Florida Higher Ed Capitol Clips:

University leaders expect Gov. Rick Scott to veto tuition increase
Tampabay.com
Lawmakers included a 3 percent tuition increase in next year’s budget, but state universities say they aren’t counting on the extra money. Most expect Gov. Rick Scott to veto the modest tuition increase when he signs the state budget into law in the coming weeks.

“He’s come out strongly against tuition increases and fee increases, and now will be a time to see if the governor stands by his word,” said Brian Goff, the outgoing student body president at the University of South Florida.

Scott received the budget from the Legislature on Thursday and has until May 24 to decide whether to sign it into law or veto it. He has been clear where he stands on tuition…

Machen, UF trustees pleased with legislative support
Gainesville Sun
University of Florida President Bernie Machen told the Faculty Senate on Thursday that he was pleased with the results of the legislative session, which ended a week ago with UF getting the legislative backing and financial support to pursue Top 10 status. Machen also said the session resulted in the restoration of funding for higher education, pay raises and benefits, and it produced money to help pay for deferred construction and maintenance projects — including $15 million toward construction of a chemistry building…

State University System

FAMU recruiting musicians, still no word on Marching 100 band’s return
Tampabay.com (blog)
Current FAMU music students will perform at each event, and prospective students can audition on the spot in hopes of earning music scholarships…

FAMU Stop Hazing Tour
WCTV
Florida A&M University’s (FAMU) Department of Music will host a recruitment and outreach tour titled Working Together to Stop Hazing beginning May 19 through May 21 in South Florida for high school students…

Algenol & FGCU move forward on Honors Program
Naples Daily News
Algenol Biofuels Inc., is pleased to report that they continue to work closely with Florida Gulf Coast University on several important STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics) initiatives. While this summer will mark the third year Algenol has hired FGCU interns, a new Honors program class entitled “Biotech Entrepreneurship” is under development to be offered to students for the first time this Fall…

Higher education could benefit from Hertz relocation – Wink TV
Wink News
Leaders with Florida Gulf Coast University and Edison State College plan to meet with Hertz to discuss how the Fortune 300 company can work with Southwest Florida’s students.

Fire Incidents at FSU Classified As Arson
WCTV
The Florida State University Police Department is currently investigating three fire incidents that it is classifying as arsons. Each of the incidents, if taken individually, represent minor incidents, however, with the current number being three and of similar circumstance, the FSUPD considers these on-going, though not campus-wide at this time…

Firm with UF ties wins Cade Prize
Gainesville Sun
…On Thursday night, the company with offices in Orlando and in the University of Florida Innovation Hub in Gainesville won the fourth annual Cade Museum Prize and the $50,000 cash prize courtesy of the Community Foundation of North Central Florida…

USF Gets $2.8M Grant to Study Genetic Testing, Breast Cancer
The Ledger (blog)
The University of South Florida, working with Aetna, will follow 5,000 Aetna members nationwide who are newly diagnosed with breast cancer and undergoing genetic testing.

State College System

Edison faculty & students send books to Indonesia
Wink News
Faculty and students of Edison State College School of Health Professions Nursing program continually work together to collect and donate educational books to Udayana University in Bali, Indonesia…

After six months, state’s FSCJ investigation still not complete
Florida Times-Union
It has been six months since Florida State College at Jacksonville’s president announced his resignation and the governor ordered an investigation into its foundation’s spending, but the report has not yet been issued and nobody is speaking publicly about where it stands…

Pasco closes on Wiregrass Ranch property
Northwest News and Tribune
The family had also donated land to Pasco Hernando Community College for its Porter Campus, which is scheduled to open Jan. 1…

Independent Colleges and Universities

AMU Divesting Nicaragua Campus; Announces Favorable Bond Rating …
The Ave Herald
Ave Maria University has announced two developments that will have a significant impact on the school’s finances and operations. AMU is divesting its Latin American campus and also announced it has received an investment-grade bond rating from Standard & Poor’s that will let the school save “millions” through a bond offering that would consolidate its debt. AMU President Jim Towey said in an announcement to staff and faculty Thursday morning that the school has signed a letter of intent with Keiser University, a private non-profit university based in Fort Lauderdale, to transfer ownership of the AMU Latin American campus effective July 1.

No one injured after Northside drive-by shooting
ActionNewsJax.com
Gunfire erupted during a drive-by shooting Thursday night near Edward Waters College on the Northside.

Rollins designated a Fair Trade College
Winter Park/Maitland Observer
At Rollins College, fair trade isn’t just about guilt-free coffee anymore — it’s become a school-wide movement. And now it’s official: Rollins is the first Florida school to be designated a Fair Trade College through the Fair Trade Colleges and Universities organization…

Want to compare hospital costs in South Florida? Here’s how:
MiamiHerald.com
Jackson Memorial and the University of Miami Hospital are much less than two miles apart — they’re right across from each other along Northwest 12th Avenue — but they charge far different prices for the same procedures.

For-Profit and Career Colleges

Nicaragua’s Ave Maria becomes Keiser University
Nicaragua Dispatch
Keiser University, a U.S. non-profit educational institution serving 18,000 students on 15 Florida campuses, at overseas facilities, and online, will be assuming operational and educational control of Nicaragua’s Ave Maria University as of July 1. In what university officials are calling a “seamless transition,” Keiser University says it will continue to build upon Ave Maria’s “solid tradition of serving students, maintaining and attracting accomplished faculty from all over the world, and its commitment to leading as an economic driver for the city of San Marcos and the country of Nicaragua,” according to a statement from the chancellor’s office. Keiser University’s Chancellor, Dr. Arthur Keiser, said the acquisition of Ave Maria is part of his school’s “ongoing mission to serve students and communities internationally, globalize the learning environment, and to continue bringing access to American education beyond our borders.”

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

Commentary: Media should focus on the achievements of Florida Atlantic University
Palm Beach Post
It has been frustrating for us, and for all members of the Florida Atlantic University Foundation, to see the media focus on the negative out of proportion to the contributions that FAU makes every day. We would like to balance the discussion by pointing out all that has been right at FAU for half a century and continues to be right under the leadership of President Mary Jane Saunders…Bruce Allen is chairman of the Florida Atlantic University Foundation. J. Randy Justice is a past chairman of the foundation.

Weisman: Palm Beach County should unload unused, $60 million Mecca site for …
Palm Beach Post
Palm Beach County Administrator Bob Weisman will recommend to the county commission that it accept $26 million for Mecca Farms — the 1,900-acre fallow former citrus grove that has cost the county $100 million in a failed attempt to lure biotech to the site. The board of the South Florida Water Management District voted today to buy the site for $26 million, which comes to 26 cents for every dollar the county spent to buy the land and remove thousands of orange trees, with the hope that the Scripps Research Institute would root itself there and build a bio-tech research park. Instead, Scripps chose to settle at the Florida Atlantic University campus in Jupiter…

End of an era as Alvarez leaves FSU
Tallahassee Democrat (blog)
Ralph Alvarez is telling people that he “graduates” from FSU today, 41 years to the day after he started working at Florida State University. Hired by his alma mater as an Accountant 1, Alvarez will leave FSU as Associate Vice President for Budget Planning and Financial Services, the institution’s go-to guy for budget questions for almost 30 years. Just don’t use the word “retirement.” Instead, congratulate the 64-year-old Alvarez on his “graduation.”

Bill Harkins Won’t Return as Florida State’s Head Coach
LaxPower
The Men’s Lacrosse Club at Florida State University announced Wednesday, May 8th that Head Coach Bill Harkins will not return as the Seminoles’ coach next season…

NWF State president seeking new position
The Northwest Florida Daily News
Northwest Florida State College President Ty Handy is a finalist for the presidency of a community college in Kentucky. Handy is one of three candidates named earlier this month by Southeast Kentucky Community and Technical College to take over after the current president retires June 30.

