Senate Bill sb2846
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Florida Senate - 2003 (NP) SR 2846
By Senator Smith
14-2291-03
1 Senate Resolution No. ____
2 A resolution celebrating April 15, 2003, as
3 "University of Florida Day."
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5 WHEREAS, the University of Florida, the only Florida
6 university honored by membership in the prestigious
7 Association of American Universities, is celebrating its 150th
8 anniversary during this year 2003, and
9 WHEREAS, the university, the leading institution of
10 higher learning of its state, has served its community, its
11 state, its nation, and the world at large both faithfully and
12 exceptionally while performing its mission of teaching,
13 research, and service, and
14 WHEREAS, the university, Florida's largest, now enrolls
15 and provides the opportunities inherent in higher education to
16 more than 47,000 students, making it the fourth-largest campus
17 in the country, and
18 WHEREAS, the university's student population represents
19 all of Florida's 67 counties, all 40 states, and more than 100
20 countries, thereby bringing cultural and intellectual
21 diversity to its campus while also significantly extending the
22 ideals of the American and Florida higher-education system
23 worldwide, and
24 WHEREAS, the university ranks first among all public
25 universities in the number of National Achievement Scholars
26 enrolled in the Fall 2002 freshman class, and ranks second
27 among all public universities in enrolling National Merit
28 Scholars in the same class, demonstrating the appeal of the
29 high standards of a University of Florida education to the
30 state's and nation's top young scholars from all walks of
31 life, and
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Florida Senate - 2003 (NP) SR 2846
14-2291-03
1 WHEREAS, the university's outstanding
2 freshman-to-sophomore retention rate of 93 percent underlines
3 the outstanding quality of the university's entire academic
4 experience, from enjoying the education offered in several
5 top-20 ranked academic programs, and personal academic and
6 career advising, to sophisticated online programs, to
7 self-tracking of academic progress, and
8 WHEREAS, the university ranks third in the nation for
9 all AAU universities in bachelor's degrees awarded to African
10 American students and third amongst AAU universities in Latino
11 students earning bachelor's degrees in the latest ranking
12 completed, providing a further and commendable example of the
13 university's continuing commitment to attracting, enrolling,
14 retaining, and graduating students from all walks of life,
15 reflecting our state's and nation's magnificent heritage and
16 culture, and
17 WHEREAS, the university, a top "Research Extensive"
18 university as classified by the Carnegie Foundation, and the
19 center of distinguished colleges and highly advanced liberal
20 arts and sciences programs, employs many of the finest faculty
21 and staff found at any institution in the United States,
22 including its recent ranking in the Top Ten for Fulbright
23 Awards among the elite members of the Association of American
24 Universities, and
25 WHEREAS, the faculty staff and students of the
26 university have accomplished world-class results in numerous
27 areas of healthcare research, including the University of
28 Florida's College of Dentistry's efforts to eradicate oral
29 diseases and craniofacial pain and disorders worldwide,
30 including Dr. Jeffery Hillman's exceptional work to eliminate
31 tooth decay for all time, and
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Florida Senate - 2003 (NP) SR 2846
14-2291-03
1 WHEREAS, researchers at the University of Florida have
2 sought innovative, counter-intuitive methods to treat age-old
3 scourges of humankind, including UF's Dr. Terry Flotte's
4 critical work to use harmless adeno-associated viruses to
5 deliver corrective genes to combat such diseases as cystic
6 fibrosis, and
7 WHEREAS, the researchers at the university are
8 advancing the field of the physical sciences whose
9 applications have reached for the sky and beyond, including
10 the work of the new Institute for Future Space Transport, a
11 7-member consortium of universities headed by University of
12 Florida's Professor Wei Shyy, tasked to develop the
13 next-generation near-space transport system, and
14 WHEREAS, the university is applying new technologies to
15 resolve ancient engineering challenges, such as Dr. Marc
16 Hoit's efforts in creating and applying new computerized
17 engineering strategies and tactics now adopted worldwide to
18 examine the safety and effective lifetime of older structures,
19 such as bridges and piers, and designing newer, safer
20 constructions, and
21 WHEREAS, the university has unique programs essential
22 to the welfare of the state of Florida and all its
23 inhabitants, such as the university's College of Veterinary
24 Medicine where Dr. Janet Yamamoto, Professor of Pathology, has
25 recently received approval by the United States Department of
26 Agriculture of a vaccine she created to defeat the spread of
27 feline immunodeficiency virus, a disease that may infect as
28 much as 25 percent of the global domestic cat population, and
29 may have application in the development of a human AIDS
30 vaccine, and
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Florida Senate - 2003 (NP) SR 2846
14-2291-03
1 WHEREAS, the university is Florida's largest, oldest
2 land-grant institution, whose Institute of Food and
3 Agricultural Sciences has global reach and monumental
4 statewide impact on mastering all manner of agricultural and
5 consumer concerns, including the work of UF's Dr. Nan-Yao Su,
6 the world's authority on the behavioral ecology and control of
7 subterranean termites, whose creation of a monitoring/baiting
8 program with hexaflumuron, now commercially available to the
9 public under the trade name, Sentricon, now provides a more
10 environmentally safe, highly effective means of reducing
11 termite devastation, which had been costing consumers in this
12 country $1.5 billion annually to control, and
13 WHEREAS, the University of Florida continually excels
14 across the range of its student-athletics programs, from NCAA
15 Division 1 powerhouses in major sports to earning national
16 championships with its student intramural programs, and
17 creating exceptional opportunities for young men and women to
18 experience the joy and rugged self-discipline of
19 student-athleticism, with results that rank UF's overall
20 intercollegiate sports programs as the best in its conference
21 and one of the top 5 programs in the country when considering
22 overall game day success, graduation rates, support, Title IX
23 compliance, and commitment to excellence, as exemplified by
24 the university's dedication to bringing to its campus the
25 finest coaches in the country, to include Women's Basketball
26 Coach Carolyn Peck, NOW, THEREFORE,
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28 Be It Resolved by the Senate of the State of Florida:
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30 That the Florida Senate celebrates April 15, 2003, as
31 "The University of Florida Day" in Tallahassee, in honor of
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Florida Senate - 2003 (NP) SR 2846
14-2291-03
1 the University of Florida's singular contributions to its
2 state, its nation, and throughout the world since its
3 inception 150 years ago.
4 BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that a copy of this resolution,
5 with the Seal of the Senate affixed, be presented to Dr.
6 Charles E. Young, President of the University of Florida, as a
7 token of the sentiments of the Florida Senate.
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