Best of Florida Schools 2002

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“When I walk behind the president, vice president, or just about any teacher and they see a candy paper on the path, they’ll pick it up and put it in the trash,” says Michelle Abaldo, director of institutional advancement. “Students and others see them doing it and get in the spirit. The members of custodial staff are part of what’s important to the institution. It’s not just a cosmetic clean-up. There’s a lot of pride in the appearance.”Abaldo says a “Pride Award” is given annually to the department that exhibits exceptional pride in its work—members of the custodial department and buildings and grounds team, led by Carl Warnock, director of physical plant, have earned honors in 1993, 1995, and 1999--more often than any other staff division.

The Health Science Center probably is IRCC’s “showcase” structure, a state-of-the art medical teaching facility unveiled in 1999. Other key administrative and classroom buildings feature a harmony of colors—the traditional academic red-brick theme but enlivened with vibrant blue, which adds a contemporary flair, Abaldo says.

Runner-Up
Students could literally get lost in the forest at Lake City Community College. While most two-year campuses remain barren of mature trees and bake in the hot summer months, this heavily-shaded North Florida school is nestled on 100-acres of native pines, azaleas, cypress, and crape myrtles. “I can’t tell you how many groups have said how beautiful our campus is,” says Sonja Yarbrough, director of public information. “The college built around the natural landscape and worked through nature rather than reestablished new landscaping. Also, we’re on the edge of the Osceola National Forest and have a lot of old growth pines. The tree coverage adds to naturalness of campus. We have preserved a lot of the trees because we started as a forestry school. The landscape club studies these trees. Our plants and grounds have been really upgraded.”

“Every year, our campus FACC chapter has a clean-up prior to the start of school-- we pick up all garbage and cigarette butts. It’s a whole day thing, Then we have a pizza party and the president lets us have a few extra hours off. So we have a spic-and-span clean campus when students come back.”

Best-Looking Campus—Public Universities
Winner
The osprey is king and wildlife rules at the University of North Florida. The beauty of the Jacksonville school lies in its natural woods surrounding a compact campus. From the center of the circular campus, visitors can barely tell they’re actually in the heart of one of Florida’s largest metropolitan areas. “Because of the way it’s developed, we have left undeveloped large sections of our 1,200 acres,” Dundon says. “Most universities are more spread out, and they have developed more of their land and parcels. Here, you can walk easily anywhere on campus.”

UNF’s development around a hub, like a great wheel, with a series of wooded trails circling classrooms, residence halls, and administrative structures. “That’s the first thing you see,” Dundon says. “You see the nature area, lake, and trails.”

Florida Leader repeatedly has honored UNF for its campus beauty over the years, but despite the recent addition of a new Fine Arts Center, which instantly became a visual landmark, and groundbreaking for the new Science & Engineering Building for laboratories and classrooms, the serene setting has remained relatively undisturbed. “The network of trails hasn’t increased dramatically, but the infrastructure is better. We’re increased the number of boardwalk trails,” Dundon says. “We use the nature area as a kind of biology lab. We have one faculty member and students who have been studying mosquitoes and determining and classifying them. And we have other faculty in the health department who have used nature to research Lyme disease. They use it more as a living laboratory. It’s used extensively by hundreds of schools, so it services the community.”

Dundon says President Anne Hopkins has made a concerted effort to beautify the campus since she became president. “And it does show in a number of ways, including improved landscaping, more park benches, more trees, and a cleaner campus,” Dundon says. “However, her major contribution to the natural setting, which is not as visible to most students, is her insistence that no roads be built through a nature area. A revised master plan removed a road that had been planned through an undeveloped part of campus and preserves this land for nature studies by faculty and staff."

“We’re an island of tranquility in an urban setting,” Dundon says. “I really think we’re one of the most beautiful campuses I’ve seen.” Contact Dundon at ddundon@unf.edu or visit www.unf.edu.

“The campus has the same sense of community,” she says. “We have a central green, which is a gathering place. The campus is also nestled on Lake Virginia, which affords you artistic qualities and beautiful sunsets. Historically, the campus turned its back on the lake, but in the last decade, much effort has been made to create new vistas to the lake and enhance existing ones.” Varga says Rollins recently added two new lakeside gazebos, complete with electricity and internet access for laptop computers.”

