State College System

Daytona State gets ‘clean’ audit from state
Daytona Beach News-Journal
Daytona State College received a clean audit from the state’s Auditor General’s Office for the fiscal year ending last June.

Miami Dade College Presents the 29th Annual Miami International Film Festival
Examiner.com
This Festival, produced and presented by Miami Dade College, will integrate its program into the nightly fabric of South Beach and Wynwood by offering free public screenings of 20 short films in South Beach and Wynwood. The films will be projected on …

St. Petersburg College mourns professor’s shooting death
Tampabay.com
St. Petersburg College is mourning the loss of a beloved professor, who was shot and killed a little more than a week ago. Her college community and her family plan to honor Maria Osterhoudt’s memory at a funeral service on Saturday. Her husband, who was arrested on a charge of second-degree murder, called 911 the night she died and confessed to shooting her, according to the Hernando County Sheriff’s Office…

Independent College and University System

Barry University votes to turn over WXEL-TV to local owners
Palm Beach Post
Barry University passed the torch of WXEL-TV Channel 42 today, turning over the public broadcast station it had saved from the abyss more than a decade ago to local ownership. Amid applause, the station’s board voted …

Pakistani man who tweeted Bin Laden’s raid speaks at Eckerd College
Tampabay.com
Athar spoke Tuesday night at Eckerd College about his experience as the “citizen journalist” who unwittingly tweeted one of the year’s biggest news stories.

Embry-Riddle, Port Orange projects escape state budget ax
Daytona Beach News-Journal
Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University and the city of Port Orange were among those counting their blessings Tuesday as Florida lawmakers prepared a final budget. The spending plan — set for a final vote on Friday — would include a $8.97 million grant for the Daytona Beach flight school’s aerospace research and technology park. It also has $1.25 million to help construct a flood control project along Dunlawton Avenue. The Embry-Riddle grant was nearly twice what had been recommended in Gov. Rick Scott’s budget proposal.

Report: Nesting hawks swoop in on FIT campus
Orlando Sentinel
Students at the Florida Institute of Technology in Melbourne have been advised to watch out for two red-shouldered hawks after reported attacks on students, Central Florida News 13 is reporting. The animals are federally protected.

Florida Southern’s Frank Lloyd Wright-designed campus named National Historic …
Orlando Sentinel
Famed architect Frank Lloyd Wright’s “Child of the Sun,” the campus for Florida Southern College in Lakeland, has been designated a National Historic Landmark by the National Park Service the school announced today.

As ‘Spring Breakers’ films at Ringling, not all students starstruck
Sarasota Herald-Tribune
While some students at Ringling College of Art and Design are excited that a major Hollywood movie is being shot on their campus this week, others see the movie shoot simply as an inconvenience. A handful of students at Ringling were displaced from their dorm rooms Tuesday for the shooting of the movie “Spring Breakers,” which will feature young top-name stars such as Selena Gomez and James Franco, among others.

For Profit and Career Colleges

Romney Has Some Great Friends Who Are For-Profit College Owners
Huffington Post
The New York Times reported in January that Romney praised for-profit colleges, in particular overpriced Full Sail University without telling voters that his campaign and Super PAC had received nearly $100,000 from Full Sail CEO Bill Heavener and from C. Kevin Landry, chairman of TA Associates, the private equity firm that owns Full Sail.

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

Editorial: Florida’s weak commitment to higher education
Bradenton Herald
Florida’s Legislature plays a masterful game of cost-shifting as this year’s regular session again demonstrates. Tuition at the state’s 11 public universities has risen six consecutive years, with a seventh looming. Coupled with a massive disinvestment in higher education in the budget agreement reached Monday, the Sunshine State continues to place more of a financial burden on students.

Sawfish don’t saw
Science News
Figuring out how the fishes use their whopper snouts has been tricky, says Stephen Kajiura of Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton…

FAU professor to relive historic flight across English Channel
Sun-Sentinel
Barbara Ganson is the kind of professor who likes to fly through history. Literally. As an associate professor of history at Florida Atlantic University, Ganson has lectured about Harriet Quimby, the first woman to fly over the English Channel. And this weekend, Ganson will mark the 100th anniversary of Quimby’s historic feat by repeating it herself…

Volusia college leaders speak about value of higher education
Daytona Beach News-Journal
“For us, civic engagement is part of our DNA. It’s really important and is one of the reasons we are a successful and significant institution,” [Wendy] Libby of Stetson said.

