The Early Years Through 1979

The founding of FIU began with Senator Ernest "Cap" Graham (the father of former Florida governor and current U.S. Senator Bob Graham), who presented the initial proposal to the Florida legislature in 1943 to establish a state university in South Florida. Graham was ahead of his time, recognizing that Miami needed a state university to serve its growing population. While his bill did not pass, the Senator Graham persisted in presenting his proposal to his colleagues, warning them that Miami needed a state university.

In 1965, Florida Senator Robert M. Haverfield introduced Senate Bill 711, which instructed the state Board of Education and the Board of Regents (BOR) to begin planning for the development of a state university in Miami. The governor signed the bill into law in June 1965, and FIU was on its way to becoming a reality.

FIU's founding president Charles "Chuck" Perry, who passed away in 1999, was appointed by the Board of Regents in July 1969 after a nationwide search. Just 31 years old, the new president was the youngest in the history of the State University System and, at the time, the youngest university president in the country.

Perry recruited the three co-founders - Butler Waugh, Donald McDowell and Nick Sileo - who came to abandoned Tamiami Airport in the summer of 1969 and launched the monumental task of creating a new university. Alvah Chapman, former Miami Herald publisher and Knight Ridder chairman, used his civic standing and media power to assist the effort. In the 1980s, Chapman would become chair of the FIU Foundation Board of Trustees.

In September 1972, 5,667 students finally entered the new state university. Miami had been the largest city in the country lacking a public baccalaureate-granting institution, and now it finally had a university that offered both accessibility and affordability. Eighty percent of the student body had just graduated from Miami-Dade Community College. A typical student entering FIU was 25 years old and attending school full-time while holding down a full-time job. Forty-three percent were married. FIU was far from your typical university.

The first commencement, held in June 1973, was held in the reading room of the ground floor of Primera Casa (today called the Perry Building) - the only place large enough on campus for the ceremony. More than 1,500 family members and friends watched FIU's first class of 191 graduates receive their diplomas.

By late 1975, after seven years at the helm, Chuck Perry felt he had accomplished his goal and left the University to become president and publisher of Family Weekly, one of the country's largest magazines. When he left, there were over 10,000 students attending classes and a campus with five major buildings and a sixth being planned.

Harold Crosby, the University's second president and the founding president of the University of West Florida in Pensacola, agreed in 1976 to serve a three-year "interim" term. Under his leadership, the North Campus (which will be officially renamed the Biscayne Bay Campus in February) - located on the former Interama site on Biscayne Bay - was opened in 1977. State Senator Jack Gordon was instrumental in securing funding for the development of the campus. President Crosby was also insistent that the "I" in FIU be highlighted, which prompted the launching of new programs with an international focus and the recruitment of faculty from the Caribbean and Latin America. President Crosby's resignation in January 1979, triggered the search for a "permanent" president.