State University System
Report: FAMU warned of hazing days before drum major’s death
Atlanta Journal Constitution
Three days before a drum major from DeKalb County was fatally beaten aboard a bus at the Florida Classic football game, Florida A&M University‘s top administrators knew about recent hazing incidents and a police chief called for the Marching 100 band to be barred from playing at the game, a Tallahassee newspaper reported Friday…
Recommendations for suspension preceded FAMU band death
CNN
Three days before a Florida A&M University drum major died in a hazing incident, the campus police chief suggested suspending the band because of hazings.
FAMU dean proposed longterm suspension of band before Champion’s hazing …
Orlando Sentinel
Three days before the hazing death of FAMU drum major Robert Champion, the university’s dean of students urged top administrators to impose a long-term suspension of the school’s famous marching band because of concerns about hazing. The recommendation from Florida A&M University Dean Henry Kirby is outlined in notes he took about a critical meeting that was held on Nov. 16 specifically to discuss hazing within the band.
Ammons left out of the loop in FAMU hazings
Tallahassee Democrat (blog)
Three days before Florida A&M drum major Robert Champion died after being hazed on a band bus following the Florida Classic, top administrators, including the police chief, recommended the Marching 100 be barred from playing at the football game. Notes from FAMU Dean of Students Henry L. Kirby, sent to board of trustees members late Thursday, detail a Nov. 16 meeting between Provost Cynthia Hughes-Harris, Vice President of Student Affairs William Hudson Jr. and retired band director Julian White, during which Kirby and Police Chief Calvin Ross recommended the band be suspended and forbidden from playing in Orlando because of reported hazing…
FAMU dean wanted band suspended before hazing death
Tbo.com
Florida A&M‘s dean of students wanted to suspend the school’s marching band for hazing practices three days before Robert Champion’s death. Dean Henry Kirby urged administrators at FAMU to shut down the band similar to the way it did to a fraternity in 2006. The school suspended the Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity chapter on campus after five members were charged with using wooden canes to beat a pledge during an initiation ritual.
Dean wanted FAMU band suspended before death
USA TODAY
Dean of students at FAMU wanted the band suspended three days before hazing death of drum major.
FAU Treasure Coast campus moves; autism center stays
TCPalm
Only a few employees remain at Florida Atlantic University’s Treasure Coast campus in St. Lucie West. In late June, in an effort to save $1.8 million a year in operating costs, FAU consolidated campuses. Nursing and library faculty moved from the campus FAU has shared with Indian River State College to Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute in Fort Pierce. Other employees headed south to the John D. MacArthur campus in Jupiter or FAU‘s main campus in Boca Raton. However, FAU’s Center for Autism and Related Disabilities (CARD) and its two full-time employees are staying put at the campus — for now…
Delray Beach man charged with viewing child porn at FAU library
Sun Sentinel
A Delray Beach vet’s assistant was arrested on Thursday afternoon for his illicit library activity. Andrew Manning, 41, is charged with four courts of viewing child porn, which authorities say he viewed at the library on Florida Atlantic University‘s Boca Raton campus, located in the 700 block of Glades Road…
Delray Beach man charged with viewing child porn at FAU library
WPTV
A Delray Beach vet’s assistant was arrested on Thursday afternoon for his illicit library activity. Andrew Manning, 41, is charged with four courts of viewing child porn, which authorities say he viewed at the library on Florida Atlantic University’s Boca Raton campus, located in the 700 block of Glades Road. On multiple occasions, Manning used library computers to visit multiple websites containing “pornographic material, including material depicting children,” according to a report by the FAU Police Department…
Reality, future collide as FGCU aims for greater academic excellence
The News-Press
FGCU aspires to move up a rung in higher education, joining a class of universities nationally known for academic excellence. To get there, though, the school needs to add at least 20 to 30 majors.
Is FIU health program falling short in its pledge?
