A joint House and Senate Welcome Back Reception is 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Tuesday in the Governor’s Club Plantation Room, 202 S. Adams St., Tallahassee.
via The News Service of Florida
In the Senate:
The Senate Education Committee takes up (SB 352) renaming Lake-Sumter Community College as Lake-Sumter State College. The panel also has confirmation hearings for several university trustees, and state Board of Education Chairman Gary Chartrand and State University System Board of Governors appointee Thomas Kuntz, among others. (Tuesday, 1 p.m., 412 Knott Building, The Capitol.)
In the House:
The House Higher Education Committee holds a workshop on higher education issues. (Tuesday, 3 p.m., 102 House Office Building, The Capitol.)
State University System
Florida Universities Generate Most Patents in State
WCTV
Florida’s universities generate more patents than any other entity in the state! The State University System is ranked number one in Florida for the number of patents issued by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, with more than 800 in the past five years, including 241 at the University of South Florida and 236 at both the University of Central Florida and University of Florida…
Naming rights secured
Owl Access
Florida Atlantic is expected on Tuesday to finalize a deal with The Geo Group that includes naming rights for the football stadium, sources have told OwlAccess.com. The deal is believed to be valued at around $5 million, though the term of the contract is not yet known. The Geo Group is a leader in privatizing correctional facilities. Its CEO, George Zoley, holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from FAU. He has served as a member of FAU’s Board of Trustees and was at one point the Board’s chairman. The Geo Group is headquartered in Boca Raton. Its a building visible from I-95 across from FAU‘s campus.
Florida State University-Panama City to Hold Open House Day
WJHG-TV
On Saturday, February 23, at 9:00 a.m. CST, Florida State University Panama City will hold Open House Day in the Holley Academic Center. FSU Panama City is located on the water just behind Gulf Coast State College at4750 Collegiate Drive. FSU Panama City is a full-service, four year, academic institution, offering a nationally recognized Florida State University degree in a number of academic programs. Right now, high school seniors have the unique opportunity to become a part of the first freshman class admitted to FSU Panama City. All new freshmen enrolled for fall 2013 will receive a $400 book grant their first semester.
UF students go to polls
Gainesville Sun
University of Florida students will face a choice on Tuesday and Wednesday to pick what political party will control and direct Student Government and its $18.2 million budget.
USF Students Head to Tallahasee to Talk Education Funding
WUSF
A few busloads of students from all three University of South Florida campuses will be heading to Tallahassee on Tuesday to meet with state lawmakers…
Decision looms on new USF St. Pete chancellor
Tampabay.com (blog)
It may be President’s Day, but USF President Judy Genshaft isn’t taking much of a holiday. Instead, she’s tasked with one of the biggest decisions she’ll have to make this year: Who will be the next leader of USF St. Petersburg? Genshaft met with the third and final candidate recommended for the top St. Pete post this morning. From here, spokesman Tom Scherbeger said, there are no more search committee meetings – just a decision from Genshaft…
State College System
Project at GCSC promotes local agriculture
The News Herald
Ponce de Leon made a special appearance at Gulf Coast State College on Monday morning for his post as governor of the Ponce Plantation project. The project coincides with the 500th anniversary of Florida’s discovery in 1513; acreage on the college’s property facing U.S. 98 will be planted according to how and what his farm would have looked like.
