SPECIAL SECTION: Gov. Rick Scott’s veto of the Pre-Eminent Tuition Bill
Florida Gov. Scott vetoes lifting of tuition cap at UF, FSU
Orlando Sentinel
Gov. Rick Scott on Friday vetoed a measure that would have allowed the state’s two flagship universities to raise their yearly tuition to “market rates” that would have exceeded the state’s annual 15 percent cap. The legislation (HB 7129) was sought by University of Florida president Bernie Machen and Florida State University‘s Eric Barron…
Gov. Scott says no to unlimited tuition hikes at UF, FSU
Palm Beach Post
Rick Scott vetoed legislation Friday that would have given the University of Florida and Florida State University unprecedented power to charge whatever they want for tuition…
Bill Proctor ‘disappointed’ over Scott’s veto of tuition bill
St. Augustine Record
The issue of raising tuition at the University of Florida and Florida State University isn’t going away, says State Rep. Bill Proctor, R-St. Augustine…
Veto of tuition bill leaves FSU asking: What’s next?
Tallahassee.com
After six straight years of deep cuts in funding, and a steady exodus of prized faculty, FSU and the University of Florida were going to be given the power to try to improve their national rankings.
Governor vetoes higher tuition for FSU/UF
WFSU
Governor Rick Scott has vetoed a bill that would have allowed Florida State University and the University of Florida to raise their tuition above the state’s 15-percent a year cap…
Governor vetoes bill that could have raised UF, FSU tuition
WTSP 10 News
Those fighting to keep the cost of college down scored a big victory Friday evening. To the surprise of some, Gov. Rick Scott vetoed a bill that would have allowed some Florida universities to charge whatever they want for tuition. On top of that, it may have led to them charging higher rates for harder majors…
State University System
Emotions run high at FAMU graduation
Tallahassee.com
New FAMU grads whooped and hollered as they crossed the stage on Saturday morning. Thousands of Florida A&M students entered a new chapter in their lives as they celebrated their graduation Saturday at the Lawson Center.
More than 1200 FGCU students graduate Sunday
Naples Daily News
More than 1200 students will graduate Sunday from Florida Gulf Coast University during the school’s two commencement ceremonies. Half of the students graduated during the 10:30 am ceremony at Alico Arena and the rest will graduate …
Excited, bittersweet: FSU’s latest graduates claim their diplomas
Tallahassee.com
…More than 6,000 students received degrees from FSU this spring. Of those, about 4,000 students participated in the commencement ceremonies on Friday and Saturday at the Civic Center…
Hundreds of FSU PC Students Celebrate Graduation
WJHG-TV
It was a packed house Sunday at the Marina Civic Center in Panama City for Florida State University Panama City’s graduation ceremony. Around 225 men and women were there to walk across the stage and accept their diplomas…
UCF Commencement Ceremonies Information
KnightNews.com
Over 7,500 students will be graduating from the University of Central Florida beginning May 3, at the UCF Arena…
Cut and Paste Jobs
Huffington Post
The University of Florida announced last week it would make significant cuts to its computer science program. Looking to save face rather than future, the university protested to Forbes, which first broke the story, this was reorganization and not a direct cut…
UNF Featured in Princeton Review’s Green Colleges Guide
First Coast News
The University of North Florida has been selected by the Princeton Review to be featured in their 2012 Guide to Green Colleges. This is the second year the Princeton Review has compiled a list of green colleges.
UNF spotlighted as “green college”
Florida Times-Union (blog)
The Princeton Review has cited the University of North Florida as one of the most environmentally responsible colleges in the United States and Canada.
USF Hopes Surgery Center Will Have Global Reach
The Ledger
Medical simulators for training doctors are not new, but University of South Florida officials say they’ve built the largest dedicated simulation facility under one roof. The new $38 million Center for Advanced Medical Learning and Simulation Center, which covers a half block in downtown Tampa, will certainly benefit USF med students, but it’s also expected to draw around 30,000 health professionals from around the world every year to hone their surgical skills…
Critics: Approval of new polytechnic shows politics in university system
Ocala
In 1980, a powerful state senator decided his hometown university needed a football stadium. As Senate president, he inserted the provision into the budget bill. But the governor rejected the plan, noting the University of West Florida in Pensacola did not even have a football team. The episode underscores how often raw politics trumps thoughtful policy in Florida’s higher education system — a point critics say was driven home again this month with Gov. Rick Scott’s approval of a new polytechnic university in Lakeland, sought by an influential lawmaker, Senate Budget Chairman J.D. Alexander, R-Lake Wales…
Review paints Poly as ‘toxic’
Tbo.com
The Tampa Tribune Two key administrators who resigned from the University of South Florida Polytechnic campus are among two dozen people interviewed in a recent investigation into possible improprieties on campus.