MiamiHerald.com
More than six years ago, when Florida International University secured the green light to create a new medical school at its West Miami-Dade main campus, the affirmative vote by the state’s Board of Governors was hailed as perhaps the most important in the university’s history. Leading up to that “yes” vote, FIU leaders presented a finely tuned sales pitch that highlighted the expected benefits of a new med school: significant economic impact, increased numbers of minority physicians and increased access to healthcare among the region’s underserved populations…
The Real Facts on Smoking and Public Health
National Geographic
Conversely, a wave of anti-smoking sentiment is trending among collegiate leaders: as of January 1st, 2013, the University of Mississippi’s Oxford campus is set to become smoke-free—that is, smoking will be prohibited every hour, every day, anywhere on campus. Florida International University has enacted a campus tobacco ban. And Stanford University’s Medical School. And Taylor University. And Stanford University’s Medical School. And Taylor University. And over 750 other universities in the U.S. In Iowa, smoking is completely banned in all public places…
Florida Poly U Backers Launch Campus Update Blog
Sunshine State News (blog)
Backers of the state’s newest university, Florida Polytechnic University, have launched a blog –http://blog.floridapolyvision.com/ – to give updates on the creation of the Lakeland campus…
First lady Michelle Obama to speak at UCF
Orlando Sentinel
First lady Michelle Obama will make a campaign stop at the University of Central Florida on Tuesday. The first lady plans to speak to supporters of President Barack Obama at The Venue at UCF Arena, the building behind the new arena. Doors open at 3 p.m., and the “grassroots supporter event” begins at 5:30 p.m. Parking is available in the C and D garages for $5. To obtain tickets, go to http://www.barackobama.com/fl
UNF has plan to address low graduation rates
Florida Times-Union
Fewer than half the students who start at the University of North Florida graduate six years later, a problem that UNF President John Delaney characterized as the university’s “Achilles heel.” During four years, the university’s graduation rate drops to just 20 percent.
UNF team sees sea as source for antibiotics
Florida Times-Union
…Now there’s an emerging effort to find new, more effective sources of antibiotic drugs in the sea. And one of the places that’s happening is a lab in the Science & Engineering Building at the University of North Florida…
USF team marries mind and machine
Tbo.com
University of South Florida scientists are working on what they call a brain-machine interface device. It would be implanted in the brain to take over for brain cells damaged by disease, stroke or traumatic injury, enabling patients to function as …
Gulf states set to spend billions in oil spill fine money
Pensacola News Journal
The University of West Florida’s nonprofit corporation, Business Enterprises Inc., wants to tap a share of Escambia’s RESTORE cash to expand cultural heritage tourism in downtown Pensacola to the tune of $50 million…
State College System
Jobs are few but interest in police, fire careers steady in …
Daytona Beach News-Journal
Whether a lifelong goal or second career, in these tight economic times, students attending or considering entering Daytona State College School of Emergency Services’ criminal justice and fire sciences programs may discover finding a job in public safety is not as easy as it was in the past…
Grant available for veterans enrolling at DSC
Daytona Beach News-Journal
A new college grant is now available for veterans enrolling at Daytona State College. Certain military veterans have a new option for enrollment at a community or technical school using a specialized grant that began July 1. The Veterans Retraining Assistance Program, offered by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, is designed for unemployed veterans between the ages of 35 and 60 years old…
New college president is settling in
KeysNet
On his first day of work Monday as president of Florida Keys Community College, Jonathon Gueverra was welcomed with a staff breakfast attended by some 100 people.
Meet new FKCC chief
KeysNews.com
As first days on the job go, Jonathan Gueverra, the newly arrived president of Florida Keys Community College, dealt with a few surprises last Monday. For starters, there was his office chair, an aged and battered item believed to have served every college president before him….
FSCJ president expense spending: Thousands for cellphones, cars …
Florida Times-Union
Florida State College at Jacksonville President Steven Wallace charged more than $187,000 to the college and its foundation over two years, including almost $600 a month for phones, iPad service and Internet and a $1,260 a month Cadillac lease, a review of his expenses shows. Wallace’s annual salary is $328,000, although his total compensation is $513,000 annually, including deferred compensation, housing allowance, health care for himself and his family, and other benefits. But expenses beyond his compensation package show Wallace also charged about $450 a week in meals and drinks over two years and directed the college’s foundation to donate $16,000 to local charities — with most of the donations made in his name…
GCSC’s nursing program begins in August
The News Herald
The new program is not accredited yet, but [Randy] Chitwood said no new programs in the nursing field are allowed accreditation before the program is up and running. The program has received eligibility for candidacy for accreditation and the process has already begun.