Gulf Coast State College to host Ecosystem Restoration Meeting
wmbb
The Florida Department of Environmental Protection and Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission will host two public meetings this month as well as a webinar to gather input on the Gulf Coast Ecosystem Restoration Council’s Path Forward document and Florida’s projects to be submitted to the Council for consideration. A webinar will be held at noon EST Feb. 26. Public meetings will be held from 6 to 9 p.m. Feb. 28 at Gulf Coast State College in Panama City and 6 to 9 p.m. March 13 at the Fish and Wildlife Research Institute in St. Petersburg…
Mattie Kelly Arts Center Galleries presents 2 new exhibits
The Northwest Florida Daily News
The galleries at the Mattie Kelly Arts Center at Northwest Florida State College will present two new exhibitions Feb. 28 through April 5: the annual Arnie Hart Juried Student Exhibition and the NWFSC Faculty Exhibition…
Independent College System
Chant Explored at Ave Maria Conference
The Ave Herald
Gregorian chant is most often associated with traditional Catholic Masses in Latin, but a growing number of people are working to incorporate the ancient musical form into 21st century liturgies. That was a major theme of the fifth annual Musica Sacra Florida Gregorian Chant conference held at Ave Maria University Friday and Saturday…
Religious ties split coverage for birth control
Washington Times
Religious employers battling the Obama administration in court over a mandate in the president’s health care law requiring them to offer contraceptive and birth control insurance to their employees could summarize their arguments neatly by pointing to the founder of Domino’s Pizza. Thomas Monaghan, who sold off the ubiquitous franchise in 1998 and devoted his time and vast wealth to Catholic causes and institutions, is uniquely tied to two classes of employers under the mandate. The Catholic nonprofit school he founded, Ave Maria University in southwestern Florida, has been granted flexibility from the Obama administration in contraceptive coverage, but the large corporate office park that the onetime pizza magnate owns in Michigan, known as Domino’s Farms, has not…
Work moving ahead on latest campus building, Pollard Hall
Flagler College Gargoyle
While the semester nears midterms, plans for Flagler College’s newest building are starting to come to fruition. Pollard Hall, named after its major donor, Nelson Pollard of Ponte Vedra Beach, will take the place of Flagler’s current Communication Building on Cordova Street…
Ringling College Animation Grads Walk The Red Carpet
83degreesmedia
The Oscar buzz circulating around campus at Sarasota’s Ringling College of Art and Design may rival the anticipation in Hollywood as the date of the annual Academy Awards grows closer. For more than a decade, scores of Ringling alumni have earned red carpet recognition for their creations and for their contributions to dozens of Hollywood blockbusters including “Avatar,” “Up,” “Shrek” and the “Lord of the Rings Trilogy.” Furthermore, each of the top 10 highest-grossing animated films in history credits the work of Ringling College alumni.
University of Miami goes on offensive with NCAA
MiamiHerald.com
For 18 months, the University of Miami’s philosophy has been to cooperate with the NCAA in its investigation. But that approach essentially ended Monday when the NCAA declined UM’s overtures to settle the matter — even amid the NCAA’s admission that it handled part of the case improperly.
NCAA VP of Enforcement Fired Over Miami Investigation
Miami New Times (blog)
While the NCAA’s investigation into allegations made about the University of Miami athletic department by convicted Ponzi schemer Nevin Shapiro has lagged for about two years, the NCAA’s investigation into itself over botching the Miami investigation has come to a relatively swift end. The NCAA’s vice president of enforcement, Julie Roe Lach, is now without a job…
NCAA’s internal Miami investigation report coming out, VP of enforcement fired
SB Nation
The NCAA’s investigation into its Miami investigation has yielded this report, in which it’s revealed “select” NCAA enforcement personnel “knowingly circumvented legal advice,” “violated the internal NCAA policy of legal counsel only being retained and monitored by the legal staff,” and committed other misstakes during its dealings with former Miami booster Nevin Shapiro’s legal counsel (with some of those dealings coming via a disposable phone bought just for the occasion of phoning an inmate), but did not violate any specific bylaws.
