Wednesday, November 30, 2022

FSU Nov 18 BOT Meeting

 

https://trustees.fsu.edu/meetings/

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLTCv6n1whoI3Gor3JYGOIlyYBq--nWhiu

Florida State University ranked No. 13 in ‘Niche’ best public colleges list

Florida State University ranked No. 13 among all public universities in the United States by Niche, a research company that produces an annual ranking of colleges and universities.

“That’s a very big deal,” said FSU President Richard McCullough. “People are taking notice of the things that we’re doing at Florida State.”

Niche produces in-depth profiles of every school and college in the United States, with more than 140 million reviews and ratings from students and alumni. For its annual rankings, the company examines data from the U.S. Department of Education on academics, admissions, finances and student life.

The ranking reflects the strength of FSU’s national and international reputation among students and alumni.

Students cite access to academic and student services, opportunities to get involved in campus organizations and the beautiful campus in their ratings.

The university’s rising reputation has produced record-breaking numbers of first-year admissions applications. Since 2016, FSU has seen an astounding 157% increase in first-year applications and last spring admitted the most academically accomplished class in its history.

FSU, bolstered by its increasing graduation and retention rates, also has been ranked as a Top 20 national public university by U.S. News & World Report for the past four years.

FSU’s Jim Moran College keeps No. 19 ranking as it observes National Entrepreneurship Month

Florida State University’s Jim Moran College of Entrepreneurship says it’s giving creative and innovative students opportunities to have a “positive impact on the world” — and the college’s peers continue to take note.

The college has kept its No. 19 spot in The Princeton Review’s latest rankings of the nation’s top undergraduate entrepreneurship programs. The college also ranks No. 3 in the South and No. 11 among public schools.

The Princeton Review said it based the rankings for its “Top Schools for Entrepreneurship 2023” on a 2022 survey of administrators at nearly 300 undergraduate and graduate schools that offer entrepreneurship studies.

The rankings were released this week as FSU observes National Entrepreneurship Month and as officials reflect on the explosive growth and success of the college, which in 2019 became the nation’s first standalone college of entrepreneurship.

FSU AD Michael Alford: Seminoles would be top 5 in revenue in SEC, Big 10

Florida State athletic director Michael Alford spoke at the university’s Board of Trustees meeting on Friday, November 14, sharing updates on the various ongoings of the Seminoles’ athletic department.

He spoke on facilities updates, sharing progress on renovations to FSU’s football, baseball, softball, volleyball, beach volleyball and track infrastructure as confirming that the football-only facility is set to break ground in December.

Most notably, though, Alford took time to share some key statistics on the financial status of the Seminoles and how the program stacks up in regard to major conferences.

According to numbers he shared, if conference distributions were removed (TV contracts, postseason payouts, etc.), FSU would rank third in the SEC in revenue generated — ahead of schools like the Alabama Crimson TideLSU Tigers and Florida Gators.

FSU

When comparing against Big 10 schools, Florida State ranks third, behind the Ohio State Buckeyes and Michigan Wolverines but ahead of the Penn State Nittany LionsIowa HawkeyesWisconsin Badgers, and others.

FSU

Wednesday, November 16, 2022

FSU Presidential Scholars Program poised to double in size, inspire more life-changing opportunities

 

FSU Presidential Scholars Program poised to double in size, inspire more life-changing opportunities

One minute, you’re studying brain waves in a Florida State University professor’s lab; the next, you’re presenting research about prefrontal cortex neurons to one of the world’s most famous couples.

That’s the story of FSU alumna Olivia Rose, who credits her FSU education and involvement in the Presidential Scholars Program for igniting her love of neuroscience and preparing her to compete in the field at the most elite levels. That includes recently being chosen by Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan to demonstrate her research during a private showcase at a Harvard University event.

Rose’s experiences underscore what’s possible from an FSU Presidential Scholar and what could be possible for even more students like her.

“The Presidential Scholars are high-achieving students who will be the changemakers and leaders of tomorrow. Our investment in this program is a testament to our commitment to excellence as one of the nation’s Top 20 public universities and will provide opportunities for more ambitious and talented students to join this community of scholars.”

— FSU President Richard McCullough

The Presidential Scholars Program — and its accompanying merit scholarship — is now set to grow, with administrators prepared to accept more students than ever this year, eyeing a goal of doubling in size from 30 per class to 60.

“The Presidential Scholars are high-achieving students who will be the changemakers and leaders of tomorrow,” said President Richard McCullough. “Our investment in this program is a testament to our commitment to excellence as one of the nation’s Top 20 public universities and will provide opportunities for more ambitious and talented students to join this community of scholars.”

Presidential Scholars are chosen from among top students who have already been admitted into the competitive Honors Program, which itself has been doubled to 800 this year from a typical class of 400.

The Presidential Scholars Program is the premier undergraduate merit scholarship at FSU, with a total award package of $38,000, plus an out-of-state tuition waiver, but administrators emphasize that its benefits stretch far beyond the financial.

U.S. News: 10 Florida universities rank among the best in the world

 

U.S. News: 10 Florida universities rank among the best in the world

Ten Florida universities are on a list of 2,000 identified by U.S. News & World Report as the best in the world.

