State University System

Tuition hikes urged by Florida state universities wrestling with loss of …
Palm Beach Post
With Gov. Rick Scott still fighting tuition hikes, Florida’s 11 public universities may be forced to wheel-and-deal next week when they go before the higher education system’s Board of Governors…

Cox Accused of Defamation in Hazing Story
Courthouse News Service
The roommate of the Florida marching band member who died from hazing in November claims in court that Cox Media defamed him by calling him one of the perpetrators of the hazing, though he was a victim of it. Keon Hollis sued Cox Media Group dba WFTV and WFTV Inc., in Fulton County State Court. Hollis, a senior at Florida A&M University, claims that WFTV published an article on its website that falsely reported that the school had suspended him after the death of Robert Champion…

Florida capital briefs: President’s evaluation will take several months …
The News-Press
The chairman of the state university system Board of Governors is reviewing a response from Florida A&M University on how it intends to move forward with an annual evaluation for embattled President James Ammons, that indicates it may be several months before the review is finished, a BOG spokeswoman said.

Boca a ‘college town’ wannabe?
Sun-Sentinel
Boca Raton may be better known for its attitude than activism, but Mayor Susan Whelchel foresees the city’s future as a college town. It’s the home of Florida Atlantic University, Lynn University and a branch of Palm Beach State College. And with FAU closing its Fort Lauderdale campus, Whelchel says, the Boca Raton campus is about to grow bigger in a way that will decrease the city’s average age. “Like it or not,” she said. Not everyone buys into the idea of Boca as a “college town.” Here are some of the reasons they say it’s definitely no Gainesville, the hard-partying home of the University of Florida:…

FGCU’s Bradshaw to decline $60000 bonus as school struggles with …
Naples Daily News
Florida Gulf Coast University President Wilson Bradshaw is declining his $60,000 bonus as the school grapples with declining state funding for the fifth consecutive year and a likely 15 percent tuition increase…

FGCU seeks tuition increase
The News-Press
Florida Gulf Coast University’s administration is proposing the maximum tuition increase allowable under state law…

Florida Task Force Holds First ‘Stand Your Ground’ Meeting
Guns.com
The task force has five more public meetings planned across the state.  It will use research on SYG gathered from a variety of different sources, including the Florida International University College of Law and the Tampa Bay Times, as well as court testimony to make decisions on if/how the law should be changed…

Will next UF president come from academia, politics, business or …
Gainesville Sun
The search for the University of Florida‘s next president has yet to begin, but talk already has started about the ideal background of candidates. Early names floated as possible candidates include Florida House Speaker Dean Cannon, Florida Senate President Mike Haridopolos and University of North Florida President John Delaney, who was previously Jacksonville’s mayor…

Florida Department of Health still working on plans for TB patients
The News-Press
The department told the News Service in March that it had been in discussions with three possible providers, including the University of Florida and Shands …

USF will host UCF in Sun Dome opener
Tbo.com
The University of South Florida men’s basketball team will open its new era in the renovated Sun Dome against the University of Central Florida on Saturday, Nov. 10. USF also will face UCF on Jan. 2, 2013, in Orlando. USF made inquiries with several big-name opponents — including national champion Kentucky — about becoming the Bulls’ first opponent in the new Sun Dome, which underwent a $35 million renovation. UCF has been an on-again, off-again rival during USF’s basketball history. That figures to change when UCF joins the Big East in all sports beginning in 2013-14.

State College System

FSCJ board to hold special meeting Thursday to discuss “operations”
Florida Times-Union
The Florida State College at Jacksonville’s board of trustees has called a special meeting today to discuss hiring a third party to review “college activities.” The subject of the special meeting was listed in published notices and a media release sent Wednesday as a discussion of the college’s operations…

Republican Senate candidates to debate – but without Mack
Orlando Sentinel
Dave Weldon of Indialantic; and Plant City businessman Mac McAlister will appear on Tuesday, July 24, at Tallahassee Community College.

Connie Mack Reels in the Support of Pam Bondi
Sunshine State News
Dave Weldon and businessman and retired Army officer Mike McCalister — have all committed to debate on July 24 at Tallahassee Community College.

Independent Colleges and Universities

Free Flagler College tours for local residents to start July 1
St. Augustine Record
Legacy Tours of Flagler College will offer free tours of the college beginning July 1 for all St. Johns County residents with valid ID.The free admission is in …

Florida Hospital College now Adventist University
Orlando Sentinel
Florida Hospital College of Health Sciences has a new name. Effective today, the school will be called Adventist University of Health Sciences, …

Nova gets debate hosting duties again
Sun-Sentinel
Nova Southeastern University has become the go-to site for Florida’s statewide televised political debates. The Davie campus has hosting duties again for the only 2012 statewide race, for U.S. Senate. U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., and the Republican nominee are set to debate Oct. 17 at Nova. The civic group Leadership Florida and the Florida Press Association, which represents most daily and weekly newspapers, are sponsoring…

New priests’ group hopes to preserve vision of Vatican II
Tbo.com
This week, about 240 priests from around the country are meeting at Saint Leo University in St. Leo for the inaugural assembly of the newly formed Association of U.S. Catholic Priests. Among its goals: To be a “voice of hope” and to “celebrate and implement the visionary concepts of Vatican Council II.”

