Florida Senate - 2013                            (NP)    SR 1780
       
       
       
       By Senator Gardiner
       
       
       
       
       13-02188-13                                           20131780__
    1                          Senate Resolution                        
    2         A resolution extending congratulations to the faculty,
    3         administration, staff, students, and alumni of the
    4         University of Central Florida on the occasion of the
    5         university’s 50th anniversary and recognizing March
    6         20, 2013, as “UCF Day” in Florida.
    7  
    8         WHEREAS, the University of Central Florida (UCF) is the
    9  nation’s second-largest university, with an enrollment of nearly
   10  60,000 students and more than 210,000 alumni, the majority of
   11  whom reside in this state, and
   12         WHEREAS, UCF is a major driver of economic development and
   13  the direct, indirect, and induced impact of UCF operations,
   14  student spending, and the Central Florida Research Park resulted
   15  in an economic output of more than $4.3 billion for the 2011
   16  fiscal year, and
   17         WHEREAS, the award-winning DirectConnect to UCF program is
   18  a national model for providing Floridians the opportunity to
   19  affordably attain higher education through partnerships with
   20  local state colleges, and
   21         WHEREAS, UCF’s College of Medicine helped attract a cluster
   22  of life sciences centers and research institutions to the new
   23  Medical City in Lake Nona, which is projected to bring more than
   24  30,000 jobs to the Orlando community and to have more than $7.6
   25  billion in annual economic impact beginning in 2017, and
   26         WHEREAS, UCF has more than doubled the awarding of critical
   27  science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) degrees
   28  in the past decade, and
   29         WHEREAS, UCF is regularly ranked as one of the nation’s
   30  “best value” universities for its affordability, value, and
   31  quality by organizations such as the Princeton Review and
   32  Kiplinger, and
   33         WHEREAS, UCF strives to reflect the growing diversity of
   34  its community, with minorities representing 40 percent of the
   35  student body, and
   36         WHEREAS, UCF is a model of efficiency, spending nearly 40
   37  percent less on administrative costs than the state university
   38  system average, and
   39         WHEREAS, the modeling, simulation, and training industry is
   40  anchored in Central Florida, bringing $3 billion to the region
   41  thanks to partnerships between UCF, the United States Armed
   42  Forces, and innovative high-tech companies, and
   43         WHEREAS, UCF fosters the arts in the community through its
   44  partnerships in theatre, digital film, music, and public
   45  television and radio broadcasting, and
   46         WHEREAS, UCF serves as a valued contributor to the Central
   47  Florida region through staff and student volunteers who generate
   48  more than 200,000 service hours annually to charities in the
   49  community and more than $200,000 through fundraising efforts,
   50  and
   51         WHEREAS, 2013 marks the 50th anniversary of the founding of
   52  UCF, NOW, THEREFORE,
   53  
   54  Be It Resolved by the Senate of the State of Florida:
   55  
   56         That we congratulate the faculty, administration, staff,
   57  students, and alumni of the University of Central Florida on the
   58  occasion of the university’s 50th anniversary and recognize
   59  March 20, 2013, as “UCF Day” in Florida.