Lonely tenant stays, despite tough times at empty Miami mall
MiamiHerald.com
Former tenants heard rumors about Miami Dade College or New World School of the Arts possibly taking over but they don’t know anything. Operators of the MetroMall did not respond to phone calls seeking comment.
Sen. Bill Nelson at Pensacola State College to talk about RESTORE …
Pensacola News Journal
Just days after President Obama signed the RESTORE Act into law, U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, a lead sponsor of the act, will be in Pensacola this morning to meet with local elected officials and community leaders. The meeting is at 8 a.m. at Pensacola State College.
Valencia College presents annual summer dance program
Orlando Sentinel
Valencia College will present its annual Valencia Dance Summer Repertory Concert, on Friday and Saturday, July 13-14.
Independent Colleges and Universities
Bear in Ave Maria Town Center Getting Bolder and Bolder
The Ave Herald
Later that same Friday, between 7:30 p.m. and 8 p.m., the bear scampered across the Ave Maria University campus, past the oratory on Annunciation Circle, and along the sidewalk of Pope John Paul II Blvd. where, after running past a man walking his dog, the bear climbed a tree across from the Publix…
Smoking rules vary for colleges in Jacksonville
Florida Times-Union
Edward Waters College went smoke-free in 2005, becoming the first college in Jacksonville to do so…
Volusia County, Embry-Riddle consider testing unmanned aircraft
Daytona Beach News-Journal
The skies over rural northwest Volusia County could be getting busier in coming weeks, but not in the traditional sense. A proposed county agreement with Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University would send unmanned aircraft — the small, light, hand-launched planes that are preprogrammed to fly 20- to 30-minute routes — on test runs over Lake George and the sparsely populated areas around it.
Volunteering Locally Helps Students and the Community
The Ledger
At Florida Southern College, students have done so much volunteer work that the college was honored recently. It was been named to the President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll for its commitment to community service and service learning — for the fifth consecutive year.
Florida Tech has starring role in major physics find
Florida Today
When European scientists made a breakthrough discovery using the world’s biggest atom smasher, they used detection equipment designed and built at Florida Tech…
First of stranded trainee pilots to begin journey home today
Irish Examiner
With both the Waterford-based Pilot Training College and Florida Institute of Technology are continuing to dispute the cause of the course’s termination, students are said to be struggling to cope.
Pilot school seeks alternative training
Irish Times
They had been receiving training in the Florida Institute of Technology (FIT), which had a contract with the Waterford school, but due to a financial dispute the Floridan centre has terminated their training.
Jacksonville University names new business dean
Florida Times-Union (blog)
Don Capener has been named the dean of Jacksonville University’s Davis College of Business. His tenure began July 1. Capener came from Illinois’ Monmouth College. He was part of Monmouth’s Political Economy and Commerce department.
NSU on track to open coral reef research center
Sun-Sentinel
South Florida’s Nova Southeastern University is on track to open its new $40 million-plus coral reef research center, the largest of its kind in the country.
UM’s Life Science Park offers co-working space
MiamiHerald.com
The University of Miami Life Science & Technology Park is introducing co-working lab and office space aimed at fostering innovation among early-stage companies…
Group funds internships for the disabled
MiamiHerald.com
The network, made up of human resource executives and labor lawyers, made its first placements in 2007 at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine’s Department of Pediatrics…
Yip Yap: Noted and Quoted FLHE Voices from Around the State
Editorial: FSCJ board is getting its act together
Florida Times-Union
At a minimum, the sudden clamp down on the expenditures of FSCJ President Steve Wallace signaled that the college’s board of trustees is determined to be independent, assertive and in control. That is welcome news, especially after this page raised concerns last month about whether the board was sufficiently engaged…
Opinion: UWF must stay public
Pensacola Business Journal
We strongly support the University of West Florida’s plans to grow its student population and expand its campus to meet future needs. The financial health of the university and its ability to provide a qualified, talented workforce will help the regional economy and attract new business. But with that ambitious plan comes a responsibility to neighbors and Northwest Florida residents as a whole: The plans must be discussed in the open and with a chance for the public to participate…
Amat: Getting into business with friends requires clear vision
MiamiHerald.com
Two friends are sitting at a bar. John is waxing on about how much email he receives and how much time it takes to sort through the junk. Six months later, his friend Jane releases an email sorting application that learns your interests and makes associations from past actions. Should John have an equity position in Jane’s product?…Susan Amat is co-founder and executive director of The Launch Pad at the University of Miami, which has helped hundreds of entrepreneurs develop skills, make connections and launch businesses. She also leads Startup Florida. Follow her on Twitter: @SusanAmat
Maxwell: Requiem for college life as I knew it
Tampa Bay Times
To read the Greek and Latin authors in their original is a sublime luxury. … I thank on my knees him who directed my early education for having in my possession this rich source of delight. President Thomas Jefferson, who drafted the Declaration of Independence and founded the University of Virginia. I am fortunate to have had my college experiences during the 1960s and the early 1970s. I am glad I am not attending an American institution of higher education today…
Rice: Volusia, Flagler forums will give voters face-to-face time with …
Daytona Beach News-Journal
Consider this column your personal invitation to attend a series of “meet the candidates/debate” forums The News-Journal is holding later this month in collaboration with Daytona State College and Stetson University.