University of Miami president wants no further sanctions against the university
Yahoo! Sports (blog)
Just hours after NCAA president Mark Emmert announced that his organization still planned to investigate Miami for possible violations, university president Donna Shalala is fighting back. Shalala issued a statement via the school’s website this evening stating that Miami has fulfilled its imposed sanctions and demanding that the NCAA step down…
Yip Yap: Noted and Quoted FLHE Voices from Around the State
Our Opinion: Learn, then help
Tallahassee Democrat
Residents in cities such as Tuscaloosa and Birmingham in Alabama and, most recently, Hattiesburg, Miss., have seen their communities turned upside down by tornadoes that left behind devastation, confusion and anxiety. Here in the Tallahassee area, we’ve had less significant tornadoes in recent years, but it’s not inconceivable that one could strike here. How well are Florida A&M, Florida State and Tallahassee Community College ready to respond? Which raises the question: How prepared are you to respond if a tornado hits?
Editorial: The Florida Polytechnic fraud
Tampa Tribune
Last year Florida lawmakers and Gov. Rick Scott made a mockery of Florida’s higher education system when they created a 12th university while cutting the existing universities’ budgets by $300 million. Supporters insisted that transforming the University of South Florida’s Polytechnic branch campus in Lakeland into an independent university would not cost any additional dollars or harm other universities. It was all a big fraud, as is abundantly apparent now…
Grimm: FIU deal benefits connected exec
Miami Herald
Suppose some South Florida enterprise was in need of expert help designing an online MBA degree program to appeal to students across Latin America and the Caribbean. Just where could they find the international connections, business education credentials and technical know-how? First stop, no doubt, with be the outfit that bills itself “the business school for The Americas,” and “South Florida’s most important education resource and recognized leader in international business education.” An institution proclaiming that technology “permeates every aspect of what we do, from our curriculum content to our instructional delivery.” Florida International University boasts the institutional resume and faculty expertise to pull something like this off…
Polk College Presidents Sign Petition To Increase College Degree …
83degreesmedia
For the first time in Polk County’s history, all regionally accredited public and private colleges and universities have come together with the common goal of increasing the number of students who finish their college degrees. The presidents of Florida Southern College, Keiser University, Polk State College, Southeastern University, Warner University, Webster University and Webber International University signed a letter in recognition of their support.
Alston steps down as South Bay city manager
Blog: Rattler Nation
FAMU has not released an official statement concerning whether Corey Alston will stay or leave as the chairman of the FAMU Foundation Board of Directors. But on Thursday, February 15, Alston stepped down as the city manager of South Bay, Florida…
Dad accused of feeding bleach to infant talks from jail
WOGX
Carron Washington said he is a first year pre-med student at the College of Central Florida, but a potentially deadly medical decision has him behind bars. Washington was arrested early Sunday morning after police said he gave his 2-month-old daughter, Caelynn, a baby bottle filled with milk and a cap full of bleach…
Flagler’s friendly rivalry topic tonight
St. Augustine Record
Henry Plant and Henry Flagler were neighbors who lived one block away from each other on 5th Avenue in New York City before they became friendly rivals in the Florida hotel business, serving as an investor and board member of the Plant Investment Company, a few years before he decided to build his own hotels in St. Augustine. Former Auburn University art professor Susan Braden will discuss the pair’s relationship and their hotels when she speaks at Flagler College during a program beginning at 7 p.m. today in the Lewis Auditorium of Flagler College, 14 Granada St. The program is free and open to the public…
Professor published
St. Augustine Record
Flagler College adjunct professor of English William Pewitt has recently been published in both Global Politics Magazine and the annual literary journal, Paper Nautilus. Pewitt’s Global Politics Magazine piece, “Good Luck Versus Worse Luck,” focuses on the U.S. economic situation. The article demonstrates how President Obama’s decisions have improved the economic situation and evaluates what could have been if he had not acted in the ways he did…
D4 Energy ponders Brevard for its headquarters
Florida Today
D4 Energy Chief Executive Officer Don Rosacker said he was “drawn to this area because of the ready supply of high-quality technical personnel, and the necessary infrastructure,” including nearby Port Canaveral. He said he also sees the potential for partnerships with Florida Institute of Technology and the University of Central Florida.
