Best of
Florida Schools 2003
General Categories—Page
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Best Campus Housing
FGCU’s “Club Med”
Students call it “Club Med” after the opulent
Caribbean resort, and rightfully so—on-campus housing at Florida Gulf
Coast University is top-notch. Looking out over a grassy field to a
60-acre lake, residents are only yards away from the free luxury water
activities such as skiing, canoeing, kayaking, and sailing.
Unlike many other campuses’ dorms, all of FGCU’s housing is built in apartment style with each unit including two bathrooms, a fully equipped kitchen and spacious living room. The four students per apartment and can choose to have individual bedrooms or share with one other student.
As at other universities, the office of housing and residence life also schedules social events. This past fall, students got decked out in their Hawaiian shirts, hula skirts, and flowery leis to attend the “Housing Luau.” Other events include Resident Advisor (R.A.) banquets, R.A. Karaoke nights, and “Eagle Spirit”—a challenge from the athletic department to the residents to bring school spirit to basketball games.
The commons is open until midnight to let students socialize around the 52” big-screen television with surround sound, enjoy a video game area fully equipped with a PlayStation 2 and games, and relax in the screened-in patio with a barbecue grill and a pool, use a game room with pool, ping pong, cable television, vending machines, and much more. During finals week, students are re-energized by free refreshments.
“At FGCU, we’re ‘setting the standard for residential living’,” says Michelle Lassiter, resident director. —EG
Contact Lassiter at housing@fgcu.edu.
Best School
Cheer
Rattlers Are Striking Out
It’s a sound that strikes fear into any Florida traveler—the telltale
hissing and rattling of a diamondback. Hoping to strike fear into their
opponents at games, Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University
Rattler fans hiss in unison. The school’s mascot, the Rattler, was chosen
when the school’s original founders built the campus on a 419-acre tract
infested with rattlesnakes.
“The hissing generates a lot of excitement for Rattler fans,” says LaNedra Carroll, director of public affairs. “It causes our opponents to take notice.”
While hissing, students form a snake shape with their hands and then do a striking-out motion with their arms. “The hiss unites the group, and it gets very intense,” Carroll says. —CA
Best
International Month
SFCC’s Small World, Big Festival
Usually, only Jeopardy winners know the cuisine of Burundi or the
wedding customs of Tibet. But Santa Fe Community College students,
who spent October celebrating and exploring the cultures of the world in all
their many facets during the International Festival, would give Alex Trebek
a run for his money.
The gala kicked off with “Weddings Around the World,” an exhibition featuring wedding dresses from China, Japan, Nigeria, and India with information about the garb and other customs of the ceremonies. “We wanted to open the month with a ceremony,” says Myrna Cabrera-Rivero, coordinator of the Multicultural Student Center and organizer of the month’s events. “We wanted to include as many people as possible culturally, including the U.S.”
Library Director Myra Sterret served as contact to Native American tribes, and an opening ceremony took shape as President Jackson Sasser and Layne, his wife of 31 years, made the wedding event real with a renewal of their vows. The vows were officiated by Dr. Rick Knight, a Creek tribal elder and executive director of the First American Culture Center. “The event was done for symbolic reasons, to bring attention to International Month, but then for us personally, it was a serious moment, a real, true reaffirmation of our vows of marriage,” Sasser says. “And as evidence of the seriousness of it, I don’t think there’s ever been a quieter moment on campus in the history of this college!”
Students experienced the music and films of other cultures and heard the native tongues of international students, whose original work was showcased in an evening’s poetry reading. And do you know where the rubber band was invented? (London, England, in 1845.) The exhibition “International Inventions” showed where it, plus the aqualung (France), adhesive tape (Scotland), and aerosol cans (Norway) began.
But Cabrera-Rivero says the high point was the “Taste of the World” food festival. “Our cafeteria service went all out—we had egg rolls, tabouleh, ravioli, mojo pork, and Greek salad, and we had students bring dishes from Venezuela, Korea, Japan—FACC (Florida Association of Community Colleges) even brought apple pie,” she says. Of the 380 students who attended, Cabrera-Rivero says none were shy about trying new foods. “They were all trying different things and talking. You know, the idea is to learn and grow from each other!”
Next year, Cabrera-Rivero hopes to have speakers, presenters, and artists representing even more countries. She says she’s glad SFCC created such an ambitious event this year. “I went to the president, and he said, ‘Why just have this for two or three days?’” she says. “When we decided to have more activities, that’s when we decided to go all out.” —SRR
Contact Cabrera-Rivero at 325-395-5807.
Best
Communicators
SUMP-thing’s up at Florida Southern
Extra, extra, read all about it…your mom already has! At
Florida Southern College, everyone knows each other’s business.
Students, alumni, athletic fans, and even parents keep in touch and
up-to-date through official electronic weekly newsletters.
The alumni newsletter, Southern SUMP-thing, is named after a popular FSC hangout and highlights campus happenings, alumni events and updates, and favorite alumni memories. "Many read it when they receive it, others tell me they savor it all week long,” says Shari Szabo, director of alumni relations. “It’s been a great tool to, as I put it, ‘cultivate, motivate, and communicate.’” Almost 5,000 alumni stay in touch through “Southern SUMP-thing.”
Another 400 supporters of Moccasin athletics subscribe to Snake Bytes, a weekly newsletter with updates on the accomplishments of the school’s NCAA Division II athletic program. “Whenever any student-athlete receives any kind of honor or breaks any school records, that’s usually the lead note,” says Wayne Koehler, assistant webmaster, who started SnakeBytes last fall. “I’ve featured student-athletes and staff members for things outside the athletic field as well such as students working with Habitat for Humanity or staff members competing in a local marathon—something that fans would not get from reading the local sports section,” he says.
Lastly, the yet-to-be-named parent newsletter helps Florida Southern parents get track of just what their kids are up to. Well, not exactly, but the newsletter does inform parents about campus events to help jumpstart conversations with their children. It also gives helpful hints on how to handle a relationship with those always-changing and often uncommunicative college students. —AT
Contact Szabo at Sszabo@flsouthern.edu, or visit www.flsouthern.edu/sid/snakebytes.htm.
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Copyright © 2006 Oxendine Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved
