Issue Brief:
Federal Education Budget Update: Fiscal Year 2013 Recap and Fiscal Year 2014 Early Analysis
New America Foundation
The New America Foundation’s Education Policy Program released an issue brief detailing the completion of the fiscal year 2013 appropriations process and the start of 2014 budgeting. The brief explores congressional budget actions over the past year and describes their effects on federal education programs. Congress is operating within a new budgeting regime, created by the Budget Control Act of 2011, that included across-the-board spending cuts mid-2013 and that, absent legislative action, imposes lower spending limits next year. Now is an opportune time to assess how federal education programs have been, and likely will be, affected by these developments…
Click here to view a pdf of the report.
Florida Higher Ed Capitol Clips:
Lawmakers must wait until Thursday to vote on budget
Bradenton Herald
The largest budget in state history landed on the desks of Florida lawmakers Monday with a 6 percent spending increase that includes a tuition hike for university students, pay raises for teachers and state employees and hundreds of millions in new hometown spending…There’s still a strong possibility Gov. Rick Scott will veto some cherished proposals. Chief among them could be a 3 percent tuition hike. The increase would raise $18 million for the state’s 12 universities and cost students an extra $6 per credit hour…Lawmakers included more than $200 million for raises for about 160,000 state and university employees, their first general pay increase in seven years. Workers making below $40,000 would get a $1,400 pay raise, while those making more than $40,000 would get a $1,000 raise. About 35 percent of state employees would have a chance to earn up to another $600 bonus with positive evaluations.
Embry-Riddle wind tunnel highlights local budget outlays
Daytona Beach News-Journal
Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University would get $9 million to build a wind tunnel that could help bring hundreds of high-paying jobs to the area under the budget state lawmakers are considering this week. If the money survives a final vote and the governor’s veto pen, the university would match it to build “the newest and best” wind tunnel in the state, President John Johnson said.
No new access road for FIU’s Biscayne Bay Campus
MiamiHerald.com (blog)
Sen. Gwen Margolis, D-Miami, was on a mission Tuesday. The former Senate president pushed to amend a broad transportation bill so that Florida International University would be able to build a second access road into its Biscayne Bay campus. FIU says the road is necessary to safely evacuate the campus and two nearby public schools: David Lawrence Jr. K-8 and Alonzo and Tracy Mourning High. But the City of North Miami had blocked the move, saying it would damage the adjacent nature preserve.
GCSC set to get $14 million for new STEM building // DOCUMENT
The News Herald
Gulf Coast State College (GCSC) is collecting big in this year’s education-friendly state budget. The Legislature released the freshly hammered final budget Monday, which has $14 million for a new STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) building at GCSC. The budget is $74.5 billion and will be voted on by week’s end.
Sine Die - May 3rd is the scheduled conclusion of the Legislative Session
State University System
FAMU’s inaugural class of online education set to graduate
Tallahassee Democrat (blog)
Shakira Mitchell Thompson was working on a master’s degree in business at Jacksonville University when life got in the way. She got married and moved with her new husband to the Orlando area. She had two children. But the 1999 Florida A&M University graduate never lost sight of her goal to get a master’s degree. When she learned that her alma mater was getting ready to start offering online graduate degrees, Mitchell Thompson was the first to enroll in fall 2011. Now, on Saturday, she will join 14 other FAMU students scheduled to receive their diplomas, all members of the inaugural class of online degree graduates…
FAMU will Host its Annual Endowed Plaque Unveiling
WCTV
Florida A&M University’s (FAMU) Division of University Advancement will host its annual Endowed Plaque Unveiling on Friday, May 3 at 8 a.m. at the Eternal Flame. The general public is invited to attend.
FAU Harbor Branch featured in upcoming ‘Sea Rescue’ episodes
TCPalm
Florida Atlantic University Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute (HBOI) will be featured on two upcoming episodes of the popular national television show “Sea Rescue” on local ABC stations at 10:30 a.m.
Consumer confidence still on the rise in Florida
MiamiHerald.com
Consumers don’t seem to be sweating the mess in Washington. A confidence index in Florida rose again this month, despite ongoing cutbacks in federal spending and wobbly employment reports across the country. The University of Florida index hit 79 in April, the highest since last fall…
Florida consumer confidence still heading up
Tampabay.com
…The University of Florida reported Tuesday that the state’s consumer confidence index rose three points in April, the second consecutive monthly increase, reaching its highest point this year.
