Florida
Florida is the southernmost contiguous state in the United States. The state is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the south by the Straits of Florida. Florida is the 22nd-most extensive, the 3rd-most populous, the 8th-most densely populated of the U. S. states. Jacksonville is the most populous municipality in the state and the largest city by area in the contiguous United States; the Miami metropolitan area is Florida's most populous urban area. Tallahassee is the state's capital. Florida's $1.0 trillion economy is the fourth largest in the United States. If it were a country, Florida would be the 16th largest economy in the world, the 58th most populous as of 2018. In 2017, Florida's per capita personal income was ranking 26th in the nation; the unemployment rate in September 2018 was 3.5% and ranked as the 18th in the United States. Florida exports nearly $55 billion in goods made in the 8th highest among all states.
The Miami Metropolitan Area is by far the largest urban economy in Florida and the 12th largest in the United States with a GDP of $344.9 billion as of 2017. This is more than twice the number of the next metro area, the Tampa Bay Area, which has a GDP of $145.3 billion. Florida is home to 51 of the world's billionaires with most of them residing in South Florida; the first European contact was made in 1513 by Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de León, who called it la Florida upon landing there in the Easter season, known in Spanish as Pascua Florida. Florida was a challenge for the European colonial powers before it gained statehood in the United States in 1845, it was a principal location of the Seminole Wars against the Native Americans, racial segregation after the American Civil War. Today, Florida is distinctive for its large Cuban expatriate community and high population growth, as well as for its increasing environmental issues; the state's economy relies on tourism and transportation, which developed in the late 19th century.
Florida is renowned for amusement parks, orange crops, winter vegetables, the Kennedy Space Center, as a popular destination for retirees. Florida is the flattest state in the United States. Lake Okeechobee is the largest freshwater lake in the U. S. state of Florida. Florida's close proximity to the ocean influences many aspects of daily life. Florida is a reflection of multiple inheritance. Florida has attracted many writers such as Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, Ernest Hemingway and Tennessee Williams, continues to attract celebrities and athletes, it is internationally known for golf, auto racing, water sports. Several beaches in Florida have emerald-colored coastal waters. About two-thirds of Florida occupies a peninsula between the Gulf of the Atlantic Ocean. Florida has the longest coastline in the contiguous United States 1,350 miles, not including the contribution of the many barrier islands. Florida has a total of 4,510 islands; this is the second-highest number of islands of any state of the United States.
It is the only state that borders both the Gulf of the Atlantic Ocean. Much of the state is characterized by sedimentary soil. Florida has the lowest high point of any U. S. state. The climate varies from subtropical in the north to tropical in the south; the American alligator, American crocodile, American flamingo, Roseate spoonbill, Florida panther, bottlenose dolphin, manatee can be found in Everglades National Park in the southern part of the state. Along with Hawaii, Florida is one of only two states that has a tropical climate, is the only continental state with either a tropical climate or a coral reef; the Florida Reef is the only living coral barrier reef in the continental United States, the third-largest coral barrier reef system in the world. By the 16th century, the earliest time for which there is a historical record, major Native American groups included the Apalachee of the Florida Panhandle, the Timucua of northern and central Florida, the Ais of the central Atlantic coast, the Tocobaga of the Tampa Bay area, the Calusa of southwest Florida and the Tequesta of the southeastern coast.
Florida was the first region of the continental United States to be visited and settled by Europeans. The earliest known European explorers came with the Spanish conquistador Juan Ponce de León. Ponce de León spotted and landed on the peninsula on April 2, 1513, he named the region Florida. The story that he was searching for the Fountain of Youth is mythical and only appeared long after his death. In May 1539, Conquistador Hernando de Soto skirted the coast of Florida, searching for a deep harbor to land, he described seeing a thick wall of red mangroves spread mile after mile, some reaching as high as 70 feet, with intertwined and elevated roots making landing difficult. The Spanish introduced Christianity, horses, the Castilian language, more to Florida. Spain established several settlements with varying degrees of success. In 1559, Don Tristán de Luna y Arellano established a settlement at present-day Pensacola, making it the first attempted settlement in Florida, but it was abandoned by 1561.
