November 3, 2009
(New or newly revised items)
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Campus Update

General News

• The search is well under way for a new president of The Florida State University to replace President T.K. Wetherell, who is retiring after nearly seven years in the position
• The rare Westcott Medal has been awarded to alumnus David Coburn, who has had a distinguished three-decade career in public service
• Honored at Homecoming 2009 were three Grads Made Good: Carol J. Connor (B.S. '73, M.S. '76, Accounting; J.D. '77), who served for 27 years with the U.S. Navy’s Judge Advocate General Corps; Manuel H. Johnson (M.S. '75, Ph.D. '77, Economics) one of the most influential policy figures in world economic affairs in the ‘80s; and Barry V. Qualls (B.A., ’67, English) who has been a force for undergraduate education at Rutgers University for nearly four decades
• The Bernard F. Sliger Award went to Bill Durham, a Tallahassee businessman and FSU alumnus best known as the creator and longtime guiding force behind one of the most spectacular traditions in all of college football — the horse-and-rider tandem of Renegade and Osceola
• Homecoming Parade Grand Marshals were Coach Mickey Andrews and his wife, Diane. The Homecoming Parade Faculty Grand Marshal was Bill Moeller, co-director of Florida State’s Center for Leadership and Civic Education
• Florida State University has honored its first families with a Tribute Garden located adjacent to the President’s House and Alumni Association
• Florida State has hosted several forums on off-shore drilling to support decision-making on this critical issue
• The FAMU/FSU College of Engineering has been honored for diversity with one of three national 2009 Claire Felbinger Awards for Diversity
• The lineup for the 12th season of Seven Days of Opening Nights has been announced. Running from Feb. 12-22, 2010, Tallahassee's premier arts event will offer a unique combination of performances and exhibits ranging from the Vienna Boys Choir to hip-hop dance, and from the Company of Angels to Margaret Atwood's dystopic vision of the future
• Florida State University's colleges of law and medicine are among the Top 10 best in the nation for Hispanics, according to Hispanic Business magazine. The College of Law was ranked third among the nation's law schools, while the College of Medicine was ranked seventh among medical schools
• Florida State University has moved up two places and now ranks as #48 among public universities in the United States as listed by U.S. News and World Report’s “America’s Best Colleges 2010”
• Steve Evans is interim president of the Florida State University Foundation
• Florida State has adopted a three-year budget plan to cope with severe budget cuts totaling over $82 million since 2007
• Florida State has been ranked No. 3 in the nation for its contributions to arts research

Students

• Doctoral student Clemens Lakner, who studies DNA sequence data, has won the prestigious Ernst Mayr Award for research, the first time a Florida State student has been so honored
• With four students honored, Florida State University is in a four-way tie for the most Emerging Scholar Awards in the United States. Presented by the Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi, the Emerging Scholar Award is given to promising sophomore students across the country, and is designed to support young scholars and encourage them to seek knowledge and experience in their field of study
• Florida State’s record of three U.S. Rhodes Scholars in the past four years surpasses that of any other state university in the country
• The Graduate School has announced the opening of the Office of Graduate Fellowships and Awards, a new resource designed to assist graduate students in identifying external funding opportunities
• In the past four years, since the establishment of the undergraduate Office of National Fellowships, in addition to three Rhodes Scholars, Florida State can boast of three Truman Scholars, three Goldwater Scholars, a Jack Kent Cooke Scholar, a Udall Scholar, two Pickering Fellowships, 22 Fulbrights and numerous other national and international awards, arguably the best record for any public university in Florida

Faculty

• College of Medicine biomedical sciences professor Michael Blaber has been recognized as having one of the most influential structural biology laboratories in the world
• Alan G. Marshall, the Robert O. Lawton Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry at Florida State and director of the Ion Cyclotron Resonance Program at the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory, has been an inaugural fellow of the American Chemical Society
• Pioneering dyslexia researcher Richard K. Wagner, Alfred Binet Professor of Psychology and a Distinguished Professor of Psychology, has been named this year’s Robert O. Lawton Distinguished Professor
• FSU doctoral faculty in five academic areas have been ranked among the tops in the nation according to the Faculty Scholarly Productivity Index: social work--#4 in the nation; Spanish--#4 in the nation; marketing--#5; oceanography—8; atmospheric sciences--10