Thousands of computers could be infected with a virus
ActionNewsJax.com
We spoke with Joseph Provenza, Flagler College director of technology who said, “A lot of people who have it, they don’t even know because right now their internet is working fine, that’s all they care about…
Experts dispute recent study that claims little impact by pre-Columbian tribes …
Mongabay.com
“The amazing biodiversity of the Amazon is not a byproduct of past human disturbance,” said lead author Crystal McMichael with the Florida Institute of Technology in a press release…
FIU grads start Miramar training facility
Sun-Sentinel
After struggling to become a professional athlete, former Florida International University football player and recent graduate Solomon Smith decided to create his own path to success.
Florida Southern Professor Seeks to Engage Students
The Ledger
Bruce Anderson grew up on college campuses during the beginnings of political activism spawned by the Vietnam War and the civil rights movement, and with a father who was an adviser to many student activists. Bruce Anderson, an associate professor of political science at Florida Southern College, tries to get his students involved beyond the textbook…
Does this heat make us fight?
RedEye Chicago (blog)
Studies by psychologists such as Ellen Cohn and James Rotton of Florida State University or Iowa State University’s Craig Anderson seem to suggest there is a link, but the connection and causality remains controversial…
Political Notebook: Congressional candidate may be off ballot — check bounced
Naples Daily News
The debate over health-care reform has a long road to travel, if a forum at the Florida State University College of Medicine on Friday is any indication. Professor Marshall Kapp, director of FSU’s Center for Innovative Collaboration in Medicine and Law, reviewed last week’s U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Florida’s challenge to the federal health-care law. Kapp, who holds degrees in both law and public health, focused on the ruling’s legal aspects. ”You should be aware that there are a number of other lawsuits pending in courts around the country at various stages, challenging other parts of the Affordable Care Act,” he said. “So the litigation over the constitutionality of the act is not over.”..
Amendment 4: Debate rages over effects on home investment, government coffers
Naples Daily News
But Bob Lee, the executive director for the Center for Florida Local Government Excellence at Florida State University and the former Naples city manager, said the legislation will do nothing but promote class warfare. ”Amendment 4 is unfair to every current Florida resident homeowner. Not only does it not benefit them, but they will be the ones who will pay an increase in taxes,” he said, adding that the burden will shift to full-time residents to cover these new tax breaks. Lee‘s suggestion? Why not have people who own property pay taxes on the assessed value of the property. Period. ”And not have all of these different exemptions that pit one group against another,” he said. “It would guarantee that the tax rates would go down.”
Amid criticism, Kan. man retools mug shot website
STLtoday.com
Wayne Logan, law professor at Florida State University, said Friday that Creed doesn’t have any legal authority “to impose community service on anybody” and that while websites like Creed’s may be legal, they also raise ethical concerns because they’re “trying to make money off other peoples’ misfortunes.” ”Of course these are arrests, not convictions very often, so there’s an important distinction there,” Logansaid. Citing “Wanted” posters, Logan said people have been publishing information about suspected criminals for decades, but noted that the online factor in naming and shaming is different.”The Internet is both more pervasive and more permanent. The reputational ramifications are much more significant,” Logan said. “There’s a kind of perverse gratification people get from looking at other people being in difficult circumstances.”
