnic and is now Florida Polytechnic University would be enough get the new school up and running. Already, the school is singing a new tune. The Polytechnic Board of Trustees recently decided to ask the Legislature for an extra $25 million to finish its first building, first reported in the Lakeland Ledger.
Florida Poly to Seek State Money to Complete First Building
Sunshine State News
Florida Polytechnic University, the legacy of Senate Budget Chairman JD Alexander, is already asking for its first increase in state funding…
FSU students rally against Scott’s policies
Tallahassee Democrat
A group of Florida State University students marched from downtown Tallahassee’s Kleman Plaza into the Florida State Capitol Friday to present the opinion of the FSU student senate on the Blue Ribbon Task Force’s recommendations for improving higher education in Florida.
Newly revamped International Plaza to debut near UCF
Orlando Business Journal
A local real estate company and a Japanese conglomerate are debuting a commercial center redevelopment in east Orlando later this month. Tokyo-based Chugin USA Inc., which has a real estate operation in Orlando, and Winter Park-based Grandstaff Development Equities Inc. will unveil the 50,050-square-foot International Plaza on Feb. 26 on University Boulevard just west of the University of Central Florida.
UCF party celebrates asteroid’s near-miss
Orlando Sentinel
The asteroid known as 2012 DA 14 missed Earth by 17,000 miles, but that didn’t stop a crowd at the University of Central Florida from letting out mock sighs of relief Friday afternoon as a live feed showed the space rock whizzing past…
Deputies investigate home invasion near UCF campus
WFTV
The Orange County Sheriff’s Office is investigating a home invasion that happened at an apartment near the University of Central Florida campus early Saturday morning…
UF, SF College team up to boost engineering enrollment
Gainesville Sun
A new collaboration between the University of Florida and Santa Fe College will expand enrollment for freshmen going into the College of Engineering. The program is called Gator Engineering @ Santa Fe, and it’s the brainchild of UF engineering dean Cammy Abernathy and numerous members of logistical departments from both institutions. The program will have its initial run this fall.
Foot prodder at UNF reported to police
Florida Times-Union
A quirky “survey” of a student’s feet last week at the University of North Florida may not be criminal but was unusual enough for the victim to report it to campus police. The woman wasn’t hurt, but for the second time in four months a man conducting what he called a health class survey studied more than traditional offerings at the university library. According to a Feb. 5 police report, a man approached a 20-year-old woman on the third floor and asked her shoe size and if he could measure her feet for the survey. After she agreed and removed her shoes, he prodded with a pen and had her wriggle her toes, then commented on the good health of her feet and left.
State College System
TSA officers go to college to learn to counter terrorism
Sun-Sentinel Florida Panthers
…The TSA is paying the tuition costs, allowing local officers to attend either Broward College, Miami-Dade College or Palm Beach State College. The program, which takes more than a year to complete, includes three courses that dig into counter-terrorism measures and intelligence gathering…
Chinese New Year at MDC Kendall Campus
MiamiHerald.com
The Chinese Cultural Foundation held its 25th Anniversary Chinese New Year Festival at Miami Dade College Kendall campus on Sunday, Feb. 17, 2013…
Collegiate Schools Have Info Sessions
The Ledger
Information sessions for prospective students have been scheduled for Polk State College’s public charter collegiate high schools…
Independent College and University System
A Dance for the Ages
The Ave Herald
A 19th-century quadrille might not be danced often in southwest Florida, but about 100 Ave Maria University students danced it and other traditional dances …
Embry-Riddle floats new degree program
Daytona Beach News Journal
Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University is going where no school has gone before, focusing a new bachelor’s program on producing a skilled workforce for the final frontier: space. School officials announced the first-of-its kind program for a Commercial Space Operations bachelor degree recently morning in Washington, D.C., at the Federal Aviation Administration’s 16th annual Commercial Space Transportation Conference…
Embry-Riddle students to take Speedway spin in EcoCAR
Daytona Beach News Journal
Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University students are displaying their green technology in the Sprint FanZone through next weekend and will take a lap around the track prior to the Daytona 500…
Florida Southern breaks ground on new business building
Bay News 9
It’s out with the old and in with the new with a brand new three-story, 40000-square building at Florida Southern College.
Florida Southern College’s Stray Cats getting own
Bradenton Herald
Treasured for its storied collection of Frank Lloyd Wright buildings, esplanades and soaring fountain, Florida Southern College is making room for six more structures inspired by the famed architect. These new structures will be small – only about 5 feet high and 3 feet wide. Unlike other Wright designs, they are not meant for humans. Rather, the six domiciles built mostly of custom-made concrete blocks will provide shelter for almost 100 feral cats living on the Lakeland campus…
Florida Tech’s The Crimson to Host Free Speech Day
Brevard Times
The Crimson, Florida Institute of Technology’s student-run newspaper, will host the second annual First Amendment celebration on campus. Called “Live Free or Eat Free,” the event is February 27, 2013.