Ranked 98th on the list and the top Florida school was the University of Florida in Gainesville. It’s the third-largest Florida university by student population and the fifth-largest single-campus university in the U.S.

Florida State University in Tallahassee ranked 241; the University of Miami at Coral Gables ranked 253; the University of South Florida in Tampa ranked 317; University of Central Florida in Orlando ranked 413; Florida International University in Miami ranked 468; Florida Institute of Technology in Melbourne ranked 912; Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton ranked 1,088; Nova Southeastern University in Ft. Lauderdale ranked 1,106; Florida A&M University in Tallahassee ranked 1,478.

U.S. News & World Report’s 2023 Best Global Universities list ranked more than 2,000 schools in 95 countries based on academic research and reputation. This year’s included an additional 250 schools, up from 1,750 last year.

The ninth annual Best Global Universities rankings “focus specifically on schools' academic research and reputation overall and not on their separate undergraduate or graduate programs.” The rankings were created to help applicants compare institutions around the world “since an increasing number of students plan to enroll in universities outside of their own country,” the report states. The rankings also provide insight into how U.S. universities, which U.S. News has ranked for nearly 40 years, stand globally.

Four of the top five institutions are American. Harvard University ranked first; followed by Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford University, and the University of California – Berkeley. Ranking fifth, rounding out the top five, was the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom.

The top five countries with the greatest number of institutions on the list were China (338), the U.S. (280), Japan (105), the United Kingdom (92), and India (81).

U.S. News evaluated 13 ranking factors and analyzed data and metrics provided by global analytics company Clarivate to compile the rankings. Factors included global research reputation, regional research reputation, number of publications that are among the 10% most cited, among others.

U.S. News & World Report earlier this year ranked Florida first in the U.S. for tuition and fees and first for higher education overall since its rankings inception in 2017.

FSU Nursing news: FSU to add doctoral degrees in 'hot,' in-demand fields beginning fall 2023

 

FSU to add doctoral degrees in 'hot,' in-demand fields beginning fall 2023

During the Board of Governors' Wednesday meeting at the University of South Florida in Tampa, they also approved a research-based doctoral degree in nursing that FSU’s College of Nursing will introduce. While the college already offers a practice-based doctorate degree in nursing, the focus on research will be a first for the college. 

“For years, we’ve had a focus on practitioner education, and we have not developed the kind of research infrastructure that we needed to have this program,” said James Whyte, a professor and Ph.D. program director at FSU's College of Nursing.

"But being in the state’s capital and being in north Florida where health disparities are such a big deal, this is something that was long overdue,” he added.

Students in the program will be trained to conduct research to improve the nursing practice and contribute scholarship to the field — specifically on health disparities across different populations, such as HIV/AIDS prevention in adult and underrepresented youth.

Upon obtaining the degree, graduates will also be qualified to teach in research-based and practice-based programs as a result of graduating with the degree. 

In Florida, the job growth for nurse educators is anticipated to increase by about 23% over the next eight years with nearly 400 job openings every year, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

“More Ph.D. prepared nurse scientists can be nurse educators, so we will have more faculty available to train and expand our programs to provide more nurses for the state of Florida and nationally,” FSU College of Nursing Professor and Dean Jing Wang said. 

Besides the degree that will be added, other initiatives of the College of Nursing are the recent hires of world-renowned research faculty members Lisa Hightow-Weidman and Kathryn Muessig, who both recently created the Institute on Digital Health and Innovation at the college to build a connection between digital innovation and health care.

The two digital health experts will also make contributions to the research-based doctoral program once it starts. 

“Providing more efficient care and providing care for a larger number of patients requires new approaches and new knowledge for us to do it, and that’s what research can do,” Wang said. 

The college expects to accept six students into the new degree program during the first year at a tuition rate of about $444 per credit hour for resident students and $1,075 per credit hour for nonresident students.


FSU College of Nursing to launch Institute on Digital Health and Innovation, help solve ‘real-world needs’

Two recently hired faculty members in the College of Nursing are wasting no time making their mark at Florida State University, expanding the college’s footprint through the creation of a new institute focused on the intersection of digital innovation, big data and health care.

Lisa Hightow-Weidman and Kathryn Muessig — esteemed digital health experts whom FSU hired from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill — have created the Institute on Digital Health and Innovation.

The institute, part of the College of Nursing, will emphasize the use of digital tools in health education, messaging and treatment; inspire collaboration and innovation across the university and health care industry; and provide training for students and postdoctoral fellows through research.

Hightow-Weidman will serve as founding director and Muessig as founding associate director.

“This institute will bring together and foster collaborations across multiple diverse groups, including academic, community and industry stakeholders,” Hightow-Weidman said. “And what the institute can offer hopefully is to create an ecosystem to facilitate the advancement of rigorous, translational research focused on solving real-world needs of patients and that ultimately benefit health care systems and communities.”

The initiative corresponds with FSU’s growth in health care-related research and education programs. Florida State University has been building out its health research portfolio while pursuing partnerships with major health care entities throughout North Florida, including Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare, HCA Florida and the Mayo Clinic.