State College System
Money issues with dorms
KeysNews.com
The foundation board in charge of the Lagoon Landing residence hall at Florida Keys Community College doesn’t know how it’s going to pay the “pretty substantial” bond payment due this fall, it was revealed at the monthly FKCC board meeting on Monday. It was also unclear how the struggling dorm facility’s managers plan to repay a stopgap loan of nearly $800,000 to the college…
Independent Colleges and Universities
Barry University freezes tuition for 2013-14 school year
Orlando Business Journal
The Barry University Dwayne O. Andreas School of Law in Orlando has frozen tuition for the incoming class…
PBA adds new degree
Florida Baptist Witness
The Kern Family Foundation has awarded Palm Beach Atlantic University a $450,000 grant over five years to support the start-up and implementation of Palm Beach Atlantic University’s Master of Divinity program, which begins this fall…
Who says filmmaking is a fantasy world?
Sarasota Herald-Tribune
The idea behind the new collaboration between the Ringling College of Art and Design filmmaking program and the Asolo Conservatory actor’s training program is to use the summer months to provide both groups of students with hands-on experience and resume-ready footage…
For-Profit and Career Colleges
Education Training Corp. adding 70 jobs in Fort Lauderdale, gets public incentives
South Florida Business Journal
Education Training Corp. will receive state and local incentives to expand its North American headquarters in Fort Lauderdale and add 70 jobs. The company, also known as Anthem Education, operates Florida Career College, which has 12 locations in the state, as well as other schools. The new jobs would pay an average of $50,000 and the company will spend $300,000 on the expansion. The company will also retain 80 existing jobs…
Education company chooses Fort Lauderdale as N. American headquarters
Sun-Sentinel
Education Training Corp., which operates as Florida Career College and Anthem Education, has chosen Fort Lauderdale for the expansion of its new North American headquarters. The expansion will create 70 jobs paying annual salaries averaging more than $50,000 as well as retain 85 positions, Gov. Rick Scott’s office announced Tuesday…
Gov. Scott Announces 70 New Educational Jobs to be Brought to Florida
WCTV
Governor Rick Scott today announced that Education Training Corporation (Anthem Education) has chosen Fort Lauderdale for the expansion of its newly consolidated North American headquarters…
Yip Yap: Noted and Quoted FLHE Voices from Around the State
Academia’s Unexamined Assumptions
National Review Online (blog)
…The student at Florida Atlantic University who recently declined to stomp on a paper with the word “Jesus” on it, as ordered by the professor, was scheduled for punishment by the university until the story became public and provoked an outcry from outside of academia…
Poll: What do you think are the top 3 reasons for FAU being called ‘worst place in U.S. to attend college’?
TCPalm
The Daily Caller, a news and opinion website co-founded by political pundit Tucker Carlson, recently ran a piece by columnist Eric Owens that began with the statement, “Florida Atlantic University is quite obviously the worst place in the United States to attend college.” That’s pretty harsh. However, the school with a campus on the Treasure Coast has certainly been making a name for itself in ways that would give nightmares to public relations advisers. So, in the interest of community involvement, we offer the following Top 10 list of ways in which FAU MIGHT be considered “the worst place in the United States to attend college.” This is a survey. Sorry, but you may only vote for three of your top reasons…
Column: FSU on fast track to move into top 25
Tampabay.com
Gov. Rick Scott’s signing of the Career and Professional Education Act on April 22 effectively positions Florida State University and the University of Florida for pre-eminent status, and puts FSU on the fast track to move into the top 25 in the national rankings of public colleges and universities. Under the legislation, FSU and UF will receive a higher level of state funding as a result of both schools’ proven ability to meet a set of rigorous standards of excellence…Eric J. Barron is president of Florida State University.
Meadors: STEM Institute matches student skills with workplace needs
Rockdale Citizen
Even so, Florida’s Indian River State College connected the dots. The college established a Regional Center for Nuclear Education and Training as the U.S. faces the need for 41,000 skilled nuclear employees by 2030…
Daily Convo for Wednesday, May 1
Pensacola News Journal
In his Sunday column, News Journal Executive Editor Dick Schneider said that University of West Florida President Judy Bense “has some explaining to do.” ”To her students and professors at UWF,” Schneider wrote. “To her community. And, perhaps most of all, to parents who once thought about sending their children to UWF, but look at the decline in academics since she became president and now wonder how much tuition at the University of North Florida might be.”
