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Ava Parker, COO Florida Polytechnic University
Higher Education in Florida
It's prime time for Florida's newest public university: Florida Polytechnic
Some 95% of students are Floridians. Many of the remaining 5% have parents or grandparents with a home here. Polk and Hillsborough counties supply 25% of the student body, with the next largest markets being Broward, Palm Beach, Miami-Dade and Pinellas followed by Orange. For commuter students, the free tuition combined with Bright Futures aid made Florida Poly a deal. Student financial demographics won’t be available until the fall when incoming student surveys are completed. A goal of recruiting 20 grad students is on target. They also get scholar ships, plus the opportunity to get stipends as resident assistants and teaching assistants.
Rhodes is encouraged that Poly has had 6,500 inquiries for 2015 from students at all levels. He added a second tour time on Saturdays to accommodate demand.
With the first class locked up and things on schedule for an August opening, Florida Poly has reached a milestone. The school still has to apply for and win accreditation by 2016 or students risk being graduates of a non-accredited institution. The school also has to determine scholarships for the fall classes of 2015 and 2016, for whom a lack of federal aid will continue to be an issue. A new campus master plan is in the works. Rhodes is under pressure to increase the number of higher revenue out-of-state students but says Florida Poly must “own your back yard first.”
The university can’t admit international students until it enrolls its first class and wins federal government approval. Renown for research will take ages, as will proving that the Orlando-Tampa tech corridor is in fact a corridor rather than a barbell with two research hubs connected by I-4.
How long Parker will stay with Florida Poly isn’t clear. She didn’t apply for the president’s job, and her status, once her contract expires in December, is up to new President Randy Avent. Avent was hired in April from North Carolina State University where he was associate vice chancellor of research development, a computer science professor and founding director of the university’s Data Science Institute. The board approved a salary range of $310,750 to $550,000.
The fledgling university still must overcome perceptions that it would have been more efficient to expand capacity at an existing university rather than start a new one. “Now we’ve got another university to feed,” says Sean Snaith, director of the Institute for Economic Competitiveness at the University of Central Florida. “Could this have been done more efficiently through the existing system?”
Parker is confident legislators will support Florida Poly without Alexander there to ensure it. Polk County’s delegation includes state Rep. Seth McKeel, House appropriations committee chair and joint budget commission chair. His sister is Maggie Mariucci, Florida Poly’s director of external affairs.
Parker also is confident legislators will come to see “we’ve built a different model and something that is a complement to the system and something that is not just going to benefit this region but will in fact benefit the whole state of Florida. They’ve ensured we have the opportunity, and I think the next step in this is that we will perform.”
‘Unique and Different’
As an August opening approaches for Florida Polytechnic University, its de facto creator sees vindication. “It’ll be an institution that’s unique in the state, following a model that’s been successful in other parts of the country and the world,” says former state Sen. J.D. Alexander, a Lake Wales Republican who muscled the state’s 12th university into being as chair of the Senate Budget Committee before he was term-limited out of the Senate in 2013. “In a few years, you probably won’t fnd anyone admit that they opposed it.”
Alexander says he came gradually to the idea that the Lakeland campus of the University of South Florida should be a standalone university. He says he became convinced of the need after years of watching USF neglect its stewardship of the campus. The “last straw” came, he says, when USF told a donor who wanted to fund a program at the Lakeland campus to redirect the money to the main campus in Tampa or go away. He says the only way for USF Lakeland to achieve its potential and to fulfll his commitment to his district was to see the university become independent of USF.
Alexander says naysayers who predicted the project would fail to draw students and faculty and be a budget-buster have been proven wrong. “The things they said couldn’t be done are being done. As far as can the state afford it? I don’t think we can afford not to do it,” he says.
Florida Poly will beneft students and diversify the state economy by bringing applied research and a pool of workready STEM graduates, Alexander says. Such institutions in California, New York and other states lead to tech industries developing around them, he says. “This institution is unique and different, and that’s why it was created,” Alexander says. “Except for New College, all the rest (of the state universities) are University of Florida wanna-bes.”
Alexander, now in private business, didn’t apply to be the school’s president. His wife, Cindy, chairs its foundation board. “I don’t have a role,” he says. “I just keep advocating in the state and the community for the effort. I think our state needs it. I think it will be successful.”
Florida Polytechnic's unique archtecture
Designed by Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava, Florida Polytechnic’s first building features movable louvers and an abundant use of natural light. Second-floor faculty and administrative offices feature glass walls on the terrace and interior side. Offices are small by design to encourage faculty to get out of them. “The whole idea is interaction and collaboration,” says Pete Karamitsanis (right), an architect and Florida Poly’s representative on construction. Chrysler liked the innovative design so much it filmed a Dodge pickup truck commercial at the site.