Political Poly tactic is déjà vu
Tbo.com
The public took notice when the state Legislature approved an expensive new university program and pushed aside the panel created to keep empire-building politics out of state university matters. It was 10 years ago, and more than 60 percent of Florida voters approved a constitutional amendment creating a Board of Governors with the power to operate, regulate and be “fully responsible” for the entire state university system. Here we are again…
More USF Poly resignations, including Goodman’s son
Tampabay.com
Add the son of embattled former chancellor Marshall Goodman to the list of recent resignations from the University of South Florida Polytechnic. Robert Goodman was paid $50,000 a year as a community liaison for the school’s Blue Sky business incubator program. He is one of nine USF Poly employees who have resigned from the school in the past month, according to letters released to the Times on Friday…
USF Polytech, UF budget cuts grab headlines
WFSU
…While UF works through its’ budget issues, the University of South Florida has been dealing with the fallout from its Polytechnic campus, which will soon become the state’s 12th public university. So far, its off to a rocky start. An internal investigation by the school into USF-Polytech’s former leaders reveal a climate of financial mismanagement and employee intimidation…
USF St. Petersburg entrepreneur program is already producing winners
Tampabay.com
…USF St. Petersburg is only the second state university to offer the major, said Bill Jackson, director of the school’s Sustainable Entrepreneurship & Innovation Alliance. (The other is Florida State University.)…
State College System
Scott OKs $26.9M for local college construction
Orlando Business Journal
Rick Scott, as part of an effort to show his commitment to education, approved $26.9 million for Central Florida college capital projects in the state’s fiscal 2012-2013 budget…
New allegations surface at Edison State College
Lehigh Acres News Star
Two former administrators at Edison State College are alleging the school isn’t fessing up about its ethical lapses, glossing over serious problems in a final accreditation report. Robert Beeson and Steve Atkins this week are sending separate…
Edison State, FGCU fine-tune budgets
The News-Press
Edison State College may freeze tuition rates for 2012-13, undercutting a state budget based on a 5 percent increase…
College chief finalists meet public, interview with board
KeysNet
Trustees of Florida Keys Community College plan to enter into negotiations with the institution’s next president this weekend. The three finalists to replace retiring President Larry Tyree pitched themselves and answered general questions at a series of town-hall meetings Friday on the Stock Island camps. Trustees are to interview all three in two-hour sessions Saturday.
Community College CEO Quits, Decamps to Florida
Washington City Paper
The Florida Keys Community College announced yesterday that Gueverra would become its sixth president…
Florida State College at Jacksonville to repay government up to …
Business Journal
After internal and state audits revealed flaws in appeals of the academic progress standards, the Florida State College at Jacksonville may have to repay the U.S. Department of Education up to $2.8 million. The audit of the 2010-2011 academic year revealed FSCJ staff members approved appeals for federal financial aid for students who did not provide adequate documentation to support the appeals…
View a copy of the letter FSCJ students who may have to repay Pell …
Florida Times-Union
This is the letter Florida State College at Jacksonville students who may have to repay Pell Grants will receive. FSCJ gave out $2.8 million in federal …
Vets use GI bill to attend FSCJ flight program
WJXT Jacksonville
Military members have been flooding Florida State College at Jacksonville’s rapidly growing aviation school at Cecil Airport since the closing of Florida’s shuttle program last year…
13,000 MDC graduates savor their achievements
MiamiHerald.com
But on Saturday, as Miami Dade College held five commencement ceremonies to accommodate more than 13000 graduates, worries about tuition increases, student loan interest rate hikes and a daunting job market got put on hold…
NWF State named among top community colleges
The Northwest Florida Daily News
Northwest Florida State College has been named one of the top 120 community colleges in the nation by the Aspen Institute College Excellence …
Families cope with loss after shootings
MyFox Tampa Bay
Martinez’ nephew, Christian, was one of three Polk State College students teens gunned down in a Winter Have apartment earlier this week. Rodriguez and Joe Palacios died. Esteban Zavala was rushed to the hospital…
Father of Only Survivor from Winter Haven Triple Shooting Speaks To 10 News
WTSP 10 News
Esteban had been finishing up his second year at Polk State College and had plans to transfer to USF. While at USF, he wants to major in a degree using his math skills, possibly engineering.
TCC graduate: ‘We will go on to do great things’
Tallahassee.com
Graduates wave to friends and family during the Tallahassee Community College Spring 2012 Commencement Ceremony, held on April 28, 2012 in Tallahassee, FL…
Study: Valencia College has $1 billion economic impact here
Orlando Sentinel
Valencia College‘s impact extends further than even some of its own administrators had realized — generating $1 billion a year for the Orange-Osceola economy, according to a new study…
Independent College and University System
Shooting near Embry-Riddle in Daytona Beach
Central Florida News 13
Two people were shot in an incident that began near Daytona International Airport and ended near Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University Saturday night,…
Officer involved shooting on the campus at Embry Riddle Aeronautical University
DBNewsJournal
The chase spilled onto the campus of Embry Riddle Aeronautical University, where officers shot the suspect several times. Daytona Beach Police Chief Mike Chitwood said the man told officer he shot his wife…
Mass. Man Shoots Pregnant Woman At Fla Airport
WCVB-TV
Officers followed him onto the campus of Embry Riddle Aeronautical University where he made a second stop near the intersection of Richard Petty Boulevard …
Investigators: Pregnant woman paralyzed during officer-involved …
WFTV Orlando
Investigators chased him on the Embry Riddle College Campus when he opened fire again. When cops approached the suspect he said he asked them, …
2 Injured In Shooting Near Daytona Airport
WESH Orlando
Shots were fired on the campus of Embry Riddle Aeronautical University, leaving two people in serious condition at Halifax Medical Center.
Scott vetoes bill to fund space research institute at FIT
Orlando Sentinel
Gov. Rick Scott vetoed an otherwise non-controversial bill Friday that would have steered taxes from visitors at Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral Air Force Station to the Melbourne-based Florida Institute of Technology…
Forbes Addresses FSC Grads
The Ledger
The world is full of roadblocks, but you have to distinguish yourself to succeed. That was the message given by Forbes Media chairman and editor-in-chief Steve Forbes to the 129th graduating class of Florida Southern College, Saturday…
NSU professor muder trial: Second son testifies in father’s first-degree …
Palm Beach Post
Tundidor testified Thursday in the first-degree murder trial of Randy W. Tundidor, who together with his eldest son, Randy H. Tundidor, 23, is accused of the brutal home-invasion murder of a Nova Southeastern University professor two years ago.
Stetson plants more trees to celebrate Tree Campus recognition
Daytona Beach News-Journal
Americans have celebrated Arbor Day for more than 135 years, but for Stetson University the holiday assumed a new meaning Friday. The university was formally recognized as a Tree Campus USA for 2011 by the Arbor Day Foundation on National Arbor Day…
When start of school and RNC converge, UT will be prepared
Bay News 9
As students wrap up finals and leave for the summer, quiet will overtake the University of Tampa campus. But when students return for the fall semester, they’ll notice a lot more people and quite a few changes…
Yip Yap: Noted and Quoted FLHE Voices from Around the State
Editorial: USF Polytechnic Staff: Genshaft Fails Employees
The Ledger
On Feb. 24 in Lakeland, University of South Florida President Judy Genshaft told faculty and staff of USF Polytechnic that their employment with USF would continue if a legislative bill to immediately convert the institution into an independent state university became law…
Grimm: Even Wall Street agrees Florida shortchanges higher ed
MiamiHerald.com
The Bond Buyer is normally not a publication that grabs my interest. But there’s something particularly disturbing about seeing the risk facing Florida’s universities assessed in the dry and dispassionate language of the financial markets…
Bowden: Economic future lies in our past
Pensacola News Journal
Finally, an academic with a dynamic sales pitch for University of West Florida expansion, toots a loud trumpet for a cause I preached for more than five decades: Pensacola’s many assets — historic, cultural, natural seacoast environment, …
Dobson: Angelou’s message of hope still rings
Tallahassee.com
Maya Angelou’s presence last Saturday at the Civic Center was almost regal. She was received with strong applause and a standing ovation as she took her seat on the small stage…Angelou gave her lecture as Florida State University culminated its three-day celebration of 50 years of integration…
Letter: Those Creating Florida Poly Should Research Sarasota’s New College
The Ledger
Having studied history at La Sorbonne in Paris (founded in 1258), I can appreciate Ford Heacock’s elation over the erection of Florida’s 12th state university right here in Lakeland ["Let's Come Together To Ensure the Success of Florida Polytechnic," April 25]…Craig B. McKee – Lakeland, FL
Viewpoint: Beware UWF encroachment
Pensacola News Journal
As a resident of the latest neighborhood to fall victim to the encroachment of the University of West Florida, I feel it is my civic duty to warn other neighborhoods that plans may already be underway to threaten your area as well… Dr. Anita Eilertsen – Pensacola, FL
Big money for school superintendent hopefuls
Ocala
Cory Pool, the chairman of the College of Central Florida’s board of trustees, who recently donated $1 million to the college, said Wagoner’s private-sector experience is needed because the district is a business…
Finishing Touch: Equine elite ready for mastery of painter Robert Clark
Florida Today
Studying art at the University of the South Sewanee also helped, as did the abstract expressionism he [Robert Clark] learned at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton. Sewanee had emphasized old-school draftsmanship, while FAU taught him about texture, washes and color theory…
Committee picks interim Patterson as next president of Nevada State College
Las Vegas Review – Journal
The committee and the constituents heard from five candidates through the day, including Patterson and Coley. Also among them were Donna Price Henry from Florida Gulf Coast University, Pablo Arenaz from Texas A&M International University and Lois Becker from Jacksonville University…
In recovery? Signs pointing to economic rebound in Southwest Florida
Naples Daily News
“That’s reflective of the fact that consumers nationwide and globally are feeling better about their economic situation,” said Gary Jackson, an economics professor with Florida Gulf Coast University in Estero.