Six FSU Researchers Elected to National Physics Society
WCTV
Florida State University’s stellar reputation for high quality scientific research across numerous disciplines was confirmed when six researchers were elected as fellows of the American Physical Society (APS). The American Physical Society is the nation’s largest and most prestigious professional society dedicated to the advancement of physics research and knowledge. Election to fellowship in the 50,000-member society is limited to no more than one-half of 1 percent of the society’s membership and is a significant recognition by a scientist’s peers of his or her outstanding contributions to physics. “Those of us who have spent any time with these outstanding FSU programs are not surprised that six of our colleagues would be selected in a single year,” said Vice President for Research Gary Ostrander. “This is another tangible example of the continued upward trajectory of our research efforts at Florida State.”
“Meteors Happen Every Day”: Nova Southeastern University Assistant Professor
NBC 6 South Florida
“Meteors happen every day,” Nova Southeastern University Assistant Professor Stefan Kautsch said. “You just need to go out for 10 minutes and you’ll see probably three meteors.”
David Gergen to headline inaugural program of George LeMieux’s public policy center
SaintPetersBlog
Former US Senator George LeMieux today announced the inaugural speaker for the LeMieux Center for Public Policy at Palm Beach Atlantic University. Presidential advisor, national political analyst and Harvard School of Government Professor David Gergen will speak to students and special guests at the University on Thursday, March 21.
At UF roundtable, Nelson explores improving lives of elderly
Gainesville Sun
With U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson at the helm of the Senate Special Committee on Aging, the Florida Democrat is prioritizing Medicare — both improving access to it and preventing fraud in its name. ”We have a very aggressive agenda,” said Nelson, at a roundtable discussion Monday with leaders from the University of Florida‘s Institute on Aging…
St. Thomas University School of Law in Miami will hold “Florida Governor’s Panel Distinguished Dialogue on the Environment: Growth, Conservation and South Florida’s Future.” The panel features former governors Bob Graham, Buddy MacKay and Charlie Crist. The event will be held at 6 p.m. in the St. Thomas Law Moot Court Room with a reception to follow. Click here for more information and for a link to directions to the event.
Cristobal Headed To Univ. Of Alabama
WBFS
Former Florida International University head coach Mario Cristobal is now a former University of Miami coach as well after accepting the job of offensive line coach at the University of Alabama…
Marijuana debate packs University of Tampa forum
WTSP 10 News
It was a packed house at the University of Tampa for a debate on marijuana. On one side, pro legalization speaker Aaron Houston from the only marijuana lobby on Capitol Hill. On the other side, anti-legalization speaker Dr. Kevin Sabet, senior advisor to the Obama administration’s National Drug Control Policy.
Here are five things you need to know happening in Florida today.
ABC Action News
Steven Raney, the Chief Executive Officer of Raymond James Bank, is scheduled to speak at The University of Tampa on Monday night…
Releases and Web Stories
Museum shows documentary aimed at reducing waste
University of Florida
GAINESVILLE, Fla. — The Florida Museum of Natural History and the University of Florida Office of Sustainability will present a free screening of the award-winning documentary “The Clean Bin Project” at 7 p.m. Feb. 27 at the museum. Filmmakers Grant Baldwin and Jen Rustemeyer will answer questions after the film, which chronicles their yearlong competition to buy no material goods and produce as little waste as possible while examining the larger issue of garbage in North America.
Students’ families expected to visit this weekend
University of Florida
GAINESVILLE, Fla. — The University of Florida will hold its newest event “Family Weekend Spring Edition” this Friday through Sunday. All UF undergraduate and graduate students’ parents and families are welcome to visit campus for a fun and relaxing weekend. Hosted by the Division of Student Affairs, the weekend will include live entertainment, family competitions, UF’s largest outdoor barbecue and reduced-price tickets to Gator athletic events including men’s basketball, baseball, lacrosse, gymnastics and tennis…
UF/IFAS report finds Floridians value water resources, want to conserve
University of Florida
GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Floridians are more concerned with water quality than quantity, the results of a new University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences water survey suggest…