Yip Yap: Noted and Quoted FLHE Voices from Around the Web
Editorial: To keep FSU film school, West Palm Beach needs marquee partner
Palm Beach Post
On Monday, West Palm Beach Mayor Jeri Muoio said she would seek return of the city’s $2 million if Florida State University’s film school leaves the city. On Thursday, a spokesman said Mayor Muoio no longer is “focused on the issue of money.” Good thing…
Editorial: Loxahatchee Groves residents pick losing fight over Palm Beach State College campus
Palm Beach Post
If Loxahatchee Groves residents win their fight to keep Palm Beach State College from building on the northwest corner of B Road and Southern Boulevard, the town they claim to be protecting will be the loser…
Editorial: New best friends
Gainesville Sun
It’s startling to see Gov. Rick Scott transform from being the University of Florida‘s tormentor to its new best friend. Scott’s recent visit to UF included a lot of palling around for a governor that last year vetoed the university’s two big legislative initiatives, one involving tuition and the other employee health coverage…
Guest column: Jim Towey … Ave Maria University president on the papal resignation
Naples Daily News
The news of Pope Benedict XVI’s resignation struck with the suddenness of grace. Usually a changing of the guard at the Vatican is preceded by a period where Catholics throughout the world grieve and the square of St. Peter’s overflows with pilgrims attending the Funeral Mass…
Guest column: Comparing Jacksonville with its peer city of Richmond
Florida Times-Union
…Jacksonville has Florida State College at Jacksonville with 26000 students downtown but no housing; another 4800 attend nearby JU and Edward Waters College…
Letter: FAU goes on the record
Sun-Sentinel
I am writing in response to the editorial that appeared in the Feb. 13 Sun Sentinel. The editorial questioned the actions of the FAU police officers involved in the incident at the Research Park at Florida Atlantic University on Friday, Feb. 8…Scott Silversten, University Communications, FAU, Boca Raton
Region’s Catholic leaders applaud Pope Benedict for courage to …
Naples Daily News
He is not a prisoner of convention,” said Jim Towey, president of Ave Maria University in Collier County. “He’s a man of deep prayer.
Florida Instructor Should Be Fired for Electioneering in Class, College Says
Chronicle of Higher Education
A mathematics instructor at Florida’s Brevard Community College should be fired, college officials said on Friday, because she used her classroom authority to push students to vote for President Obama last November. In a written statement, the college said its president, James H. Richey, would recommend to its Board of Trustees that Sharon Sweet, an associate professor with tenure, be terminated for electioneering in class and fostering a “hostile academic environment,” both violations of the college’s code of conduct.
Crossing a Line
Inside Higher Ed
Brevard Community College announced on Friday that it would seek to fire a faculty member who it found to have inappropriately pressured students in classes last year to back the re-election of President Obama…The allegations against Sharon Sweet, an associate professor of mathematics at the Florida community college, first surfaced in September…
Roller derby not all hard knocks for Ormond team
Daytona Beach News-Journal
In the world of roller derby, Karen Petersen is known as “Smash Tank.”…Petersen, whose full-time job is student service advisor at Daytona State College, explained the rules of a derby game, also known as a bout…
Florida Authors Honored With Book Awards
News Chief
Eckerd College professor Tracy Crow won a bronze medal in general nonfiction for her memoir, “Eyes Right: Confessions From a Woman Marine”
ERAU’s National Engineers Week leads with talk on Mars landing
Daytona Beach News-Journal
Embry-Riddle will kick off National Engineers Week with a keynote address Tuesday by Fred Hadaegh, associate chief technologist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California…
Speakers at Bonita-Estero market pulse event at FGCU tout economic recovery
Naples Daily News
…Gary Jackson, an economics professor and director of FGCU‘s Regional Economic Research Institute in Estero, noted that home prices are starting to rise in the region, though slowly, and that employment is improving with retail emerging as the top employer in both counties…
Photography Exhibit of 1960′s Paris At Foosaner Art Museum
Brevard Times
The Florida Institute of Technology Foosaner Art Museum will exhibit the work of French photographer Léon Herschtritt…
FIT Graduate Student Receives Human Resource Management Scholarships
Brevard Times
Florida Institute of Technology graduate student, Regan Lineberger, received two Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM)…
Florida lawmakers may let locals weigh beach smoking bans
Palm Beach Post
…In December, a Sarasota County judge overturned a city ordinance prohibiting smoking on beaches, which included Siesta Key, which two years ago had earned the title of America’s best beach from Dr. Stephen Leatherman, the Florida International University coastal research who compiles the annual survey…
Cuban Dissident Blogger Prepares ‘Victory’ Tour
Voice of America
“It’s sweet-and-sour news. Yoani will travel to Mexico, Spain, Germany, and visit New York and Washington, D.C., and that’s ‘sweet’ for Cubans everywhere. But, as with most things emanating from official Cuba, it’s also ‘sour,”’ said Marifeli Perez-Stable, interim director at Florida International University‘s Latin American and Caribbean Center in Miami. “That she was given a passport and others have been denied underscores the arbitrariness of the migration reform.”
