Best of
Florida Schools 2003
General Categories—Page
18 (Web-Only)
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Best Face Lift
FMC Gets a Makeover
At 35 years old, Florida Memorial College went through a
bit of a mid-life crisis, fretting and worrying about its lost youth. So,
like a lot of middle-aged Americans, the Miami campus had some cosmetic
“surgery.” The result was a fresh campus makeover instead of a prep session
on the Jenny Jones show.
Florida Memorial added a new Student Services Building, campus entrance, bell tower, bronze lion statue, residence walkway, flag pavilion, and 2,000 trees donated by Manuel Diaz Farms.
As President Dr. Albert E. Smith says, the college is “striving to be the most beautiful campus in the world and expects the same accomplishments from its students as well.” The new renovations and additions have increased school pride 100 percent, he says. Thanks to the college’s transformation, “People are encouraging organizations they’re affiliated with to come see the campus,” says Dr. Barbara Edward, vice president for institutional advancement.
The new campus look has had the biggest influence on FMC’s students. Many students now make sure they keep the campus looking good by being more aware of litter. Student Government President Nathaniel Robinson says some students who might be careless with graffiti now are more concerned with maintaining a high standard.
Thanks to the renovations, Robinson says he feels more comfortable inviting people to come see him at school. “The entrance is so welcoming that it makes you want to stay here,” he says. —BF
Contact Etta Kelly at ekelly@fmc.edu.
Best Commuter Group
Southern Comfort
No matter what the weather’s like outside, commuting students at Florida
Southern College are never left out in the cold. The Commuter
Student Association keeps day and evening commuting and non-traditional
students informed and connected to campus.
With 997 members—47 percent of the Lakeland school’s 1,995 students— CSA is Florida Southern’s largest student group. Members attend monthly luncheon meetings where they can ask questions, voice their opinions, and learn more about the campus. “Someone from the college—such as the director of safety—comes in to talk,” Fossi says. “We pick a topic, and then we provide the information on that topic directly from the source.”
Aside from providing the monthly luncheons, CSA maintains a web site, publishes a bi-monthly newsletter, offers community resource information, assists with roommates and off-campus housing, and assists with carpooling. Members receive weekly e-mail updates containing information on campus events and community freebies. “The CSA strives to present Florida Southern students with information about the campus as well as all the little details about the community they live in,” Fossi says.
The CSA office is in the college’s historic Callahan House, which offers a living room complete with leather couches and a big-screen television where commuting students can relax between classes. The group also is incorporating night students into the organization by planning special evening meetings and events. —AT
Contact Fossi at CSAflsouthern@hotmail.com.
Best Holiday Cheer
JU’s
Holiday CD is On Key
At Jacksonville University, music department members no longer have
to sulk if friends and family can’t come to their productions. Thanks to
the department’s first-ever compact disc of Christmas music, university
musicians shared their talent simply by wrapping it up.
Entitled A Musical Celebration: Jacksonville University 2002 Holiday Collection, the CD received an overwhelming response from the JU community when it was issued in November 2002. Within 10 days, all 1,000 copies of the CD had been either given away as gifts or sold.
The idea for the album took shape in spring 2002. Peggy Harlow, wife of President David L. Harlow, mentioned the difficulty of finding a holiday gift for JU friends and supporters that would showcase both the school’s learning environment and the students’ creativity. The music department—which had been building up its music recording and production equipment for two years--heard about her dilemma and offered assistance. The result: an album containing 22 performances of traditional holiday tunes by JU choral groups, the Faculty Jazz Quartet, and JU Artist-in-Residence Scott Watkins.
”We’re building up our musical technology offerings, and we thought [the CD] would make a nice little project to pull together,” says Dr. Dennis Vincent, chair of the music department.
While various faculty members previously have recorded individual albums, A Musical Celebration is JU’s first such collective effort, including student concert performances. Deciding when the artistic merit outweighed the technical problems was a difficult task, Vincent says. “Since they were live concerts, we had to be very selective. We had to make sure we didn’t have coughs or chairs squeaking in the concert hall.”
JU’s visual-arts talent is also present, as students and faculty in design and art-related programs produced the CD’s cover art.
JU plans to follow up the Christmas CD’s success by producing another album. “It’s likely that the next one will be a CD that shows a cross-section of the different kinds of performances that happen in the music department,” Vincent says. —AT
Contact Vincent at dvincen@ju.edu.