He left more than a creek
The News-Press
In addition to trampling his crops with their horses, “one night Harney’s men slipped into Bowlegs’ thriving banana plantation and hacked the plants to bits,” writes historian Gail Clement of Florida International University in “Reclaiming the Everglades.”
Beaches off the beaten path
Ocala
Little Talbot Island – Recommended by beach expert [Stephen] Leatherman, director of Florida International University’s Laboratory for Coastal Research, this state park hideaway is great “for a wildlife adventure” — particularly if you’re interested in a possible glimpse of Bigfoot.
Florida’s Crucial Hispanic Voters Remain Wary of Romney
New York Times
“The question is, can the Republicans change that?” said Dario V. Moreno, a political scientist at Florida International University. “If they perform as they did four years ago, they will lose Florida.”
Ruling could clear way for more slot machines in Florida
The News-Press
But [Marc] Dunbar, who teaches gaming law at Florida State University, has disputed Bondi’s opinion. He said the issue could be resolved in a lawsuit stemming from a planned November referendum on slot machines in Palm Beach County. ”At the end of the day, that (attorney general’s) opinion has to be dealt with in some form or fashion,” Dunbar said.
Florida looks to future of aerospace without space program
WFSU
NASA also has a powerful partner in Florida to help with the basic nuts and bolts of that effort. It’s the Florida Center for Advanced Aero-Propulsion. That’s a coalition of four institutes of higher learning: the University of Florida, Florida State University, the University of Central Florida and Embry-Riddle University. FSU Vice President of Research Dr. Kirby Kemper says that forms a whole much bigger than the sum of its parts. “And it’s through the universities and working with industry that I believe that we have the obligation as well as the opportunity to move us forward.”
Sarah Mallonee named IRSC Professor of the Year
TCPalm
Dr. Sarah Mallonee was selected as the 2012 Indian River State College Professor of the Year…
Pacific reef sharks have declined by more than 90 percent, new study says
Washington Post
Mahmood Shivji, who directs the Guy Harvey Research Institute at Nova Southeastern University, said the new paper’s “results are consistent with other studies showing a decline in reef shark numbers elsewhere.”
How Will You Spend Your Refund?
Wall Street Journal
On average, taxpayers who overpay their taxes instead of paying off credit-card bills “lose” north of $300 a year in higher interest costs, according to an estimate by Donna Bobek Schmitt, associate professor of accounting at the University of Central Florida.
Southwest Florida business growth slows
Sarasota Herald-Tribune
“Like much of the economic data coming out, it’s a mixed bag,” said University of Central Florida economist Sean Snaith. Snaith is forecasting the state’s annual growth rate, adjusted for inflation, will not top 2 percent until next year.
91-Year-Old University of Florida Professor Charged With Attacking Wife: Report
NBC 6 Miami
A 91-year-old professor emeritus at the University of Florida was arrested on aggravated assault charges after authorities say he beat his wife inside their Gainesville apartment. Michel K. Ochi was arrested after deputies were called to the home in the 13000 block of Newberry Road Thursday night to respond to a domestic disturbance call, Alachua County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Art Forgey told the Gainesville Sun…
New Department of Health secretary now on board
The Florida Current
[John] Armstrong is an associate professor at the University of South Florida and chief medical officer of USF‘s Health Center for Advanced Medical Learning and Simulation…
Rick Scott’s choice for surgeon general has ties to USF, Jackson Memorial
MiamiHerald.com (blog)
Dr. John Armstrong, a University of South Florida health official and former Army trauma surgeon, will be the state’s surgeon general and Department of Health secretary, Gov. Rick Scott announced Friday.
In Recovery? Health of economy a key decision-maker in 2012 political season
Naples Daily News
“You have competing claims for who’s creating jobs in Florida: the governor versus the president,” said Susan MacManus, a politics professor at the University of South Florida in Tampa.
Rubio pursues his own DREAM
Tbo.com
“It’s a significant risk,” said retired University of South Florida political scientist Darryl Paulson, a Republican. “The primary thing any political candidate wants to do is solidify his base, and this could fracture that base.
Getting piece of BP pie
Pensacola News Journal
“There is now much less latitude to consider the individual circumstances of a particular business than there was before,” said Rick Harper, director of the University of West Florida’s Office of Economic Development and Engagement.
