The Digital Instructional Materials Work Group will hold the first of two days of meetings to discuss and prepare a report on Florida’s transition to digital instructional materials. The meetings begin at 8:30 a.m. and will be held in room 706, The Department of Education, 325 W. Gaines St., Tallahassee.
State University System
FAMU prepares to address probation
Tallahassee Democrat (blog)
It was a day devoted to answering questions and erasing confusion. Less than 24 hours after learning his university was being placed on probation for 12 months, interim President Larry Robinson hosted a town hall meeting Wednesday morning at Lee Hall. He wanted to make sure faculty and students understood that Florida A&M University remains fully accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, the agency that has placed FAMU on probation…
FAMU DRS Locked Down After Student Brings Gun to School, Threatening Own …
WCTV
There was a lock-down at FAMU DRS after authorities found a gun there. Dr. Larry Robinson released this statement: ”This afternoon our FAMU police took into custody a high school male student at the DRS threatening suicide. Officers found a firearm in the student’s book bag. The entire DRS campus was placed on lock down to ensure no other threats were present. Based upon these actions we can further ensure a safe campus. Parents were allowed to pick up their children at 3:00 p.M. Today as scheduled. No injuries were reported.”…
FAMU and FSU Sends Off Another Class of Graduates
WCTV
Hundreds of people are taking a leap into the next phase of their lives. FAMU held its fall commencement ceremony Friday night at the Al Lawson Center on campus. The keynote speaker was attorney H.T. Smith, who is an alum of FAMU. Students were excited as they walked across the stage. Right down the street, Florida State held its first commencement ceremony. It was at the Tallahassee-Leon County Civic Center. Their keynote speaker was world-renowned physical chemist Naresh Dalal. Saturday’s commencement will be held at the same venue at 9 a.m…
Florida State creates athletics association to work around state law for …
Florida Times-Union
Florida State‘s board of trustees approved a measure Friday morning to create, for seven months, the Florida State University Athletics Association. FSU leaders said they created what is known as a direct-support organization to work around a new state law that limits how much severance pay state employees can receive after they leave a school…
Thousands of University of Florida Gators graduate today
Gainesville Sun
Clad in his black cap and gown, Tope Dipe stood in a line of graduates outside Ben Hill Griffin Stadium and waited. Dipe, 22, had just graduated the University of Florida with a bachelor’s degree in health education and behavior. Now it was time to take part in a campus tradition — posing for photographs with family members at the Bull Gator statue…
University of Florida struggling to unload tickets to 2013 Sugar Bowl
Orlando Sentinel (blog)
GAINESVILLE – The Florida Gators’ return to a major bowl game has reenergized Gator Nation – until it is time for fans to dig deep into their pockets. With the Jan. 2 Sugar Bowl less than three weeks away, the school has sold just 6,500 of the 17,500 tickets it was contracted to purchase for the game, according to Steve McClain, the school’s senior associate athletic director of communications…
USF hands out diplomas to graduates
TBO.com
The first wave of some 2,900 University of South Florida undergraduate and graduate students received degrees today at the Sun Dome on the school’s Tampa campus. USF St. Petersburg students will participate in commencement exercises Sunday at Mahaffey Theatre, and USF Sarasota/Manatee students will receive diplomas at Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall. USF President Judy Genshaft is presiding at the graduation ceremonies…
State College System
13th Grade: Older, Returning Students Strain Florida’s College System
FCIR
…Remedial classes in math, reading and writing are seeing a surge of students at Florida’s 28 community and state colleges — schools where all students are welcome as long as they have a high school diploma or G.E.D. From 2004 to 2011, Florida’s remedial education costs for both students and schools ballooned from $118 million to $168 million...
CF graduates first four-year students
Ocala
Kalianna Kotsifakis was the first College of Central Florida student to receive her bachelor’s degree from the Ocala institution during a graduation ceremony held Friday. For decades a two-year college, in 2010 CF started offering a limited number of four-year degrees. There were 22 students among the first graduates of the Bachelor of Applied Science program at the ceremony at the First Baptist Church of Ocala…
Edison State College graduates see it through to end
The News-Press
Nearly 1,900 students graduated Friday at Edison State College, which – like its students – needs a second wind to reach the finish line…
22 graduate nursing program
KeysNet
Florida Keys Community College marked the graduation of 27 soon-to-be nurses with a traditional nurses’ pinning ceremony on Dec. 8. The pinnings represent the completion of nursing school and the beginning of a new career. Originating with nursing pioneer Florence Nightingale during the Crimean War, the presentation of the pin and the lighting of the nurses’ lamp symbolically initiates new nurses to the profession…
Independent Colleges and Universities
JU, Edward Waters among recipients of duPont Fund grants
Florida Times-Union
Jacksonville University‘s new Public Policy Institute, which will admit its first students in fall 2013, will receive $152,167 from the Jessie Ball duPont Fund. The grant will help JU support faculty costs for the first three year, until enrollment reaches capacity and the program becomes self-sustaining, according to a news release…
Jacksonville University holds fall commencement ceremony
WJXT Jacksonville
It was JU‘s largest fall commencement ever and over half of the undergraduate degrees were awarded in nursing, while 51 of the 80 graduate degrees were awarded to master of business administration recipients.