Kourkounis: Student lands at Harvard
Pensacola News Journal
A University of West Florida student is heading to Harvard for the summer. Ruth Ashley, a senior mathematics major, was recently accepted into Harvard University’s Research Experience for Undergraduates internship program.
BCC suspends assistant professor facing sex charges
Florida Today
A Brevard Community College assistant professor has been suspended from teaching after being charged with lewd and lascivious battery allegedly involving a 13-year-old boy he met online. Robert “Chandler” McRee, 49, was arrested April 27…
Putting for scholarships: ‘Sharp-Broward College Golf Classic’
Sun-Sentinel
“We are thrilled with the way this year’s event is shaping up,” said Nancy Botero, Broward College Foundation executive director…
Edison State professor takes his research to Malaysia – WINK News
Wink News
Edison State College Microbiology Professor, Dr. Robert Furler is going to Malaysia. He was awarded a scholarship to present his research with the UCLA AIDS Institute at the HIV Cure Symposium and International AIDS Conference…
Flagler professor heading to Israel to study terrorism
Historic City News
The Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, a non-partisan policy institute headquartered in Washington, D.C., announced to Historic City News in St Augustine that Will Miller, a professor of public administration at Flagler College, has been named an academic fellow for 2013-14…
FAMU Journalists Receive Student Emmys
WCTV
The winners of a 2013 College Television Award are…Amber Mackie and Lacrai Mitchell! The two Florida A&M University (FAMU) broadcast journalism students have returned home from Hollywood, Calif. with a gold statue commonly referred to as a Student Emmy. Both were honored at a gala for their work as co-producers on the “2012 FAMU Homecoming Special: Ignite the Strike.” The 30-minute show, which recaps homecoming events during the university’s 125 anniversary, won second place in the magazine category.
16-year-old graduates from FIU
7Online WSVN-TV
Spring graduation at Florida International University made history this year with the university celebrating it’s first medical school graduating class on Monday, and now they’re making history with their youngest student to date to graduate. Miami native Sky Choi received his bachelor’s degree in Asian studies Tuesday morning at the young age of 16. In his address to the graduates, FIU President Dr. Mark Rosenberg said, “By age 3 he could read Korean. By age 4 he was speaking and reading English.”
Within Florida’s Hispanic community, diversity is increasing.
Florida Trend
There’s nothing on the immigration horizon to suggest a return to a Cuban majority. Last year, Cuba announced it would make it easier for its citizens to leave — and return. But Jorge Duany, director of the Cuban Research Institute at Florida International University, and Jaime Suchlicki, director of the University of Miami‘s Institute for Cuban and Cuban-American Studies, don’t expect a major new flow from the changes because the United States hasn’t changed its 20,000 annual Cuba visa quota…
What is the best Florida beach?
Orlando Sentinel
Dr. Beach is Dr. Stephen P. Leatherman and he’s Director of Florida International University’s Laboratory for Coastal Research. He’s been doing the list for 23 years. This year’s list is less than a month away, and two Florida beaches are expected to compete for the title. These two were in the top 10 in 2012 — St. George Island State Park in the panhandle and Cape Florida State Park in Key Biscayne…
Florida Southern Professor: Pursell Got Best Land
The Ledger
Larry Ross, a restaurant consultant and marketing professor at Florida Southern College in Lakeland, said Pursell did so by paying a rock bottom price for the most valuable acres in the 53 1/2-acre deal…
Tom Brady started successful note-taking business as a student at FSU
Tallahassee Democrat (blog)
Tom Brady will graduate this weekend from Florida State University with an entrepreneurship major. He’s put his studies to work in the real world while a student with his online business moolaguides.com already a success…
Frost to Give FSU College of Law Spring 2013 Commencement Address
WCTV
Florida State University College of Law alumnus John W. Frost, II, a member of the law school’s charter class, will be the featured speaker at the Spring 2013 Commencement ceremony…
IRSC UPDATE: IRSC recognizes outstanding part-time faculty members
TCPalm
Eleven outstanding part-time faculty members at Indian River State College were recognized for excellence in teaching and commitment to student success at the 2013 Adjunct Faculty of the Year Recognition and Awards Ceremony….