Best Student Feedback
JU
Students Speak Minds, Get Results
At Jacksonville University, students don’t necessarily need to hold a
position in Student Government to take an active role in improving their
school. In February 2002, every average Joe at JU could voice his opinion at
a campus-wide forum that brought long-lasting changes to the university.
More than 200 students attended the forum, “Making the Most of College,”
which was part of President David L. Harlow’s initiative to improve student
retention.
Provost Dr. Gary Moore designed the forum to stimulate a dialogue on what JU can do to help students get the most out of college. The forum didn’t stop with simple discussion, however. Following the session, 50 students, faculty and administrators volunteered for action teams that developed recommendations for campus improvements.
The proposals—many of which later were implemented—included placing a greater emphasis on writing skills, forming activities to promote greater student-faculty interaction, and improving on-campus communications. “The most specific [improvement] may be the creation of a regular electronic newsletter that is e-mailed to the entire campus community,” Moore says.
After noting the high turnout, JU created a “Community Forum Series” with a broader focus. Now the forums are held “as a means of bringing the campus community together, not just to focus on campus improvements,” Moore says. The fall 2003 forum was a panel discussion entitled “The U.S., Iraq and Preemptive War,” and the spring 2003 forum will include a lecture on bioethics and a panel discussion on corporate ethics. —AT
Contact Moore at gmoore1@ju.edu.
Best
Organization
Johnson and Wales Gets Organized
Take one look at the average dorm room, and you’ll find papers on the floor,
old soda cans on the desk, and last week’s pizza boxes shoved in the corner.
No wonder everyone pegs college students as disorganized. Students at
Johnson & Wales’ University “Minorities in Hospitality” club,
however, go to the opposite extreme--they organize everything. “We learned
lessons from mistakes made in our first year (2001-02),” says Andrew D.
Stennett, president. “Given our remarkable accomplishments even then, we
realized that the sky would be the limit if we were better organized.”
To keep members up to date, Stennett and his officers keep the communication lines open so everyone knows what’s going on at all times. “I’m often teased about the frequency of e-mails sent and the number of administrative forms and procedures implemented this year,” Stennett says. During fall and winter terms alone, the group has formulated and approved chapter bylaws, produced a chapter newsletter, and elected a historian.
After streamlining the whole organization, the group now meets bi-weekly, communicates with group members often, and attends several major hospitality conferences. They also achieved their goals in community service, fundraising, membership recruitment, and public relations. “We’ve developed a reputation for being highly active and professional,” Stennett says. “This has caused positive ripple effects as other student organizations are being challenged and encouraged to do more and aim for excellence.” —JB
Contact Stennett at andysten@hotmail.com.
Best Educators
Nova’s
Magic Bus Tour
In The Magic School Bus books, the teacher, Ms. Frizzle, and her
class explore the circulatory system or dive to the depths of the ocean with
the help of their enchanted vehicle. Nova Southeastern University has
a magic school bus of its own. The “Education Express II Bus Tour” brought
Florida’s top educators to elementary, middle, and high schools in South
Georgia and throughout Florida on a charter bus painted a cartoon-yellow.
“The theme this year was ‘Achievement for All,’ and we were looking at schools that were working to close the achievement gap,” says Judith Harwood, director of school enhancement. Harwood refers to the tour as a “conference on wheels.” Throughout the tour, 100 people get on and off the bus, with another 50-100 people meeting the bus at its stops. “We invite legislators, business leaders, community leaders, and education leaders from across the state to join us,” she says.
The tour showcases excellent teaching practices at each stop. For instance, Camden County High School in Kingsland, Ga. showcased its “Ninth Grade Center” that helps students make the jump from junior to senior high school. “It’s nice to have that transitional time not only academically but socially when you’re making that kind of change,” Harwood says. “They’ve had a lot of success with this program, both with academics and discipline decreasing.”
After seeing the best practices in action, participants catalog them in a national directory established by Nova through the “Blue Ribbon Schools Institute.” “With this directory, we can help schools improve that may be struggling,” Harwood says. “As a higher education institution, we have a pledge to the community that we serve to find out what’s going on in education and stay ahead of the curve.”
Plans already are in the works for the next tour. “We feel this tour has been extremely successful,” Harwood says. “We’re getting a lot of great feedback and schools really enjoy us coming out and validating the good work they’re doing and sharing these best practices.” —RGM
Contact Harwood at 404-434-5963 or visit the Nova website at www.nova.edu.
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