UCF’s Snaith: National economy ‘big picture’ not promising
Orlando Business Journal
The prognosis for the national economy is still iffy, according to the latest US economic forecast by Sean Snaith, the director of the University of Central Florida’s Institute for Economic Competitiveness. The economy’s health depends on more than …

Improving jobless rate tells only part of the economy’s story
Orlando Sentinel (blog)
I’ll expand on this in an upcoming story, but University of Central Florida economist Sean Snaith reminds us today that falling unemployment rates are a good thing, but the numbers need to be considered in context…

Beached whale euthanized near Daytona Beach
Palm Beach Post
The Daytona Beach News-Journal (http://bit.ly/wZwuNz ) reports Dr. Craig Pelton of the University of Florida and Volusia County Marine Science Center examined the whale and determined it likely had chronic heart failure.

Jacksonville economic recovery ‘gaining traction’
Jacksonville Daily Record
There were signs that the recovery was “finally gaining traction” during the fourth quarter, but the Jacksonville economy still has a way to go to return to full strength, according to the University of North Florida’s Local Economic Indicators Project, or LEIP. “We’re seeing some improvement,” said UNF economics professor Paul Mason, who directs LEIP.

New strain of flu found in bats
MyFox Tampa Bay
And even though they don’t have all the answers yet, infectious disease experts, like Tampa General and University of South Florida’s Dr. Todd Wills, say just knowing this strain exists is giving them a head start at creating a vaccine.

From Twilight to Chris Brown: The (Almost) Final Word on the Allure of the Bad Boy
Huffington Post
Peter Jonasan, the University of West Florida psychology professor who published the dark triad study, is careful to note that this does not apply to all women. Women exhibiting avoidant attachment patterns, low self-esteem, and histories of abuse, sexual trauma, or unstable family backgrounds are more likely to be attracted to men with dark triad characteristics. The stereotypical scenario of the insecure woman with “baggage” or “daddy issues” who opportunistic men frequently view as easy prey is sadly borne out in reality much more than we’d like.

Releases and Web Stories

Flagler College Students in Free Enterprise team wants to help Veterans Farm …
ReadMedia (press release)
AUGUSTINE, FL (03/06/2012)(readMedia)– Flagler College’s Students in Free Enterprise team is working on a project to change the lives of disabled combat vets by landing a veteran-made product on the shelves of every Walmart store.

Florida State University resolves litigation with students
MarketWatch (press release)
TALLAHASSEE, Fla., Mar 06, 2012 (BUSINESS WIRE) — Florida State University and two students who are blind–Christopher Shane Toth and Jamie Ann Principato–have resolved a lawsuit brought by the two students with the assistance of the National Federation of the Blind last summer. The students claimed that they experienced discrimination in violation of state and federal disability laws, including failure to reasonably accommodate their disability and lack of accessible technology. As a result, they claimed, they were unable to complete courses related to their academic majors. Without admitting liability or wrongdoing, the university has agreed to pay each of the students $75,000 in settlement of their claims and to continue its efforts to make courses accessible to all students. Specifically, the university will examine technology-based instructional materials currently in use for accessibility compliance, and ensure accessibility in future software and hardware procurements.

NSU Law Ranked in Top Ten for Bar Passage Rates by ‘National Jurist’
PressZoom (press release)
The National Jurist, a leading national magazine providing information to current and prospective law students about legal education and the legal profession, recently ranked Nova Southeastern University’s (NSU) Shepard Broad Law Center in the top ten …

Four UF buildings nominated for No. 1 building in Florida contest
University of Florida
Four University of Florida buildings have been nominated for Florida’s “Top 100 Buildings” by the Florida Association of the American Institute of Architects as part of its “Florida Architecture: 100 Years. 100 Places” competition.

Florida Women’s Hall of Fame inducts Ruth Alexander
University of Florida
Ruth H. Alexander, retired distinguished professor of physical education at the University of Florida, was inducted into the Florida Women’s Hall of Fame today in Tallahassee. Alexander is a pioneer in the field of women’s sports.