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The campus at University Park occupies 344 acres ten miles west of downtown Miami. It has twelve major buildings, apartments for 1550 students, and an athletic arena. About 30 miles away, in northeast Dade County, the North Campus occupies 195 acres on Biscayne Bay. It has six major buildings, an Olympic-sized aquatic center and housing accommodations for 550 students. FIU also collaborates to provide a select number of University programs and services at two sites in Broward County and one in Homestead. The newly acquired Cordis building, with 40 acres of land, offers additional opportunities for our Center for Engineering and Applied Sciences.
Nine strengths of the region and University form the foundations upon which the University's future will be built. Resulting from comprehensive analysis and broad discussions, these can be summarized as:
1. Youth of Institution: A relatively young university, not limited by a large stock of aged programs or facilities, it can develop new academic programs, and design new buildings to meet present and future needs.
2. Regional Needs for Higher Education: Southeast Florida is a large metropolitan area with expanding higher education needs, and yet comparatively few major colleges and universities.
3. Regional Growth: The University's primary service area of Dade, Broward and Monroe counties has experienced consistent economic and population growth with continued increase in high school graduates. The increase in high school graduates is expected to continue beyond the year 2000.
4. Good Feeder Schools: Most of the students are graduates of the Dade County Public School System, one of the largest in the country. Recognized for their high quality, Miami-Dade Community College and Broward Community College provide the majority of upper-division transfer students.
5. International Hub: South Florida is one of the few major metropolitan areas with both major air and sea ports; thus, it is one of the key international nodes for the movement of people, information, capital, and cargo, similar to New York, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. With world globalization of economic and political relations, the University's faculty have easy access to other regions of the world.
6. Diversity: The region's international and ethnically diverse population provides the University access to a large multiethnic pool of students, and staff, which, together with its international flavor, serves as a magnet for faculty interested in a diverse environment. The University has successfully recruited a faculty, staff and administration with positive attitudes toward developing programs and curricula designed to value and fully utilize the talents and capabilities of a diverse campus population.
7. Outstanding Faculty: Our outstanding faculty has developed professional expertise and significant records of teaching, research, and service applied to the international, urban, and environmental themes. Faculty have an international reputation and comparative advantage in the study of the Latin American and Caribbean region. Over 90 percent of the faculty have terminal degrees.
8. Pleasant Climate: The campus environment and public spaces are enhanced by the sub-tropical climate and vegetation.
9. Sufficient Land:
The two campuses have many acres of land
to construct new facilities. With the addition of the Cordis building,
with its 40 acres, and land in Homestead, sufficient land should be available
until at least the year 2005.
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