For-Profit and Career Colleges

Bondi settles with MedVance in for-profit probe
Sun-Sentinel
The for-profit MedVance Institute has agreed to offer free retraining for former students and $600,000 in scholarships as part of a settlement with the Florida Attorney’s General Office…The investigations are still active for the other seven schools, including Keiser University and the online division of Kaplan University, both based in Fort Lauderdale…

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

Letter: The Politics of College
The Ledger
In reference to the June 1 article “Backers Turn Out For New University,” it is wonderful to see all of the “jump-on-the-bandwagon” backers and supporters of Florida Polytechnic University. You know everyone loves a winner…Marie Chandler – Lakeland

Letter: Hiaasen right about push for unnecessary state university
TCPalm
Reading Carl Hiaasen’s column “Welcome to Useless State, Florida’s newest university” (June 4), I was very angry and very sad. I do not want my tax dollars used to create a university for which there is no data to support its need…Margaret Eubank – Port St. Lucie

Soskin: Renovation would throw good money after bad
Orlando Sentinel
I thought we had finally settled this controversy. Impact studies repeatedly demonstrate that public funding of sports facilities is a bad economic investment. After all, Amway Center advocates correctly stressed the “quality of life” benefits of an NBA team and of a performing-arts center. Unfortunately, the Citrus Bowl renovation debate is back, along with the economic-impact claims… Mark Soskin, an associate professor of economics at the University of Central Florida, has taught sports economics and conducted numerous tourism and sports impact studies.

FAU hurricane expert weighs in on predictions
Sun-Sentinel
If you want an impartial take on the 2012 hurricane season, just ask Howard Hanson. For credentials, Hanson is a Ph.D. meteorologist whose specialty is research on atmosphere-ocean interaction with the behavior of low clouds and their role in the climate. His official title is scientific director of the Southeast National Marine Renewable Energy Center at Florida Atlantic University. With his hands full at the center he doesn’t teach, but this Boca Del Mar resident advises graduate students as a professor of geosciences in the Charles E. Schmidt College of Science at FAU.

Southwest Florida specialty shops finding their niche
Naples Daily News
In late 2009, Rick Vaske and his friend Jason Smith opened a restaurant that only served cereal near Florida Gulf Coast University. ”The key was location,” Vaske said. “It was very much a college crowd and a high school crowd.”

Researchers say plea bargains actually send innocent defendants …
89.3 KPCC (blog)
In a new study Vanessa Edkins, an assistant professor of psychology at the Florida Institute of Technology, and Lucian Dervin, an assistant professor of law at Southern Illinois University, call this phenomenon experienced by Banks, “plea bargaining’s innocence problem.”

Scott defends voter purge on national media
The Florida Current
“It’s a red herring,” said Charles Barrilleaux, a Florida State University political science professor. “This idea of a systematic, massive voter fraud, this just doesn’t seem to happen,” Barrilleaux said. “The penalties are too high and the payoffs are so low it just doesn’t make sense to engage in such a conspiracy from a cost benefit analysis.”

Scholars Join Fight To Save University of Missouri Press
Publishers Weekly
The Facebook page launched by commission publishers’ rep Bruce Miller and Florida State University professor Ned Stuckey-French has to date generated 1700 “likes” and an online petition produced by Stuckey-French and posted a week ago has garnered to date 2,400 signatures…

Analyst: Mica campaign ad factual, but misleading
WFTV Orlando
On Wednesday, WFTV political analyst Rick Foglesong, a political science professor at Rollins College, examined an advertisement being aired by Rep. John Mica, who is locked in a race with fellow Republican Sandy Adams. Mica is a 10-term incumbent from Winter Park and Adams is a one-term incumbent from Oviedo. Because of redistricting, both are running for the same congressional seat. Of the two, Mica has more campaign cash. Mica’s ad promotes him as a “real deal” conservative.  The ad’s fact statements are literally true, Foglesong says…

Florida lags behind other states on generating solar energy
Tampabay.com
James Fenton, director of the Florida Solar Energy Center at the University of Central Florida, put it this way: “Florida itself does not have a vision for its future.

Darden cuts its ties to Florida’s restaurant trade group
Orlando Sentinel
“Darden’s so big — FRLA needs them,” said H.G. Parsa, a restaurant professor at the University of Central Florida’s hospitality college…

The science of training and development in organizations: What really matters …
Science Codex
“Learning is a way of life in organizations,” says Eduardo Salas, a psychological scientist from the University of Central Florida. “Everyone gets training. But what matters? What works? What influences learning and skill acquisition?