Quest for more public art in Jacksonville
Florida Times-Union
Jim Benedict sees Jacksonville, not as a large city, but as a collection of neighborhoods that lack identity… Benedict is a Jacksonville University art professor who joined the faculty three years ago. He has built a reputation as a metal sculptor and a public art creator…
For a Miami Dade College student, shift in immigration policy falls short
MiamiHerald.com
Julio Calderon received the news via text message while in class. Tears soon followed. President Barack Obama’s announcement last month that many undocumented immigrant students and military service members would no longer have to fear deportations and could legally work in the United States represented a small victory in four years of advocacy and lobbying on behalf of his classmates.
Succession planning key to family business survival
Orlando Business Journal
Greg McCann, founder of the Stetson University Family Enterprise Center, said family businesses fail due to a lack of planning. It is often difficult to pass on the leadership of the family-owned business to someone else — whether it be a son, a …
Florida panther sensors in Collier County under the ‘scope
The News-Press
Daniel Smith, a researcher in the biology department at UCF, will be putting together a research team from the university very soon, Tower said. Smith was out of the country Friday and couldn’t be reached for comment. A project outline on the UCF website said the team’s goal is to determine how U.S. 41 impacts wildlife mortality, movement and population. The detection system uses sensors that trigger flashing lights to alert motorists there might be an animal on the roadway ahead, Tower said. The UCF team also will be collecting data from a computer and video monitors at the site, she said.
‘Stimulus’ is in the eye of the beholder
Orlando Sentinel
“Yes, we were able to keep these people on payroll for a longer period of time, but at the end of the day, what do we have to show going forward?” said University of Central Florida economist Sean Snaith. “When you build a bridge, you have something more to show.”
2 inducted into Florida Newspaper Hall of Fame
MiamiHerald.com
Ed Barber, who was president and general manager of the Independent Alligator in Gainesville, was made a lifetime member of the FPA…Barber ran the Independent Alligator from 1976 to 2007, where he was known as “Uncle Ed” by the University of Florida students who comprised its staff and is now its president emeritus…
Butterfly count underway
The Courier-Journal
The count is overseen by University of Louisville emeritus professor Charles Covell Jr., who now works at the University of Florida but returns for the census. “In all the years we’ve been doing this, it’s never been this hot,” Covell said of the census that began in 1976 and takes place in early July in Oldham County near Brownsboro. “And the spring has never been this early, and so it’s a most unusual situation … There are butterflies out but people (beyond the census) are reporting fewer than normal at this time of year.”
New UF student body president comes from well-known Coral Gables family
MiamiHerald.com
The new student body president at the University of Florida is a local guy, Coral Gables resident Jose “TJ” Antonio Villamil IV, 22. He says he is the first Hispanic elected to the job. “I am honored to be the first Cuban-American and first Hispanic to be elected Student Body President at UF,” Villamil said in an e-mail. “I am humbled to lead our students through a tough economic climate and hopefully push higher education to be a top priority in our state Legislature. The future of Florida is bright especially when higher education is seen as an investment in the economy of the state.”
Appeals court slams ‘intransigent’ Palmetto Bay council
MiamiHerald.com
Courts often give local officials considerable deference in these decisions, “but when a court has this strong an opinion, even with that deference, the municipality seems to have acted outside the scope of the law. This opinion is strongly worded,” said Brian Adler, an adjunct professor for the University of Miami’s law school and a land-use lawyer with the Bilzin Sumberg firm in Miami. The appeals court’s decision appears to mean that Palmetto Bay must approve the school for 1,150 students…
“The Symbol” – Photographing the Ibiza Wall Lizard
National Geographic
Dr. Nate Dappen, an evolutionary biologist from the University of Miami, has spent the past three summers on Ibiza and Formentera studying the beautiful Ibiza Wall Lizard (Podarcis pityusensis), a colorful lizard species that can only be found here …
David Lawrence Jr., early childhood education advocate, joining the University of Miami School of Education
MiamiHerald.com
Former Miami Herald publisher David Lawrence Jr. will share his expertise and passion in early childhood education with students at the University of Miami.