Clark student receives IRSC Community Service award
TCPalm
Indian River State College dual enrollment student, Mckenzie Merritt, recently received IRSC’s 2013 Community Service Award for her exceptional community involvement, academic success, and leadership skills…
A wee bit o’ Ireland in downtown DeLand
Daytona Beach News-Journal
Motorsports Editor Godwin Kelly and his wife, Diane, were in DeLand spying, huh, visiting their son Casey at Stetson University recently and stumbled upon Dublin Station…
Paul Gomez (Orange County Jail, Orange…)
Orlando Sentinel
A 20-year-old man has been charged with attempted murder after allegedly hitting his former girlfriend with his car in a University Of Central Florida parking garage on Friday night. According to a UCF police report, Paul Gomez hit Kaylyn Martin, a student at the university, with his 2012 Dodge Avenger, sending her several feet in the air…
Police have ‘person of interest’ in UF attacks
MyFox Tampa Bay
Police say they’ve arrested a man who may be connected to a string of attacks near the University of Florida campus. Police say this arrest is for a rape of a student at knifepoint back in 2011, but investigators are calling him a person of interest in the most recent rape of a UF student. His name is Andre Locus. He’s 29 years old. There have been three attacks on female students since January.
Medical student pushes needle exchanges
Local 10
A third-year student at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine is pushing a five-year pilot program to legalize syringe and needle exchanges. “You see drug bags, you see the caps and you ultimately find the syringe,” said Hansel Tookes …
Troubling Trend Of Thigh Gaps Gaining Popularity
WBFS
“People are working excessively at exercising in order to maybe change the way their body is or restricting what they eat,” said University of Miami body consultant, Tammy Sifre
Jamaican Ambassador to United States Visits University of Miami
Caribbean Journal
Jamaican Ambassador to the United States Stephen Vasciannie paid a visit to the University of Miami School of Law in Coral Gables, Fla. last week.
Sand tiger sharks grow to about 8 feet (2.5 meters) long and dwell near …
LiveScience.com
It’s still a mystery exactly what makes one father successful over another, said James J. Gelsleichter, a marine biologist at the University of North Florida who was not involved in the study.
First Coast family champions importance of college scholarships
First Coast News
Her brother Kevin [Hoeppner], also 19, is a University of North Florida freshman. Their oldest brother Joseph, 21, is in year 3 of 5 at UNF’s master’s program. The brothers both earned full rides. Charles said without scholarships, paying for college would have been very difficult. ”It would’ve been more sacrifices,” Charles explained. “Basically, I would have a lot more gray hair before I got to quit working.”…
Tampa man arrested for string of thefts at USF – ABC Action News
ABC Action News
A suspect police believe has been targeting the University of South Florida’s campus for more than a month is now behind bars. On Tuesday, University Police say they received a call from a member of the community who recognized the suspect from surveillance photos released last week in a crime alert. The caller reported the suspect, 22-year-old Tony M. Branton, was near the USF Health area…
UC Foundation Hires New President
The News Record
Rodney Grabowski, the current senior associate vice president for university advancement at the University of South Florida, will serve as president of the UC Foundation and vice president for development and alumni relations starting June 3…
USF Professor Connects Careers In Healthcare, STEM For Women
83degreesmedia
Grisselle Centeno, Associate Professor at the University of South Florida’s Department of Industrial and Management Systems Engineering, is applying case studies and other active learning tools to encourage more women to enter into STEM careers…
Releases and Web Stories
Florida Institute Funds Tallahassee-based Bing Energy International
Wall Street Journal (press release)
“Based on patented technology developed at Florida State University by Dr. Jim P. Zheng. Bing is creating a more commercially viable fuel cell, ” said Dean Minardi, Bing CFO.
Law professor named outstanding tax attorney of the year
University of Florida
GAINESVILLE, Fla. — The Florida Bar Tax Section recognized University of Florida law professor Dennis Calfee as the Gerald T. Hart Outstanding Tax Attorney of the Year on Saturday at the section’s 35th annual meeting…
Students recognized for promoting diversity in residence facilities
University of Florida
GAINESVILLE, Fla. — University of Florida students Airda Kokoshi, a junior business major from Jacksonville, and Vaibhav Jain, a doctoral candidate in genetics from India, have received the Department of Housing and Residence Education 2012-13 Multicultural Student Awards…
Commencement Ceremonies Held May 3, 4, 5 and 10
University of South Florida News
TAMPA, Fla. (April 29, 2013) – The University of South Florida will hold five commencement ceremonies over May 3 and 4 in the USF Sun Dome on the Tampa campus. Ceremonies for USF St. Petersburg and USF Sarasota-Manatee will be held on May 5 and for the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine on May 10…