In 1565, the settlement of St. Augustine was established under the leadership of admiral and
Florida State University
Florida State University is a public space-grant and sea-grant research university in Tallahassee, Florida. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida. Founded in 1851, it is located on the oldest continuous site of higher education in the state of Florida; the university is classified as a Research University with Very High Research by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. The university comprises 16 separate colleges and more than 110 centers, facilities and institutes that offer more than 360 programs of study, including professional school programs; the university has an annual budget of over $1.7 billion and an annual economic impact of over $10 billion. Florida State is home to Florida's only National Laboratory, the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory, is the birthplace of the commercially viable anti-cancer drug Taxol. Florida State University operates The John & Mable Ringling Museum of Art, the State Art Museum of Florida and one of the largest museum/university complexes in the nation.
The university is accredited by the Southern Association of Schools. For 2019, U. S. News & World Report ranked Florida State as the 26th best public university in the United States in the national university category. Florida State University is one of Florida's three state-designated "preeminent universities." FSU's intercollegiate sports teams known by their "Florida State Seminoles" nickname, compete in National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I and the Atlantic Coast Conference. In their 113-year history, Florida State's varsity sports teams have won 20 national athletic championships and Seminole athletes have won 78 individual NCAA national championships. In 1819 the Florida Territory was ceded to the United States by Spain as an element of the Adams–Onís Treaty; the Territory was conventionally split by the Appalachicola or the Suwannee rivers into East and West areas. Florida State University is traceable to a plan set by the 1823 U. S. Congress to create a system of higher education.
The 1838 Florida Constitution codified the basic system by providing for land allocated for the schools. In 1845 Florida became the 27th State of the United States, which permitted the resources and intent of the 1823 Congress regarding education in Florida to be implemented; the Legislature of the State of Florida, in a Legislative Act of January 24, 1851, provided for the establishment of the two institutions of learning on opposite sides of the Suwannee River. The Legislature declared the purpose of these institutions to be "the instruction of persons, both male and female, in the art of teaching all the various branches that pertain to a good common school education. By 1854 the City of Tallahassee had established a school for boys called the Florida Institute, with the hope that the State could be induced to take it over as one of the seminaries. In 1856, Tallahassee Mayor Francis W. Eppes again offered the Institute's land and building to the Legislature; the bill to locate the Seminary in Tallahassee passed both houses and was signed by the Governor on January 1, 1857.
On February 7, 1857, the first meeting of the Board of Education of the State Seminary West of the Suwannee River was held, the institution began offering post-secondary instruction to male students. Francis Eppes served as President of the Seminary's Board of Education for eight years. In 1858 the seminary absorbed the Tallahassee Female Academy, established in 1843, became coeducational; the West Florida Seminary was located on the former Florida Institute property, a hill where the historic Westcott Building now stands. The location is the oldest continuously used site of higher education in Florida; the area west of the state Capitol and ominously known as Gallows Hill, a place for public executions in early Tallahassee. In 1860–61 the legislature started formal military training at the school with a law amending the original 1851 statute. During the Civil War, the seminary became The Florida Collegiate Institute. Enrollment at the school increased to around 250 students with the school establishing itself as the largest and most respected educational institution in the state.
Cadets from the school defeated Union forces at the Battle of Natural Bridge in 1865, leaving Tallahassee as the only Confederate capital east of the Mississippi River not to fall to Union forces. The students were trained by Valentine Mason Johnson, a graduate of Virginia Military Institute, a professor of mathematics and the chief administrator of the college. After the fall of the Confederacy, campus buildings were occupied by Union military forces for four months and the West Florida Seminary reverted to its former academic purpose. In recognition of the cadets, their pivotal role in the battle, the Florida State University Army ROTC cadet corps displays a battle streamer bearing the words "NATURAL BRIDGE 1865" with its flag; the FSU Army ROTC is one of only four collegiate military units in the United States with permission to display such a pennant. In 1883 the institution, now long known as the West Florida Seminary, was organized by the Board of Education as The Literary College of the University of Florida.
The legislative act passed in 1885, bestowing upon the institution the title of the University of Florida, has never been repealed. Under the new university charter, the seminary became the institution's Literary College, was to contain several "schools" or departments in different disciplines. However, in the new university association the seminary'
University of Florida
The University of Florida is an American public land-grant, sea-grant, space-grant research university in Gainesville, United States. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida; the university traces its origins to 1853 and has operated continuously on its Gainesville campus since September 1906. The University of Florida is one of sixty-two elected member institutions of the Association of American Universities, the association of preeminent North American research universities, the only AAU member university in Florida; the university is classified as a Research University with Very High Research by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. After the Florida state legislature's creation of performance standards in 2013, the Florida Board of Governors designated the University of Florida as one of the three "preeminent universities" among the twelve universities of the State University System of Florida. For 2019, U. S. News & World Report ranked Florida as the eighth best public university in the United States.
The university is accredited by the Southern Association of Schools. It is the third largest Florida university by student population, is the eighth largest single-campus university in the United States with 54,906 students enrolled for the fall 2018 semester; the University of Florida is home to sixteen academic colleges and more than 150 research centers and institutes. It offers multiple graduate professional programs—including business administration, law, medicine and veterinary medicine—on one contiguous campus, administers 123 master's degree programs and seventy-six doctoral degree programs in eighty-seven schools and departments; the university's seal is the seal of the state of Florida, on the state flag. The University of Florida's intercollegiate sports teams known by their "Florida Gators" nickname, compete in National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I and the Southeastern Conference. In their 111-year history, the university's varsity sports teams have won 41 national team championships, 36 of which are NCAA titles, Florida athletes have won 275 individual national championships.
In addition, University of Florida students and alumni have won 126 Olympic medals including 60 gold medals. The University of Florida traces its origins to 1853, when the East Florida Seminary, the oldest of the University of Florida's four predecessor institutions, was founded in Ocala, Florida. On January 6, 1853, Governor Thomas Brown signed a bill that provided public support for higher education in Florida. Gilbert Kingsbury was the first person to take advantage of the legislation, established the East Florida Seminary, which operated until the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861; the East Florida Seminary was Florida's first state-supported institution of higher learning. James Henry Roper, an educator from North Carolina and a state senator from Alachua County, had opened a school in Gainesville, the Gainesville Academy, in 1858. In 1866, Roper offered his land and school to the State of Florida in exchange for the East Florida Seminary's relocation to Gainesville; the second major precursor to the University of Florida was the Florida Agricultural College, established at Lake City by Jordan Probst in 1884.
Florida Agricultural College became the state's first land-grant college under the Morrill Act. In 1903, the Florida Legislature, desiring to expand the school's outlook and curriculum beyond its agricultural and engineering origins, changed the name of Florida Agricultural College to the "University of Florida," a name the school would hold for only two years. In 1905, the Florida Legislature passed the Buckman Act, which consolidated the state's publicly supported higher education institutions; the member of the legislature who wrote the act, Henry Holland Buckman became the namesake of Buckman Hall, one of the first buildings constructed on the new university's campus. The Buckman Act organized the State University System of Florida and created the Florida Board of Control to govern the system, it abolished the six pre-existing state-supported institutions of higher education, consolidated the assets and academic programs of four of them to form the new "University of the State of Florida."
The four predecessor institutions consolidated to form the new university included the University of Florida at Lake City in Lake City, the East Florida Seminary in Gainesville, the St. Petersburg Normal and Industrial School in St. Petersburg, the South Florida Military College in Bartow; the Buckman Act consolidated the colleges and schools into three institutions segregated by race and gender—the University of the State of Florida for white men, the Florida Female College for white women, the State Normal School for Colored Students for African-American men and women. The City of Gainesville, led by its Mayor William Reuben Thomas, campaigned to be home to the new university. On July 6, 1905, the Board of Control selected Gainesville for the new university campus. Andrew Sledd, president of the pre-existing University of Florida at Lake City, was selected to be the first president of the new University of the State of Florida; the 1905-1906 academic year was a year of transition. Architect William A. Edwards designed the first official campus buildings in the Collegiate Gothic style.
Classes began on the new Gainesville campus with 102 students enrolled. In 1909, the school's name
Chancellor (education)
A chancellor is a leader of a college or university either the executive or ceremonial head of the university or of a university campus within a university system. In most Commonwealth and former Commonwealth nations, the chancellor is a ceremonial non-resident head of the university. In such institutions, the chief executive of a university is the vice-chancellor, who may carry an additional title, such as "president & vice-chancellor"; the chancellor may serve as chairman of the governing body. In many countries, the administrative and educational head of the university is known as the president, principal or rector. In the United States, the head of a university is most a university president. In U. S. university systems that have more than one affiliated university or campus, the executive head of a specific campus may have the title of chancellor and report to the overall system's president, or vice versa. In both Australia and New Zealand, a chancellor is the chairman of a university's governing body.
The chancellor is assisted by a deputy chancellor. The chancellor and deputy chancellor are drawn from the senior ranks of business or the judiciary; some universities have a visitor, senior to the chancellor. University disputes can be appealed from the governing board to the visitor, but nowadays, such appeals are prohibited by legislation, the position has only ceremonial functions; the vice-chancellor serves as the chief executive of the university. Macquarie University in Sydney is a noteworthy anomaly as it once had the unique position of Emeritus Deputy Chancellor, a post created for John Lincoln upon his retirement from his long-held post of deputy chancellor in 2000; the position was not an honorary title, as it retained for Lincoln a place in the University Council until his death in 2011. Canadian universities and British universities in Scotland have a titular chancellor similar to those in England and Wales, with day-to-day operations handled by a principal. In Scotland, for example, the chancellor of the University of Edinburgh is Anne, Princess Royal, whilst the current chancellor of the University of Aberdeen is Camilla, Duchess of Rothesay.
In Canada, the vice-chancellor carries the joint title of "president and vice-chancellor" or "rector and vice-chancellor." Scottish principals carry the title of "principal and vice-chancellor." In Scotland, the title and post of rector is reserved to the third ranked official of university governance. The position exists in common throughout the five ancient universities of Scotland with rectorships in existence at the universities of St Andrews, Aberdeen and Dundee, considered to have ancient status as a result of its early connections to the University of St Andrews; the position of Lord Rector was given legal standing by virtue of the Universities Act 1889. Rectors appoint a rector's assessor a deputy or stand-in, who may carry out their functions when they are absent from the university; the Rector chairs meetings of the university court, the governing body of the university, is elected by the matriculated student body at regular intervals. An exception exists at Edinburgh, where the Rector is elected by staff.
In Finland, if the university has a chancellor, he is the leading official in the university. The duties of the chancellor are to promote sciences and to look after the best interests of the university; as the rector of the university remains the de facto administrative leader and chief executive official, the role of the chancellor is more of a social and historical nature. However some administrative duties still belong to the chancellor's jurisdiction despite their arguably ceremonial nature. Examples of these include the appointment of new docents; the chancellor of University of Helsinki has the notable right to be present and to speak in the plenary meetings of the Council of State when matters regarding the university are discussed. Despite his role as the chancellor of only one university, he is regarded as the political representative of Finland's entire university institution when he exercises his rights in the Council of State. In the history of Finland the office of the chancellor dates all the way back to the Swedish Empire, the Russian Empire.
The chancellor's duty was to function as the official representative of the monarch in the autonomous university. The number of chancellors in Finnish universities has declined over the years, in vast majority of Finnish universities the highest official is the rector; the remaining universities with chancellors are University of Åbo Akademi University. In France, chancellor is one of the titles of the rector, a senior civil servant of the Ministry of Education serving as manager of a regional educational district. In his capacity as chancellor, the rector awards academic degrees to the university's gradua
Charles B. Reed
Charles Bass Reed served as chancellor of the State University System of Florida from 1985 to 1998 and chancellor of the California State University system from 1998 to 2012. Born in Harrisburg, Reed grew up in Waynesburg and was the eldest of seven children, his father, a graduate of the University of Notre Dame, was a civil engineer and construction supervisor. Reed played football in high school, he earned a full athletic scholarship to George Washington University and received three degrees there: a B. S. in physical education, M. A. in secondary education, Ed. D. in teacher education. From 1984 to 1985, Reed was chief of staff for Florida Governor Bob Graham. From 1985 to 1998, Reed served as the chancellor of the State University System of Florida; as the former chancellor of the California State University system, Reed oversaw 44,000 faculty and staff and 427,000 students on 23 campuses and seven off-campus centers. The CSU, which spans the entire state of California, had an annual budget of more than $5 billion at its peak, but recent budget cuts have reduced this figure.
An appointed Board of Trustees adopts rules and policies governing the CSU. In March 2012, Reed was awarded the prestigious TIAA-CREF Hesburgh Award for Leadership Excellence, named in honor of the Rev. Theodore M. Hesburgh, C. S. C. president emeritus of the University of Notre Dame. In deciding the award, the judges cited Reed’s commitment to students as chancellor of the CSU, where he has steered the system’s 23 campuses through state budget cuts while meeting the complex demands of increasing enrollment. In addition, they highlighted Reed's efforts to build collaborative partnerships and award-winning outreach programs – those dedicated to students from underserved backgrounds – that have received national acclaim, they acknowledged his support of a number of multi-campus initiatives to improve research and instruction, benefit local businesses and communities. Reed pledged the $20,000 prize from the Hesburgh Award to the William Randolph Hearst CSU Trustee’s Scholarship fund, he and his wife Cathy have donated $90,000 to the scholarship fund since 1998.
In 2008, Reed was awarded the Harold W. McGraw, Jr. Prize in Education for his work in paving the way for increased higher education access and success for U. S. students. Judges noted his efforts to reach out to students from under-represented African American, Native American and Asian populations. One indicator of success was an increase of 6.5 percent in the enrollment of African American students at the CSU from 2006 to 2007. Reed is credited for his strong outreach to K-12 and incoming college students. During his tenure, he led the creation of the Early Assessment Program, a partnership with the California Department of Education and California's State Board of Education to provide an early warning system on students' readiness for college; this statewide assessment is designed to test students’proficiency in mathematics and English and to reduce the likelihood that students will have to take remedial classes once they enter college. The program embeds a voluntary college-placement exam in the state testing program required of all 11th-grade students, using the CSU’s admissions placement standards in math and English.
The “early” component of the program—testing in the 11th grade, rather than the 12th—-provides students an opportunity to make gains in areas of weakness during their senior year. It was cited by the Commission on the Future of Higher Education as "one of the best national models of how higher-education and K–12 officials can collaborate to help students."Reed has led the CSU in outreach to students from traditionally under-served populations. During his tenure, the CSU created the Super Sunday outreach program, which aims to provide college information to students and their families at predominantly African-American churches throughout California. In February 2012, more than 100 Super Sunday events were held throughout the state, reaching more than 100,000 churchgoers; the annual Super Sunday effort appears to have made an impact. In 2005, Reed helped the CSU secure one of the most significant changes since the formation of the university system in 1960: the statutory authority to grant the independent doctor of education degree in educational leadership.
Thirteen CSU campuses offer the Ed. D. with three more programs in the planning process or in joint programs. These doctoral programs are directly responsive to regional needs and are characterized by strong partnerships with P-12 and community college practitioners. 702 educational leaders are enrolled in these programs. During his administration, the CSU developed an integrated technology system for all the campuses and the Chancellor's Office, which became known as the Common Management System or CMS. Prior to the CMS project, the campuses had individual "legacy" systems in the areas of financials and student administration, but no system in human resources; the systems differed by campus, were antiquated, were not integrated. They did not provide the level of service needed to run a system of the size and scope of the CSU, it was concluded that it was more cost-effective and beneficial to acquire and implement a new system co
Florida International University
Florida International University is a metropolitan public research university in Greater Miami, Florida. FIU has two major campuses in Miami-Dade County, with its main campus in University Park. Florida International University is classified as a research university with highest research activity by the Carnegie Foundation and a research university by the Florida Legislature. FIU belongs to the 12-campus State University System of Florida and is one of Florida's primary graduate research universities, awarding over 3,400 graduate and professional degrees annually; the university offers 191 programs of study with more than 280 majors in schools. FIU offers many graduate programs, including architecture, business administration, engineering and medicine, offering 81 master's degrees, 34 doctoral degrees, 3 professional degrees. FIU is the largest university in South Florida, the second-largest in Florida, the fourth-largest in the United States by enrollment. Total enrollment in Fall 2016 was 55,112 students, including 8,770 graduate students.
According to U. S. News college rankings and reviews, 92% of FIU students live off-campus while only 8% of students live in "college-owned, college-operated or college-affiliated" housing; the story of Florida International University's founding began in 1943, when state Senator Ernest'Cap' Graham presented the state legislature with the initial proposal for the establishment of a public university in South Florida. While his bill did not pass, Graham persisted in presenting his proposal to colleagues, advising them of Miami's need for a state university, he felt the establishment of a public university was necessary to serve the city's growing population. In 1964, Senate Bill 711 was introduced by Florida Senator Robert M. Haverfield, it instructed the state Board of Education and the Board of Regents, to begin planning for the development of a state university in Miami. The bill was signed into law by then-governor W. Haydon Burns in June 1965, marking FIU's official founding. FIU's founding president Charles "Chuck" Perry was appointed by the Board of Regents in July 1969 after a nationwide search.
At 32 years old, the new president was the youngest in the history of the State University System and, at the time, the youngest university president in the country. Perry recruited Butler Waugh, Donald McDowell and Nick Sileo. Alvah Chapman, Jr. former Miami Herald publisher and Knight Ridder chairman, used his civic standing and media power to assist the effort. In the 1980s, Chapman became chair of the FIU Foundation Board of Trustees; the founders located the campus on the site of the original Tamiami Airport on the Tamiami Trail between Southwest 107th and 117th Avenues, just east of where the West Dade Expressway was being planned. The abandoned airport's air traffic control tower became FIU's first building, it had no telephones, no drinking water, no furniture. Perry decided that the tower should never be destroyed, it remains on campus, where it is now known variously as the "Veterans Office," "Ivory Tower," the "Tower Building," or the "Public Safety Tower," and is the former location of the FIU Police Department.
In September 1972, 5,667 students entered the new state university, the largest opening day enrollment at the time. Miami had been the largest city in the country lacking a public baccalaureate-granting institution. Eighty percent of the student body had just graduated from Dade County Junior College. A typical student entering FIU was 25 years old and attending school full-time while holding down a full-time job. Forty-three percent were married. Negotiations with the University of Miami and Dade County Junior College led FIU to open as an upper-division only school, it would be nine years. The first commencement, held in June 1973, took place in the reading room of the ground floor of Primera Casa – the only place large enough on campus for the ceremony. More than 1,500 family members and friends watched FIU's first class of 191 graduates receive their diplomas. By late 1975, after seven years at the helm, Charles Perry felt he had accomplished his goal and left the university to become president and publisher of the Sunday newspaper magazine Family Weekly, one of the country's largest magazines.
When he left, there were more than 10,000 students attending classes and a campus with five major buildings and a sixth being planned. Harold Crosby, the university's second president and the founding president of the University of West Florida in Pensacola, agreed in 1976 to serve a three-year "interim" term. Under his leadership, FIU's North Miami Campus – located on the former Interama site on Biscayne Bay – was opened in 1977. State Senator Jack Gordon was instrumental in securing funding for the development of the campus. President Crosby emphasized the university's international character, prompting the launching of new programs with an international focus and the recruitment of faculty from the Caribbean and Latin America. President Crosby's resignation in January 1979 triggered the search for a "permanent" president. Gregory Baker Wolfe, a former United States diplomat and then-president of Portland State University became FIU's third president, from 1979 to 1986. After stepping down as president, Wolfe taught in the university's international relations department.
The student union on the Biscayne Bay Campus is named in his honor