Biologists rush to save Florida butterfly species
CNN
“This is a very low number of individuals compared to what should be in the field,” said Jaret Daniels, an entomology researcher with the University of Florida.

Doctors: Face-chewing victim ‘awake and alert’
The Associated Press
“It’s hard when he smiles to see who he is,” said Wrood Kassira, a University of Miami plastic surgeon at Jackson.

Democrat Soderberg enters Florida Senate for newly drawn District 4
Ponte Vedra Recorder
This week Nancy Soderberg filed to seek the newly drawn Florida Senate District 4 seat. Soderberg is a Jacksonville Beach resident and a former White House foreign policy adviser and U.N. Ambassador. She’s a nationally recognized expert and author on international affairs as well as a Distinguished Visiting Scholar at the University of North Florida.

City Clings to Rays as Others Clamor for a Move
New York Times
“For people in Tampa to spend $500 million to make it easier to go to a game is ridiculous,” Philip Porter, an economist at the University of South Florida, said of proposals for a new, publicly subsidized stadium. “This is at a time when we’re hurting for financial resources.”

USF Health expert urges residents to take inventory of prescribed …
Villages Daily Sun
It’s a recommendation that Dr. Kevin Sneed, dean of the University of South Florida College of Pharmacy, touts frequently. In fact, Sneed told a gathering of Villages residents Tuesday afternoon at Savannah Center for the latest USF Health in The Villages free health information series that keeping a diary of all medications — prescription and over-the-counter — is a good idea worth sharing with medical professionals. “It can save a lot of time and effort, and hopefully avoid a lot problems,” Sneed said…

Lose Civic Center’s subsidy, group says
Pensacola Business Journal
A series of meetings between TACC subcommittee members and University of West Florida economist Rick Harper resulted in the conclusion that as many as 3,000 new tourism-related jobs could be added over the next five years if the Visit Pensacola annual marketing budget is maintained at $5.2 million…

Storm cleanup could bring jobs, money to area
Pensacola Business Journal
Rick Harper, the executive director of the University of West Florida’s Office of Economic Development and Engagement, estimates that there may be as much as $150 million in damage to private property from this weekend’s rainstorm, which brought more than 20 inches of rain to some areas of Escambia County…

Releases and Web Stories

King Center for Performing Arts Celebrates 25th Anniversary with …
Brevard Times
MELBOURNE, FLORIDA — In April of 1988, the Maxwell C. King Center for Performing Arts, Inc., of Brevard Community College first opened its doors with ‘Singing in the Rain’ and will now celebrate its 25th year with a 25th Anniversary ticket raffle, according to a King Center press release…

Miami Dade College Adopts MedX as EMR Vendor
PR Newswire (press release)
Miami Dade College Adopts MedX as EMR Vendor. MDC is now partnered with MedX Medical Management in adopting EMR into Medical School.

Global life sciences investors headed for Miami
Miami Today
Scientists, investors and other professionals in the life sciences will descend on Miami in October for BioFlorida’s 15th annual conference to discuss the most promising breakthroughs in the industry in the Sunshine state. The conference is billed as the premier event for Florida’s bioscience industry, with 600 attendees expected from the state, nation and the world, including from nearby Canada and as far away as China, said BioFlorida Inc. President and CEO Russell Allen…The conference will also draw academic experts from the University of Miami, University of South Florida, the University of Florida and Florida State University, among others. BioFlorida, headquartered in West Palm Beach, represents more than 3,000 companies and research organizations in biotechnology, pharmaceutical and medical device fields, which employ more than 61,000 workers in the state.

University of Florida Psychologist Roger Fillingim, PhD, Becomes President of the American Pain Society
Newswise (press release)
Newswise — GLENVIEW, IL, June 13, 2012 – Roger B. Fillingim, PhD, professor, College of Dentistry and director, Pain Research and Intervention Center of Excellence, at the University of Florida has begun a two-year term as president of the American Pain Society.

Fort Myers Attorney Guy Whitesman Elected to University of Florida Law Center Association Board of Trustees
PR.com (press release)
Fort Myers, FL, June 14, 2012 –(PR.com)– The law firm of Henderson, Franklin, Starnes & Holt, P.A., is pleased to announce that Attorney Guy E. Whitesman has been elected to the Board of Trustees of the University of Florida Law Center Association, Inc. The Association acts as a supporting organization to the University of Florida Levin College of Law…

New service at UF eases voting process in an effort to energize …
University of Florida
GAINESVILLE, Fla. — To energize the youth vote in a presidential election year, the University of Florida’s Bob Graham Center for Public Service has partnered with an innovative digital platform — TurboVote — that will allow students and others to quickly and efficiently register to vote or request an absentee ballot online from their local election authorities athttps://ufl.turbovote.org/.