The University of Tampa and Hillsborough County Public School Board have joined forces to focus on improving high-needs schools by encouraging teachers to receive advanced degrees specializing in school leadership for turn-around schools.
The initiative, which begins in fall 2017, establishes a special cohort of selected Hillsborough County Public School (HCPS) teachers who will pursue a master’s degree in educational leadership. The curriculum, which is designed to coordinate with the HCPS Leadership Pipeline, will focus on administrative leadership and emphasize improving high-needs schools.
A special focus of the M.Ed. (Educational Leadership) is the provision of an embedded course-aligned internship that will span the entire 30 credits of the program. Program participants will spend every semester in schools learning every aspect of school leadership.
HCPS will pay 50 percent of the tuition for these students. The program will be delivered on the UT campus, and will be taught by UT professors, as well as by highly respected school leaders from all of the five school districts across the Tampa Bay area.
“The turn-around leadership initiative is a great example of how teacher education entities can partner with community stakeholders to effect significant change in schools,” said Tony Erben, chair of UT’s Department of Education. “This is a lighthouse model on how leaders of the future can be developed.”
Yinka Alege, director of leadership development at HCPS, said another benefit of the program is that teachers selected for the M.Ed program will also work in high-needs schools so they can discuss and apply what they are learning from their perspective in those schools.
“The partnership allows our district to attract highly qualified teachers to work in high-need schools,” he said.
UT and HCPS will work together to interview each candidate who is selected through three stages of interview screening. This will include reviewing essays, recommendations and references, as well as 45-minute interviews at school site visits where both entities will interview colleagues, students, support staff, teacher leaders and school administrators in an effort to ensure only the best are selected.
According to Adrianne Wilson, graduate coordinator of the Educational Leadership program, this is UT’s first structured effort to specifically train the next generation of school principals targeted toward high-need schools.
University of Tampa
UT's Undergraduate Research Celebration Begins April 14
Though research is often thought of as something for faculty or graduate students, participating in a research project as an undergraduate gives students a better understanding of their field and the opportunity to develop relationships with faculty.
From April 14–28, The University of Tampa will celebrate undergraduate research with a series of events:
- Friday, April 14: Sykes College of Business Student Research Day. Students from the Sykes College of Business will present their current or recently completed research projects in a poster format. Poster presentations will be held in the Cass Gym from 2–4 p.m.
- Thursday, April 20, and Friday, April 21: Honors Undergraduate Research Fellows presentations. The Honors Program Undergraduate Research Fellows will be officially recognized and give oral presentations of their findings. Presentations begin at 1 p.m. on April 20 and at 4 p.m. April 21 in Reeves Theater.
- Wednesday, April 26: College of Social Sciences, Mathematics and Education Undergraduate Research Conference. CSSME students will present original, empirical research within an area of the disciplines represented in the college. The event will be held in Plant Hall, Fletcher Lounge from 4–6 p.m.
- Friday, April 28: College of Natural and Health Sciences Undergraduate Research Symposium. CNHS students will present their current or recently completed research projects in a poster format. The keynote presentation, “Virus Hunting in the Age of Metagenomics: Exploring Active Infections, Environmental Reservoirs and Transmission Mechanisms” by Mya Breitbart, associate professor in the University of South Florida College of Marine Science, will be held on the ninth floor of the Vaughn Center from 2–3 p.m., followed by poster presentations from 3–5 p.m.
In addition, on Saturday, April 22, the University will host its annual Human Rights Conference. Organized by UT’s Human Rights Think Tank, the conference is dedicated to the understanding, analysis and promotion of the global human rights movement. Presentations will be made by students, professors and human rights activists. The keynote speakers are Amy Benson and Scott Squire, co-directors of the documentary Drawing the Tiger. The conference will be held on the ninth floor of the Vaughn Center from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
For more information, go to www.ut.edu/urc.
CEO Magazine Places UT Sykes College of Business in Top Tier for MBA and Executive MBA Programs
CEO Magazine has ranked The University of Tampa Sykes College of Business’ MBA as a top tier program in North America, and named UT’s Executive MBA program as the No. 32 global executive MBA program.
For the ranking, CEO Magazine used numerous data points, including quality of faculty, international diversity, class size, accreditation, faculty to student ratio, price, international exposure, gender parity and delivery methods.