The Institute on Digital Health and Innovation will play a major role in furthering those efforts while providing important training opportunities for students.

“There are some great researchers in the College of Nursing who have thought a lot about digital technologies and health education and how you use that to the benefit of patients,” Muessig said.

She noted one of her first conversations with Jing Wang, dean of the College of Nursing and said: “One of the things that I really appreciated hearing was her vision for training through research – hands-on experiential learning for students to complement what they’re doing in the classroom.”

Hightow-Weidman began her role as a distinguished and endowed McKenzie Professor in the College of Nursing in early October. Muessig will start her role as a College of Nursing professor on Dec. 1.

“Research at the Institute on Digital Health and Innovation will promote equitable care that uses novel digital solutions, fulfilling the College of Nursing’s mission to boldly tackle challenges in how health care workers deliver the best care to patients,” Wang said. “This initiative will also provide more training opportunities for students and will foster collaboration and innovation across campus to impact the entire health care ecosystem in Florida, nationally and globally.”

Wang also noted the college’s focus on technology to enhance the use of human touch – she calls it the “high human touch” – and increase nurses’ time at patients’ beside.

“One health equity emphasis of the digital health approach we anchored here at FSU is the tech-empowered high human touch approach to engage not only the wealthy who desire advanced technology, but also those who lack access to or prefer the high human touch over tech solutions,” she said. “This can particularly benefit the ever-increasing retiree/aging population in the state of Florida.”

She called the approach “our guiding principle and our lens leveraging digital health solutions.”

Hightow-Weidman is an internationally renowned expert in the development, implementation and evaluation of digital health interventions to address the HIV Care Continuum for adolescents and young adults. She has been at the forefront of translating evidence-based science into digital applications, specifically through the inclusion of game-based elements, self-monitoring and tracking and provision of support to increase engagement and impact health behavior.

Muessig has focused on prevention and care of HIV and other sexually transmitted infections in the U.S., China and South Africa. She develops interventions combining digital health tools, behavior-change strategies and health systems navigation to decrease HIV transmission and improve health care for people living with HIV.

Together, they have garnered over $100 million in funding from the National Institutes of Health and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). They aim to quickly build on that, including for the Institute on Digital Health and Innovation.

FSU again boasts highest credit rating of all Florida public universities

 

FSU again boasts highest credit rating of all Florida public universities


Florida State University continues to receive high marks for financial management, according to the newest credit ratings released by S&P Global, Fitch and Moody’s.

FSU has the highest credit rating of any public university in the state of Florida with an AA+ rating by S&P and Fitch and an equivalent Aa1 rating by Moody’s.

“This is terrific news for the university, and I’m very proud of the fact we have the highest-rated credit of any public university in the state of Florida,” said Kyle Clark, vice president for Finance and Administration. “These ratings highlight all the positive aspects of why Florida State University is a great investment and a good steward of the resources allocated to us by the Florida Legislature.”

“The team at FSU runs a tight ship,” said Ben Watkins, director of the Florida Division of Bond Finance. “They have done an outstanding job managing their finances, and this is recognized in their extraordinarily strong credit ratings. FSU’s leadership is unified in its focus on student performance and affordability and is strategically positioning the university to capitalize on its research capabilities. They have been very creative and innovative in their approach to financing and are recognized nationally as a top-tier university with a strong competitive position.”

Moody’s maintained an Aa1 issuer rating for FSU and an Aa2 rating on the university’s outstanding revenue bonds (Housing, Parking, Wellness Center, Student Union, Research Foundation) with a stable outlook. Its rating is based on the university’s “excellent strategic positioning as a prominent comprehensive university aided by strong operating and capital support from the State of Florida.” Moody’s also reported that FSU’s strengths include “donor support, total wealth, low debt burden, strong operating performance and well-diversified revenues including gains in sponsored research.”

In addition, Moody’s revised the outlook on FSU Financial Assistance, Inc. (FSUFA) to A1 stable. FSUFA is a component unit of the Seminole Boosters, a direct support organization of Florida State University. Moody’s noted increasingly close governance and management ties to Florida State University and a strong record of Seminole Boosters’ fundraising including success with a recent $100 million facilities campaign as some of FSUFA’s credit strengths.

S&P affirmed FSU’s AA+ rating and various ratings for the university’s outstanding revenue bonds (AA- Housing, AA+ Parking, AA+ Wellness Center, AA+ Student Union) with a stable outlook. In its report, S&P said the rating “reflects our view of a continuation of the university’s healthy financial trends, consistently sound state operating support, and a stable enterprise profile characterized by FSU’s impressive market position bolstered by good regional employment and population growth trends.”

Fitch affirmed FSU’s AA+ rating and the AA ratings for the university’s outstanding revenue bonds (Housing, Parking, Wellness Center, Student Union, Research Foundation) with a stable outlook. Fitch’s report noted, “FSU’s revenue bond ratings are attributable to the university’s very strong financial profile combined with its revenue defensibility and operating risk profile assessments, together with the good overall annual debt service coverage and strong reserves at the university level.” Fitch also affirmed the A+ stable rating for the FSUFA.