Doorman denies AUB has Zionist agenda
The Daily Star
The president of the American University of Beirut has denied that the institution has a Zionist agenda after recent such accusations have been leveled at the school. In an email to AUB alumni, students and staff, Peter Dorman also defended the recent decision to award an honorary degree to Donna Shalala, an event which provoked the latest round of criticism, without naming her specifically…The decision to honor Shalala, president of the University of Miami, was criticized before the June 22 ceremony in an open letter entitled, “Can AUB find only those Complicit with Zionism to Honor?” signed by faculty and staff members, due to her support for engagement with Israel. Shalala also has honorary degrees from three Israeli universities…
Jacques Ellul, technology doomsdayer before his time
Boston Globe
Technology moves forward because we let it, he believed, and we let it because we worship it. “Technology becomes our fate only when we treat it as sacred,” says Darrell J. Fasching, a professor emeritus of religious studies at the University of South Florida. “And we tend to do that a lot.”
USF extends coaches Holtz, Heath for three years
Tbo.com
Even though their most recent seasons went in almost completely opposite directions, University of South Florida football coach Skip Holtz and men’s basketball coach Stan Heath got the same reward today: a three-year contract extension…
Ron Paul to blow off Paul Festival for GOP delegates rally
Examiner.com
The candidate also makes it clear that he will not be joining the long list of speakers at Paul Fest and insists, “This event on Sunday, August 26th, at the University of South Florida’s Sun Dome, will be the ONLY pre-Convention event at which I’ll be speaking, so I hope to see you’ll be able to make it.” Ron Paul doesn’t say if he will make any sort of personal appearance at Paul Festival, only that he will not be speaking there.
Developmentally disabled learn virtues of fitness
Tbo.com
Opportunities for exercise and activity end for a lot of individuals when they age out of the school system at 22, said Laurie Woodard, an associate professor of family medicine at the University of South Florida.
Blue Angels turn on beach’s afterburners
Pensacola Business Journal
The air show’s boon for Martin and McCay is typical, said Rod Lewis, director of the University of West Florida’s Haas Center research arm. In fact, Lewis, who’s working on an analysis of the event’s economic impact, said his staff couldn’t find a hotel room along the beach to use as headquarters in conducting the study. “The room prices were obscene,” said Lewis, who added that his group is on a tight budget. “We’re self-funded.” Lewis’ goal is to assess the air show’s effect on a beach tourism and construction industry that he has estimated translates to 2,900 jobs, a labor income of $77 million and roughly $261 million a year in demand for everything from hotel room cleaning services to commercial construction. Despite lacking the definitive statistics about the show’s share of the beach’s overall monetary mass that Lewis hopes to compile, he said, “It’s always been our impression that the air show in terms of sheer revenue is the biggest weekend of the year.”
Releases and Web Stories
FAU Awarded Department of Defense Role
BocaNewsNow.com
BOCA RATON, FL (BocaNewsNow.com) — Florida Atlantic University is certainly on the radar screen of government officials. Proof positive: the school has been named as the grant administrator for the Department of Defense’s “Florida’s Troops To Teachers Program.”
Lynn University Providing Special Program For Underserved Children
BocaNewsNow.com
They will be spending time at Lynn University, home to the Nat King Cole Generation Hope Summer Strings at Lynn. It’s a summer camp that provides elementary …
Buying Good-Looking Products Makes People Feel Better About Themselves …
PR Newswire (press release)
Buying Good-Looking Products Makes People Feel Better About Themselves And More Open-Minded, Says University of Miami Study…
Developing Applications for iOS 5
prMac (press release)
[prMac.com] Pensacola, Florida – This newest ebook by White and Chudzynski available as an iBook for the iPad from Apple’s iTunes Store, for Kindle from Amazon, and for the Nook from Barnes and Noble. This book is intended to get new iOS developers started creating apps of their own for the App Store using iOS 5….Laura J. White is an Assistant Professor in the Computer Science Department, and Program Director for Software Engineering at the University of West Florida. She has been teaching at the University of West Florida since 1993…Janusz Chudzynski is a Software Engineer and iPhone Programmer for the Academic Technology Center at theUniversity of West Florida, where he is continually engaged in the development of innovative applications using various technologies in the support of learning and research in learning…