Deputy accused shooting recieved free ride through police academy
WPTV
The Contact 5 Investigators have learned the name of the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s deputy accused of shooting and critically injuring Aldo Alvarez. He is 23-year-old Joshua McGehee. The deputy is 23 years old and was a 2011 graduate of the Palm Beach State College Police Academy…

10 high-profile commencement speakers – USA Today
USA TODAY
Last Thursday, former president Bill Clinton spoke to graduates of University of Central Florida‘s College of Health and Public Affairs and Burnett School of Biomedical Sciences, and on May 14, he is set to speak at Washington, D.C.’s Howard University…

SeaWorld Orlando brings Antarctica’s penguins to Florida
Pensacola News Journal
Duncan Dickson, who teaches theme-park management at the University of Central Florida, agrees. “All 10 of our major theme parks create a synergy in the region,” he says. “It is the reason we attracted 56 million visitors last year…

Digging deeper into the decline of African-Americans in major league baseball
NBCSports.com
The context of all of this was the annual report in which Richard Lapchick‘s Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sports at the University of Central Florida releases numbers which purport to show the decline…

Consultant Releases Shelter Report
WCTV
Findings and recommendations in a major study about the operations and policies of The Shelter were released today by United Way of the Big Bend (UWBB) and the board of The Shelter. The study and report — commissioned by United Way and The Shelter — are the work of Dr. James Wright and Dr. Amy Donley, of the University of Central Florida’s Institute for Social and Behavioral Science. The seasoned experts in the field of homelessness have conducted effective studies of this kind throughout Central Florida. They are the authors of Poor and Homeless in the Sunshine State: Down and Out in Theme Park Nation…

Student Maid expands classy cleaning model to Pensacola
Gainesville Sun
When Kristen Hadeed asked her parents four years ago for a $100 pair of Lucky brand jeans, they told her to get a job. Hadeed, then a 20-year-old UF junior, took their advice. She posted ads on Craigslist offering to clean houses and started an enterprise that now employs more than 300 college students during peak season. Hadeed’s company, Student Maid, has signed numerous commercial and residential contracts in Gainesville since 2009. She took another major step on May 1 when she expanded into Pensacola…

Do Gators fans fully appreciate Will Muschamp?
Orlando Sentinel
In another time and another place, Will Muschamp, the emotional, passionate head coach of the University of Florida, might have taken umbrage and become defensive. But not this Will Muschamp. On this night, Muschamp simply smiled confidently…

Photos, Video: Florida Cabinet, on the road again
Orlando Sentinel
University of Florida and UCF presidents, Bernie Machen and John Hitt, also attended for briefings on the progress of Orlando’s Medical City…

Olympic medalist Jennifer Rodriguez will get her UM diploma
MiamiHerald.com
From a distance, Jennifer Rodriguez will look much like the other 1,962 students graduating from the University of Miami on Friday. She’ll be wearing a cap and gown, and surely a big smile, as she crosses the stage at the BankUnited Center…

Exhibit highlights artwork by UM architecture professor
MiamiHerald.com
The exhibition goes through 30 years of drawings and paintings of Thomas Spain, professor in the School of Architecture at the University of Miami. “His drawings are just extraordinary. I think we’ve never exhibit anything quite like his drawings here …

USF student pedaling 3800 miles for veterans
Tbo.com
Forget sleeping late and hanging at the beach. Kiersten Downs has some serious travel plans over summer break. Recalling her own struggles in transitioning from military to academic life, the University of South Florida student is preparing to bicycle from San Francisco to Washington, D.C., to raise money and awareness for student veterans…

Future bright for USF, coach tells Plant City audience
Tbo.com
Two top athletic officials at the University of South Florida say the outlook for the school has never been brighter. Head football coach Willie Taggart and senior associate athletic director Bill McGillis said USF excels on and off the field….

Did Marco Rubio flip-flop on setting Florida’s presidential primary date?
PolitiFact
To help us consider that question, we turned to Steven Tauber, a political science professor at the University of South Florida…

Releases and Web Stories