Joining UT in the top tier of MBA programs are Texas A&M University, Virginia Tech, Pepperdine University and Boston University.
At No. 32, the Sykes College of Business’ EMBA program ranked in between the Bradford University School of Management in the UK, and the Solvay Brussels School of Economics and Management in Belgium.
Frank Ghannadian, dean of the Sykes College of Business, said this ranking shows that UT students — many of whom come from around the world — are getting one of the highest quality educations in the world.
“Our students are fortunate in being able to be engaged with both the local and global business communities,” Ghannadian said.
CEO Magazine has been showcasing top business schools from around the globe since it first launched in 2008. In 2012 the publication launched its annual Global MBA Rankings, profiling MBA, Executive MBA and Online MBA programs.
UT’s MBA program helps students develop the sophisticated strategic mind-set demonstrated by successful executives. The Executive MBA program is designed for experienced professionals seeking a collaborative and interdisciplinary approach to mastering the art of leadership in the new economy.
Both programs are housed within the Sykes College of Business and are accredited by AACSB International, the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business.
The complete CEO Magazine Global MBA Rankings 2017 can be viewed in the latest edition of CEO Magazine or online on the magazine’s website.
CEO Magazine is a Sydney, Australia-based monthly business magazine for CEOs and executives around the world.
Exonerated Death Row Inmate Juan Melendez to Speak at UT Honors Symposium April 13
Imagine spending nearly two decades of your life on death row for a crime you didn’t commit. On Thursday, April 13, The University of Tampa Honors Program symposia series will welcome Juan Roberto Melendez, who will share his experience of being wrongly convicted and spending almost 18 years on Florida’s death row. His talk, titled “Presumed Guilty: Injustice, Survival and Hope on Death Row,” begins at 4 p.m. in the Crescent Club on the ninth floor of the Vaughn Center and is free and open to the public.
In 1983, in a trial that lasted just a week, Melendez was convicted and sentenced to death for the murder of Delbert Baker. He spent 17 years, eight months and one day on Florida’s death row until the discovery of a taped confession of the real killer 16 years after his conviction. Upon his release on Jan. 3, 2002, he became the 99th death row prisoner in the U.S. to be released with evidence of innocence since 1973 (the number is currently 157).
During his talk, Melendez will highlight the myriad of problems he feels plague the death penalty system, including its high risk and inevitability of being imposed on the innocent, its unfair and unequal application on the basis of race and ethnicity and its almost exclusive imposition on our most defenseless and vulnerable members of society — the poor.
For more information, contact the Honors Program at (813) 257-3545 or [email protected].
The University of Tampa is a private, residential university located on 110 acres on the riverfront in downtown Tampa. Known for academic excellence, personal attention and real-world experience in its undergraduate and graduate programs, the University serves 8,310 students from 50 states and 140 countries. Approximately 65 percent of full-time students live on campus, and more than half of UT students are from Florida.
UT Lowth Entrepreneurship Center Hosts Inaugural New Venture Exposition on April 14
The University of Tampa Lowth Entrepreneurship Center will showcase its students’ startup business concepts at the inaugural New Venture Exposition on Friday, April 14.
The exposition will be held from 9 a.m. to noon in the Lowth Entrepreneurship Center, which is located in the Daly Innovation and Collaboration Building on the UT campus. It is free and open to the public.
The New Venture Exposition is the culmination of work of the Lowth Entrepreneurship Center students and program participants. Graduate students in the M.S. in Entrepreneurship program, as well as senior undergraduate students majoring in entrepreneurship, will present business concepts that were developed at the start of the academic year. Their concepts will be judged alongside Spartan Accelerator and Incubator program participants, many of whom have already committed hundreds of hours to their new ventures.
The students will compete in the following categories: 1) Tech, Online and Application; 2) Retail and Product; 3) Health Care; 4) Food and Beverages, Hospitality and Entertainment; 5) Services. Winners in each of the categories will be selected by experts in each field. Experts will include Lowth Center advisory board members, entrepreneurs- and experts-in-residence, UT faculty members and other community stakeholders in the Tampa Bay entrepreneurial ecosystem.
This annual, campus-wide event will educate students and the community about opportunities the Lowth Center provides and enhance students’ ability to achieve their professional goals. It will also provide employers access to qualified candidates to meet their recruitment needs.
To register for the event, visit https://2017newventureexpo.eventbrite.com.
2016-2017 PNC Bank Concert Artist Series Concludes with Alexander Frey April 2
On Sunday, April 2, The University of Tampa will welcome multi-talented pianist Alexander Frey, whom Leonard Bernstein referred to as “a wonderful spirit,” for the final concert in the 2016-2017 PNC Bank Concert Artist Series at the Sykes Chapel and Center for Faith and Values. The performance begins at 2 p.m. and is free and open to the public.
The program for the concert will include works by Erich Wolfgang Korngold (1897-1957) and Leonard Bernstein (1918-1990), including the North American premiere of Korngold’s Walz an Luzi and the world premiere of Bernstein’s Valse Gaea. Frey will also perform Korngold’s Don Quixote and Marchenbilder, Op. 3, and Bernstein’s Thirteen Anniversaries.
Although living in Berlin, Frey’s career as a conductor, organist, pianist, harpsichordist and recording artist has taken him all over the globe with performances in the music capitals of Europe, North and South America, Asia and Africa.
As pianist and organist, Frey has performed with many of the world’s great symphony orchestras. He also served as principal conductor of the Rome Philharmonic Orchestra from 1996–2002 and the Bohemia Symphony Orchestra in Prague from 2000–2006, and his many guest conducting appearances include performances with almost 50 orchestras on five continents. This year, he is serving as artist-in-residence for the Gaulitana International Music Festival in Malta.
Amongst his many recordings, his award-winning recording of Korngold’s Between Two Worlds was listed by Gramophone Magazine as one of the “250 Greatest Recordings of All Time,” and his recording of Bernstein’s Peter Pan reached No. 8 on the Billboard Classical Music Chart. He released two new albums in 2016, Tribal Domestic (Sony) and Big Americana Box (Bach Guild).
Doors open at 1:30 p.m. Seating is limited and available on a first-come, first-served basis. Parking is available on campus, 401 W. Kennedy Blvd.
The 2016-2017 PNC Bank Concert Artist Series is underwritten by PNC Bank and the UT College of Arts and Letters. For more information, contact [email protected] or go to www.ut.edu/sykeschapel.
National Geographic Photographer Jodi Cobb to Speak at UT April 5
On Wednesday, April 5, stop by The University of Tampa to hear veteran National Geographic photographer Jodi Cobb give a retrospective of her distinguished career that has spanned four decades. The event begins at 1 p.m. in Reeves Theater on the second floor of the Vaughn Center and is free and open to the public.
Cobb is a member of a group of intrepid National Geographic photographers who go to great lengths and often take serious risks to bring back the powerful stories readers expect to see in the magazine.
Known for breaking through barriers and going undercover to reveal hidden societies, Cobb has captured glimpses of worlds such as Japan’s secret geisha culture and the cloistered lives of Saudi Arabian women.
In 2004, she published a landmark story on “21st Century Slaves,” which exposed a wide range of human trafficking. The story generated more positive reader mail and commendations than any other story in National Geographic’s history to that time.
This National Geographic Live event is sponsored by UT’s Office of International Programs. For more information, contact Lisa Shemon, coordinator of international programs education and outreach, at (813) 258-7431 or [email protected].
UT Speech Program Speaker Series Continues March 30 with Equality Florida CEO Nadine Smith
The University of Tampa Speech Program Speaker Series continues on Thursday, March 30, with Nadine Smith, CEO of Equality Florida. The event begins at 2 p.m. in the Sykes Chapel and Center for Faith and Values and is free and open to the public.
Smith is the co-founder and CEO of Equality Florida, the state’s largest organization dedicated to ending discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. A former award-winning journalist turned organizer, Smith was a national co-chair of the 1993 March on Washington and part of the historic Oval Office meeting with President Bill Clinton, the first such meeting between a sitting president and gay community leaders.