Colleges and Schools

College of Arts & Sciences

• The Atlantic magazine has listed Florida State’s graduate-level Creative Writing program among the nation’s top 10 and the Ph.D. program in the nation’s top 5
• U.S. News & World Report ranks Florida State’s graduate program in nuclear physics as 13th in the nation and the graduate program in analytical chemistry as 14th in the nation

College of Business

• The Department of Management has been ranked No. 4 in the nation for the impact of its faculty’s research by Science Watch, a nationally recognized research-evaluation newsletter
• U.S. News & World Report’s “America’s Best Colleges 2010” ranks the undergraduate real estate program as ninth best in the country and insurance/risk management as sixth best
• The College of Business graduate accounting programs are ranked the best in the state, and its undergraduate, graduate and doctoral programs in accounting are all among the nation’s best, according to the 27th Annual Public Accounting Report Professors’ Survey
• The graduate Risk Management/Insurance program is ranked fourth in the country among public universities and the Real Estate program eighth nationally by U.S. News & World Report
• The undergraduate program has gained 12 points, ranking #30 in the nation in the latest BusinessWeek rankings

College of Communication & Information

• The colleges of Communication and Information have merged, creating a new College of Communication & Information under the leadership of Dean Larry Dennis
• School library media and children and youth services were each ranked No. 3 in the 2010 listing of “American’s Best Graduate Schools”
• U.S. News & World Report’s 2009 listing of “America’s Best Graduate Schools” ranks the master’s program in speech-language pathology as 18th in the nation

College of Criminology & Criminal Justice

• The College has moved up four places to seventh in the nation in the 2010 “America’s Best Graduate School” rankings from U.S. News & World Report

College of Education

• The College of Education made a significant leap in the 2010 “America’s Best Graduate School” rankings from U.S. News & World Report, climbing to 41st in the nation
• The secondary teacher education specialty was ranked 21st
• The higher-education program was ranked 18th among all higher-education administration programs nationally in U.S. News & World Report’s 2009 listing of “America’s Best Graduate Schools”
• In the same publication, education policy was 19th; student counseling and personnel services was 19th; education administration and supervision was 19th; and education psychology was 24th
• The Program in Higher Education has been rated exemplary in a survey of faculty in the field at more than 100 universities

College of Law

• Florida State University College of Law graduates ranked first among the state's 10 law schools on the July 2009 administration of the Florida Bar Examination. Florida State graduates have ranked first in the state on five of the last eight administrations of the exam
• The College of Law continues to rise in U.S. News & World Report rankings, moving up to 52nd best law school in the nation in the 2010 rankings of “America’s Best Graduate Schools,” a rise of 15 slots in the past five years
• The environmental law program is ranked 11th in the nation in the 2010 rankings.
• The College of Law has again been named one of the Top 10 law schools in the nation for Hispanics

College of Medicine

• Florida State has for the third year in a row been recognized for its production of family doctors, ranking among the top five schools in the nation, according to the American Academy of Family Physicians
• The college—the youngest fully accredited medical school in the nation—has made the U.S. News & World Report rankings of “America’s Best Graduate Schools” for the first time, with a listing of 56th in primary care
• The College of Medicine has been recognized as one of the top medical schools in the nation for the percentage of its graduating doctors who choose to specialize in family medicine, according to the American Academy of Family Physicians

College of Motion Picture, Television and Recording Arts

• Students in the college have claimed a majority of the awards handed out in a new film documentary competition devoted to highlighting the works of philanthropic and charitable organizations. At this year's Filmanthropy competition, a total of $75,000 in awards were presented — of which Florida State students claimed an impressive $54,500
• One of the most highly ranked film schools in the country, students have won over 800 awards, honors, prizes and featured screenings at both national and international festivals and competitions
• Film School Dean Frank Patterson has been named a top mentor to Hollywood filmmakers

College of Music

• A recent study from the Journal of Research in Music Education calls Florida State’s College of Music the single most influential institution since 1990