Meteorite Boom Injures a Thousand in Russia
National Geographic
The number of injuries—most of them not thought to be serious, according to CNN—is the highest in recorded history due to a meteorite, according to Michael D. Reynolds, adjunct astronomy professor at Florida State College at Jacksonville and author of the book Falling Stars: A Guide to Meteors and Meteorites.
Parents of Lynn University student killed in Haitian earthquake to sign books
TCPalm
Although it’s been more than three years since Lynn University student Britney Gengel was killed in an earthquake in Haiti, her parents Len and Cherylann Gengel still are sharing their daughter’s story. The Gengels have written a book called “Heartache and Hope in Haiti: The Britney Gengel Story” and they will at the Vero Beach Book Center Monday to sign copies beginning at 6 p.m.
Thomas Gilmore Masse, Formerly of Yale, Is Stetson’s New Dean of Music
FlaglerLive.com
Thomas Gilmore Masse has been named the next Dean and Professor of Music of Stetson University School of Music…
UCF student wins $5000 with 115-character tweet
Orlando Sentinel
A University of Central Florida student’s 115-character tweet about freedom of the press won her a $5,000 scholarship — that’s about $43.48 a character. Journalism student Samantha Lena Rosenthal‘s (@SupaaFly_Sam) winning tweet: ”Pen & paper may not be free, but the words we choose to write are. #FreedomOfPress #JournalismFreedoms #FreeToTweet” Rosenthal, 21, a junior at UCF, is one of five winners of the 1 For All national Free to Tweet scholarship competition…
UM coach Mario Cristobal interviews for job at Alabama
MiamiHerald.com
Mario Cristobal, the University of Miami’s associate head coach and tight ends coach, on Friday interviewed for the University of Alabama’s offensive line coaching position, according to a source.
After Scandals, U. of Miami Gets a Top Compliance Officer
Chronicle of Higher Education (subscription)
Rudolph H. Green, who directed university compliance at the University of Texas at Austin, is facing another Texas-size challenge. Last month he became the first vice president and chief compliance officer at the University of Miami, where athletics, health care, and research have all been under scrutiny lately…
Debate over Ahmed, Jacksonvile rights board, to stretch until March
Florida Times-Union
It will apparently take until March for Jacksonville leaders to decide whether Parvez Ahmed, described as either a bridge-builder or an apologist for militant Islam, will get another term on the city’s Human Rights Commission…The extra time could allow more posturing about Ahmed, a University of North Florida finance professor and a former national leader of the Council on American-Islamic Relations. His original appointment in 2010 had triggered a heated debate about Islam and its role in society, and both supporters and critics had returned to the argument this year. Critics said he had been too supportive of Muslim sensibilities, but his supporters said Ahmed had worked hard at building dialogue between people of different faiths.
Mayor Alvin Brown’s approval ratings dip, but still high
Florida Times-Union
Jacksonville residents still give Mayor Alvin Brown a good job performance, although the number of people giving a thumbs up has dropped a bit in the past year.
About 70 percent of residents approve or strongly approve of Brown‘s performance in office, according to a poll conducted by the University of North Florida …
UWG presidential candidates set to tour campus
WSAV-TV
Five potential University of West Georgia presidents are set to tour the campus and meet students and faculty. University officials say a presidential search committee has scheduled visits between Feb. 18 and March 1. Students and staff have been invited to interview each candidate during open meetings. Kyle Marrero, University of West Florida vice president of advancement is set to visit Feb. 18.
Can female Marines who want combat roles meet male qualifications?
Pensacola News Journal
Clinging to an outdoor chin-up bar 8 feet off the ground, Hannah Buchanan is practicing to cross a line of demarcation that has always separated men and women in the Marine Corps. “I feel like I’ll get a little more respect when I can do pullups,” said Buchanan, an athletic 25-year-old graduate of the University of West Florida who has applied for officer candidate school in the Marines.
More Harlem Shake…
Releases and Web Stories
Florida State University Credit Union Earns Five-Star Rating
PR Web (press release)
In uncertain financial times, it’s important to feel secure about money with banks or credit unions. A recent ranking of Florida State University Credit Union shows its members should feel comfortable putting their trust in them. Florida State University Credit Union was recently awarded the distinguished five-star Superior rating from BauerFinancial, Inc. during a recent review…
Valencia College Partners With EDC to Lure Verizon to Central Florida
Valencia News
When Gov. Rick Scott and local officials held a press conference on Feb. 13 to announce that Verizon Communications will establish a finance center in Lake Mary, Valencia College officials were proud to be on hand for the announcement. Valencia College was one of many organizations that worked with the Metro Orlando Economic Development Commission to woo Verizon, a Fortune 100 company…