This year’s series will conclude on Thursday, April 20, with Michael Farmer, statewide deputy director of development for Equality Florida. Since 2012, Farmer and his teams across the state have raised more than $2 million for LGBT equality in Florida. In 2012, he was nominated as one of The Advocate’s “40 under 40” activists in the nation, and he was recently recognized by Congressman Alan Grayson as one of the top 50 LGBT leaders in Florida.
The series is sponsored by UT’s Center for Public Speaking and the speech program, who have partnered this year with Equality Florida to bring talented speakers from throughout the state to the University.
For more information, contact Chris Gurrie, speech program coordinator and assistant professor of speech, at (813) 257-1711 or [email protected].
The University of Tampa is a private, residential university located on 110 acres on the riverfront in downtown Tampa. Known for academic excellence, personal attention and real-world experience in its undergraduate and graduate programs, the University serves 8,310 students from 50 states and 140 countries. Approximately 65 percent of full-time students live on campus, and more than half of UT students are from Florida.
UT Announces New Academic Building for Graduate and Health Studies
Six-story structure will house UT’s renowned nursing program, graduate
program offices, classrooms, labs and faculty offices; Phase II will
house technology programs in twin building, joined by sky bridge
To support academic needs in its expanding health sciences and graduate programs, The University of Tampa has announced it will build a new, six-story academic building in the heart of campus.
The nursing program, recently named Florida’s best, will be housed in the new building, as well as the program in physician assistant studies under development, UT’s Office of Graduate Studies, classrooms, health sciences labs, study spaces and faculty offices.
The Graduate and Health Studies Building will be constructed on what is currently the intramural field in the center of UT’s campus, just east of Pepin Stadium. The building will blend with the architecture of UT’s campus, with red brick, precast concrete, metal and glass. It will offer panoramic views of campus and downtown Tampa, and will include typical Florida landscaping.
At 90,000 square feet, the building will be UT’s largest academic building.
“With this facility we hope to strengthen UT’s health sciences programs with state-of-the-art spaces, including simulation labs, an anatomy lab and all the latest health technology and equipment,” UT President Ron Vaughn said. “Plus, this building will enhance our graduate programs.”
The building will also have a state-of-the-art audiovisual system, the same as used in health care facilities, that is designed to capture clinical and learning events for future review and assessment by students from anywhere. This will help to facilitate a unique connectivity to other health care facilities, enhancing the student clinical experience.
The building is expected to be completed in Fall 2018.
Construction of future academic buildings on campus will focus on sciences and the arts. A second phase of the Graduate and Health Studies Building, which includes a twin, 90,000-square-foot adjoining academic building, will also be built in the future, but the timetable has not yet been set. This building will be UT’s Technology Building, housing the many academic programs related to technology and much of UT’s administrative technology support systems. The two buildings are planned to be joined by a three-story sky bridge to allow for additional functional space with superb campus views amidst the pedestrian corridor between the two buildings.
While it will be the biggest, the Graduate and Health Studies Building follows a number of new or completely renovated spaces built on campus since 2000 that function for primarily academic purposes. It follows the Sykes College of Business (2000), Marine Science Field Station (2002), R.K. Bailey Art Studios (2003), Edison Building (2003), Ferman Music Center (2005), Falk Theatre (2005), Scarfone/Hartley Gallery (2007), Cass Science and Communication Building (2008), Science Annex (2010), Sykes Chapel and Center for Faith and Values (2010), Nursing Skills Lab (2011), MacKechnie Academic Building (2011), Health Sciences and Human Performance Building (2012), Schoomaker ROTC and Athletics Building (2013), North Walker Hall (2013), East Walker Hall (2013), West Walker Hall (2014), Daly Innovation and Collaboration Building (2015), and Kennedy/Boulevard Academic Building (2016).
Construction of the Graduate and Health Studies Building will be paid for through a combination of individual gifts and University funds. An official name of the new facility will be announced at a later date.
In alignment with UT’s commitment to create a responsible, efficient, healthy and sustainable campus, the building was designed to be a candidate for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification by the U.S. Green Building Council.
The team of Beck Architecture and KWJ Architects designed the building, which will be constructed by Beck.
Floor-by-Floor Details:
FIRST FLOOR — General classroom space along with student gathering areas and study spaces. “Smart” classrooms will incorporate tiered seating.