College of Social Sciences

• The 2010 U.S. News & World Report rankings of “America’s Best Graduate Schools” list sociology at No. 39
• Sex and gender studies ranked eighth in the nation in the same ranking
• Graduate programs in political science ranked 39th
• The political science department has been ranked 22nd among all U.S. universities and eighth among public universities based on the success of its Ph.D. graduates in the academic job market according to a study published in PS, an official journal of the American Political Science Association

College of Visual Arts, Theatre & Dance

• Florida State’s Ringling Museum partnered with the Baryshnikov Arts Center for the launch of the Ringling International Arts Festival October 7-11, 2009

Environment

• The university has dedicated its innovative OGZEB (Off-Grid Zero Emissions Building) structure that will serve as a real-world testing facility for solar and hydrogen power, hydrogen combustion and other innovative clean-energy and design technologies developed at the university. The structure was named for Vice President for Research Kirby Kemper
• Work is nearly complete at the new Center for Professional Development and adjoining parking garage
• Construction is continuing at Ruby Diamond Auditorium. The completely remodeled performance hall and lobby and the new adjacent rehearsal hall are expected to open in 2011. Lobby renovation is being funded with the support of a $1 million grant from the Knight Foundation

Athletics

• Florida State will induct seven members to the Florida State Athletics Hall of Fame. This year’s inductees are baseball star Mike Augustine, record-setting pole vaulter Jeff Bray, softball standout Danielle Cox, volleyball coaching legend Cecile Reynaud, standout golfer Bob Shave, and football All-American Reinard Wilson. Dennis Boyle will be posthumously honored as the Moore-Stone Award winner
• 18 of Florida State's 19 sports earned post-season/playoff/tournament invitations last year
• Florida State placed 165 student-athletes on the Atlantic Coast Conference Academic Honor Roll, with 16 Seminoles earning their fourth honors
• For the third-straight year the Garnet and Gold placed in 15th position in the nation as reflected by the United State Sports Academy Directors’ Cup standings.
• Five Seminoles were named ACC Players of the Year: Jean-Yves Aubone (men’s tennis), Charles Clark (men’s track), Sarah Hamilton (softball), Susan Kuijken (women’s cross country) and Kim Williams (women’s track & field)
• Other Seminole student-athletes achieved a multitude of awards on and off the field, including 11 NCAA individual national champions, 36 ACC individual championships, 90 All-America selections, 79 All-ACC honors and 17 end-of-the-year ACC awards
• Kim Williams was named by the U.S. Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association as the Women’s Outdoor Scholar Athlete of the Year for her achievements in the classroom. Alongside the three-time national champion are seniors Lydia Willemse and Keyla Smith, who were also named to the USTFCCCA Women’s All-Academic Team
• Five Florida State coaches were awarded seven ACC Coach of the Year honors, the most in program history.
• Bob Braman was awarded three honors as the Men’s Indoor Track and Field Coach of the Year and the Women’s Indoor and Outdoor Track and Field Coach of the Year
• Sue Semrau and Leonard Hamilton were both named ACC Coach of the Year, marking only the third time in conference history that the men's and women's basketball coaches of the year came from the same school
• Leonard Hamilton also took home the Basketball Times National Coach of the Year honor
• Mike Martin earned his sixth baseball Coach of the Year plaque after leading his team to its 47th NCAA appearance
• Karen Harvey earned ACC Women’s Cross Country honors for the second straight season
• Oliver Foreman was named women’s tennis ITA National Assistant Coach of the Year
• Swimming head coach Neil Harper and women’s basketball coach Sue Semrau posted their 200th wins at Florida State, while men’s tennis coach Dwayne Hultquist became the all-time win leader at Florida State.
• FSU’s men’s track and field team continued to prove its excellence off the track as well, as five Seminoles were named to the USTFCCCA Men's All-Academic Track and Field Team
• Over the course of the past year Florida State student-athletes have given approximately 3,500 hours of community service to Tallahassee and the surrounding communities
• Based on their community service, FSU’s student-athletes are at the top of the Outreach Honor Roll from the National Consortium for Academics & Sports

Seminole Tribe of Florida

• The university and the Seminole Tribe of Florida continue to work in partnership to strengthen our ties and to recognize and help preserve the tribe’s heritage and unconquered spirit