The University of Florida is a public land-grant research university in Gainesville, Florida. 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.
Leon County is a county in the Panhandle of the U.S. state of Florida. It was named after the Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de León. As of the 2020 census, the population was 292,198.
Florida State University is a public research university in Tallahassee, Florida, United States. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida. Founded in 1851, it is located on Florida's oldest continuous site of higher education.
New College of Florida is a public, conservative, liberal arts college in Sarasota, Florida. It was founded in 1960 as a private institution known as New College. In 1975, it merged with University of South Florida as a separate "upper division campus" within the public university. In 2001 became an autonomous college, the eleventh independent school of the State University System of Florida as the honors college for the state system. Upon achieving independence, the school adopted its current name: New College of Florida. In 2023, the state government of Florida overhauled its board of trustees in an attempt to transform the school into a "beacon of conservative values." Since then, nearly 40% of faculty have resigned.
Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University (FAMU), commonly known as Florida A&M, is a public historically black land-grant university in Tallahassee, Florida. Founded in 1887, It is the third largest historically black university in the United States by enrollment and the only public historically black university in Florida. It is a member institution of the State University System of Florida, as well as one of the state's land grant universities, and is accredited to award baccalaureate, master's and doctoral degrees by the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.
The University of North Florida (UNF) is a public research university in Jacksonville, Florida. It is part of the State University System of Florida and is accredited by the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools to award baccalaureate, masters, and doctorate degrees. Its campus comprises 1,300 acres amid a natural preserve on Jacksonville's Southside. It is classified among "R2: Doctoral Universities – High research activity". The current president is Moez Limayem.
Cary Augustus Hardee was an American educator, lawyer, legislator, and banker who served as the 23rd governor of Florida. He supported limiting educational opportunities for blacks and defunded Florida A&M.
Florida Gulf Coast University (FGCU) is a public university in Lee County, Florida near Fort Myers. It is part of the State University System of Florida and is its second youngest member. The university was established on May 3, 1991, and is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS). It offers 58 bachelor's degree programs, 25 master's degree programs, 6 doctoral degree programs, and 12 graduate certificates.
The Florida Board of Governors is a 17-member governing board that serves as the governing body for the State University System of Florida, which includes all public universities in the state of Florida.
In the United States, a board often governs institutions of higher education, including private universities, state universities, and community colleges. In each US state, such boards may govern either the state university system, individual colleges and universities, or both. In general, they operate as a board of directors, and they vary by formal name, size, powers, and membership. In some states, members are appointed by the governor.
Florida Polytechnic University is a public university in Lakeland, Florida. Created as an independent university in 2012, it is the newest of the 12 institutions in the State University System of Florida. It is the state's only public polytechnic university, and focuses solely on STEM education.
The FAMU-FSU College of Engineering is the joint college of engineering of Florida A&M University and Florida State University. The College of Engineering was established as a joint program serving two universities in Tallahassee, Florida: The Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University, which received recognition from the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering in 2010 for ranking number one as the institution of origin for African Americans earning Doctorates in Natural Science and Engineering; and, Florida State University which has gained worldwide recognition for its extensive graduate and research programs. The college is located less than three miles from either university.
The Florida education system consists of public and private schools in Florida, including the State University System of Florida (SUSF), the Florida College System (FCS), the Independent Colleges and Universities of Florida (ICUF) and other private institutions, and also secondary and primary schools as well as virtual schools.
The Florida Department of Education (FLDOE) is the state education agency of Florida. It governs public education and manages funding and testing for local educational agencies. It is headquartered in the Turlington Building in Tallahassee.
The Florida Board of Education, also known as the State Board of Education (SBE), is a committee composed of members appointed by the Florida governor to guide and direct the public K-12, community college and state college education in the U.S. state of Florida.
The history of the University of Florida is firmly tied to the history of public education in the state of Florida. The University of Florida originated as several distinct institutions that were consolidated to create a single state-supported university by the Buckman Act of 1905. The oldest of these was the East Florida Seminary, one of two seminaries of higher learning established by the Florida Legislature. The East Florida Seminary opened in Ocala 1853, becoming the first state-supported institution of higher learning in the state of Florida. As it is the oldest of the modern University of Florida's predecessor institutions, the school traces its founding date to that year. The East Florida Seminary closed its Ocala campus at the outbreak of the American Civil War and reopened in Gainesville in 1866.
Ronald Dion DeSantis is an American politician serving since 2019 as the 46th governor of Florida. A member of the Republican Party, he represented Florida's 6th congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives from 2013 to 2018. DeSantis is a candidate for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.
The Buckman Act was a Florida law passed by the state legislature in 1905. It reorganized the state's institutions of higher learning and created a Florida Board of Control to govern the system. The act, named for legislator Henry Holland Buckman, consolidated the state's six institutions of higher education into three: one for white men, one for white women, and one for African Americans.
Florida Senate Bill 266, also commonly known by its Florida House of Representatives counterpart House Bill 999, is Florida legislation relating to public universities within the state. Under the legislation, diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs and certain college majors relating to DEI would be eliminated or heavily restricted; the legislation phrases such courses as being based on "unproven, theoretical, or exploratory content". The legislation would prohibit state universities from including DEI and political identity filters within higher education hiring processes, and bans the usage of critical race theory in hiring. The law was filed in the Florida House of Representatives on February 21, 2023, by Republican representative Alex Andrade, while a Florida Senate version was filed seven days later by Republican state senator Erin Grall. The senate version of the legislation, which was noted as less intense in its requirements than the house version, ultimately passed and was signed by governor Ron DeSantis, concurrently with the similar Florida House Bill 931, on May 15, 2023. SB 266 took effect on July 1, 2023.
Aysegul Timur is a Turkish American academic administrator who serves as the 5th president of Florida Gulf Coast University. She is the first woman and first immigrant to become president in the university's history. She lives in Naples, Florida.