SECOND AND THIRD FLOORS — 30,000 square feet designed for UT’s program in physician assistant studies under development. This facility includes a clinical skills lab, patient simulation labs, assessment rooms, digital anatomy lab, classrooms, study spaces, offices, a conference room and a unique moulage room, which is a specialized room for applying mock injuries for student training.
FOURTH AND FIFTH FLOORS — Dedicated home of UT’s nursing program. This 30,000 square feet of nursing space includes a reception area, a large patient care center, ICU simulation rooms, health assessment clinical spaces, a student lounge and study spaces, faculty and staff offices, a large conference room and classrooms. “It will be a top-notch facility for our top-notch program,” said Vaughn.
SIXTH FLOOR — The sixth floor will include a reception area, a student study area, a conference room, classrooms, approximately 25 faculty and staff offices and other workspaces to provide support to UT’s Office of Graduate Studies. Additionally, until a new science building is built, this floor will temporarily house two physics labs, a physics classroom and a physics research lab.
CEOs of Dairy Queen, Auto-Owners Insurance, Act·1 Group and L.L. Bean to Speak at UT Fellows Forum March 21
Chief Executives of International Dairy Queen, Auto-Owners Insurance,
Act·1 Group and L.L. Bean to Speak at UT Fellows Forum March 21
The leaders of International Dairy Queen, Auto-Owners Insurance, Act·1 Group and L.L. Bean are slated to speak at The University of Tampa’s Fellows Forum on Tuesday, March 21, at the Straz Center for the Performing Arts in Ferguson Hall. A continental breakfast will be served at 7:15 a.m., and the program will run from 8–9:30 a.m.
Speakers include John Gainor, president and CEO of International Dairy Queen; Jeffrey Harrold, chairman and CEO of Auto-Owners Insurance; Janice Bryant Howroyd, founder and CEO of Act·1 Group; and Stephen Smith, CEO of L.L. Bean.
John Gainor is president and CEO of International Dairy Queen Inc., a Berkshire Hathaway company. Gainor is responsible for overseeing more than 6,800 restaurants in the Dairy Queen, Orange Julius and Karmelkorn systems throughout the U.S., Canada and 28 other countries.
Jeffrey F. Harrold is chairman of the board and CEO of Auto-Owners Insurance, a mutual insurance company that offers auto, home, business and life insurance to policyholders exclusively through independent agents. Auto-Owners Insurance has been ranked among the Fortune 500 every year for the past 14 years.
Janice Bryant Howroyd is the founder and CEO of The Act·1 Group, the largest privately held, woman- and minority-owned workforce management company in the U.S. Founded in 1978, the Act·1 Group provides employment, workforce management and procurement solutions to a wide range of organizations, companies and government agencies in 19 countries.
Stephen Smith is president and CEO of L.L. Bean, an American, privately held e-commerce, mail-order and retail company founded in 1912 by Leon Leonwood Bean. The company, based in Freeport, ME, has grown from a one-man operation to a global organization with annual sales of $1.6 billion.
The forum will be moderated by Stacie Schaible of WFLA News Channel 8.
Tickets are $40 and may be purchased through the Greater Tampa Chamber of Commerce’s website at www.tampachamber.com. Proceeds from the event go toward the Board of Fellows Endowed Scholarship, which supports students in the Sykes College of Business.
Since 1987, the Fellows Forum has been the annual flagship event for The University of Tampa Board of Fellows, bringing nationally recognized executives to Tampa to share their business experiences. Last year’s forum attracted more than 1,000 attendees.
This year’s presenting sponsor is Verizon. Platinum sponsors include the Straz Center, Design Styles Architecture, United Healthcare, Beck, UBS, Phelps Dunbar, Clark Capital Investments, Brown & Brown Insurance, Hill Ward Henderson, Harden, Jabil and Auto-Owners Insurance.
For more information, go to www.ut.edu/FellowsForum or contact Niti Shah, director of Fellows and Counselors, at (813) 257-6220 or [email protected].
The University of Tampa is a private, residential university located on 110 acres on the riverfront in downtown Tampa. Known for academic excellence, personal attention and real-world experience in its undergraduate and graduate programs, the University serves 8,310 students from 50 states and 140 countries. Approximately 65 percent of full-time students live on campus, and more than half of UT students are from Florida.