Rollins may be one of the few examples where development has enhanced the aesthetic value of campus. The new Cornell Campus Center is the school’s showpiece structure, featuring a breathtaking view of the lake from the dining area. Also, the new Harold & Ted Alfond Sports Center is state-of-the-art. “The addition of these facilities hasn’t hindered campus beauty,” Varga says. “We’ve had architects from all over come here and tell us that it’s outstanding.”

The Spanish Mediterranean architecture throughout the Rollins campus represents the Florida style and climate in the days before air conditioning, featuring breezeways and open-air hallways. “Rollins is a themed campus,” Varga says. To complement the architecture, Grounds Manager David Gennaro uses both indigenous and naturalized plants, including azaleas and camellias, as well as hibiscus, iris, birds of paradise, and bougainvillea.

Florida Leader noticed major strides over the past two years in the overall landscaping beauty, which Varga says is not coincidental. “Three to four years ago, we began to simplify the landscape to make it easier to maintain. For example, plants were put in their proper place [sunlight vs. shade] and less plant variety was used in the same plant beds,” she says. “Seventy percent of our irrigation comes from Lake Virginia, which helps with water conservation."

“It’s a pedestrian campus. Cars aren’t a big part of campus and you can get around by foot,” Varga says. “The natural part of campus reduces stress. We have a balance of green space and architecture. There’s been great attention given to keeping the campus beautiful and manicured—the facilities have been enhanced in the last decade.”

As Dean of Admissions Dave Erdmann says, “Perspective parents and students are particularly impressed with the safe, community feeling of campus because there’s no main road that runs through campus and the ‘peninsula’ that’s formed by Lake Virginia’s presence on two sides.”

Runner-Up
In St. Augustine, Flagler College is not only beautiful, it’s unique. “It has an ambience that blends perfectly with the rest of historic St. Augustine, the nation's oldest city,” says Laurin Bosse, director of public relations. “Its creator, Henry M. Flagler, the millionaire developer, railroad magnate, and oil tycoon, spared no expense to make the Ponce de Leon Hotel, now the college, the focal point of the town. He said he wanted the building ‘to last 100 years.’ To his credit, it has.”

Bosse says Flagler students actually live and work in a museum. “They eat in a grand dining hall which features stained glass windows by Louis Comfort Tiffany, the interior decorator of the old hotel, and beneath stunning allegorical murals by George W. Maynard,” she says. “They attend lectures in the Flagler Room, once the grand ballroom, where a gold and onyx clock designed by Thomas Alva Edison stands as one of the first examples of its type in a public building. All around them are terra cotta and tile representations of whimsy and inspiration by John Carrere and Thomas Hastings, the two young architects who designed the Spanish Renaissance Revival masterpiece, which opened in 1888.”

Bosse says new additions, such as the $13-million Proctor Library, blend with the 13 other historic structures. “The effect is one of visual unity yet functional for the modern student,” she says. While the gilt and the frescos are beautiful and the 75 Tiffany stained glass windows are breathtaking, Flagler presents a welcoming campus with grassy areas, park benches, an outdoor pavilion, and a 200-year-old oak tree around which students congregate, study, and socialize. The effect is one of harmony, blending past and present.” WHOJ

Best Commencement Speeches
Every grad at Webber International University can expect the personal treatment from President Rex Yentes. When introducing Webber’s new graduates, Yentes often includes a personal, often moving, commentary. Even though there are about 150 fall and spring grads, “he really does know about each students,” says Jennifer Andrews, admissions counselor.

At tiny Beacon College in Leesburg, President Deborah Brodbeck personally knows each of the school’s six graduates each semester. She tailors her commencement remarks to talk about each student’s strengths and victories and also reminisces with funny and heartfelt stories. For many of Beacon’s 62 students, all of whom have learning disabilities, commencement means more than any other achievement so far in their lives, Brodbeck says. So Beacon’s commencement is packed with 200 parents, friends, relatives, faculty, staff, and fellow students.

It’s a...Student Government!
Congrats to the Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale on its new arrival, Student Government. Weighing in at approximately 40 students, this SG has already created innovative ways to keep their members motivated. AiFL students are expected to be creative, whether they’re studying to be a master chef or a computer animator, and all those creative juices have spilled over into the new SG. “They’ve instituted a point system,” says Joel Nemes, coordinator of student affairs. “When [SG members] put in hours at meetings or events, they get points for participation.” At the end of the quarter, SG members with the most points are awarded with certificates of recognition and are invited to lunch with the school’s president. They can even be chosen to represent the school at cool events like a local television station’s telethon. Nemes says, “The point system urges all SG members to get involved in something.” MCB

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