Jackson Health System Chairman: University of Miami Alignment Harmed System
Becker’s Hospital Review
Miami-based Jackson Health System’s board chairman Marcos Lapciuc recently said the system is “misaligned” with the University of Miami, according to a report by The Miami Herald…
Yip Yap: Noted and Quoted FLHE Voices from Around the State
Our Opinion: FAMU must focus on erasing probation status
Tallahassee Democrat (blog)
As discouraging as the news is that Florida A&M University has been placed on one-year probation by its accrediting agency, it’s important to understand that the university’s academic programs remain accredited and that students are not in jeopardy of losing out on federal financial aid. But last week’s announcement from the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges could not have come at a worse time for the university…
Cheers: JU’s business school earns more accolades
Florida Times Union (subscription)
Giving compliments for good deeds in the community…
Monaghan Sues Over Free Birth Control Rule
National Review Online
Domino’s Pizza founder, Tom Monaghan, has sued the government over the Free Birth Control Rule. Monaghan, who already offers employees health insurance that doesn’t cover contraception, is a very devout Catholic. How devout? He founded Ave Maria University and Ave Maria Law School–both orthodox Catholic institutions of higher learning…
FMU trustees recognized among ICABA’s Most Accomplished
The South Florida Times
Florida Memorial University is congratulating Charles George and John Ruffin, chairman and vice chairman, respectively, of the institution’s Board of Trustees. The duo was selected by their peers as two of ICABA’s Most Accomplished Black Community Leaders and Entrepreneurs in South Florida…
65 years later, former Hatter looks back on football win over FSU
Daytona Beach News-Journal
Ormond Beach resident Nick Triantafellu played on the Stetson football team from 1947 to 1949. He is wearing the hat given to the players by coach Brady Cowell to commemorate their victory over Florida State in October 1947…
Exonerated once, St. Petersburg man Alan Crotzer is back in jail …
WTSP 10 News
He’d [Alan Crotzer] also re-enrolled at Tallahassee Community College, he said, where he hopes to study criminology before possibly pursuing a law degree…
UF anesthesiology professor Paulus dies at 67
Gainesville Sun
Dr. David Paulus, an anesthesiologist and professor of anesthesiology at the University of Florida and Shands, died unexpectedly Wednesday night, according to a UF&Shands media release Friday…
‘Non-traditional student’ takes USF St. Pete’s top honor
Bay News 9
Daniel Boyd, who’ll receive USF St. Petersburg’s Outstanding Graduate award tonight, is a 35-year-old new father who has juggled school and two businesses. He is an accounting major…
Adjunct professor named St. Petersburg assistant police chief
University of South Florida St. Petersburg
A USF St. Petersburg adjunct professor is now an assistant chief at the St. Petersburg Police Department, the highest ranking woman in the agency. Melanie Bevan, a 26-year veteran of the department, was sworn in as assistant chief last week, overseeing the Administrative Services Bureau and the Executive Operations Division…
Releases and Web Stories
Flagler College Announces Celebration Commemorating the 125th Anniversary …
ReadMedia (press release)
On Jan. 12, 1888, the Hotel Ponce de Leon opened its doors and became one of the grandest hotel resorts of its day. On Jan. 12, 2013, Flagler College will kick off a yearlong celebration of the 125th anniversary of this National Historic Landmark with …
Fall Commencement Features Gust Speaker Scott Staples, 18 …
Santa Fe College
Santa Fe College will hold fall commencement ceremonies at the Northwest Campus in the gym, 7 p.m. Friday, Dec. 14, marshaled by Professor Robert J. Connelly of Academic Foundations. Approximately 827 students have applied to graduate, including 40 BAS graduates. Of that number 313 will “walk” in the ceremony, and 116 will graduate with honors.
New facility in NW Gainesville offers one place for specialty medicine
University of Florida
GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Dermatology, cardiology, women’s health, psychiatry, pain medicine and many other medical specialty practices, as well as imaging and laboratory services, are now all in one place at the new UF&Shands at Springhill center in northwest Gainesville. Community and business leaders joined UF&Shands administrators at an official opening ceremony Thursday…
Garages near Norman Hall, O’Connell Center to be pressure-washed next week
University of Florida
University of Florida students and employees are advised that Garage 8 near Norman Hall and Garage 7 near the O’Connell Center are scheduled to be pressure-washed next week. Garage 8 is scheduled to be washed Sunday and Monday…
Community Volunteering
University of South Florida
TAMPA, Fla. (Dec. 14, 2012) – On a recent Friday at dusk, a group of 50 or so University of South Florida students gathered at a stark parking lot off North Franklin Street in Tampa’s downtown. Graffiti covers the walls of adjoining buildings, many of them vacant. Few cars come down the one-way street. The students aren’t there for a party. They are there to feed the homeless…
