Florida Polytechnic University

I headed to my conference in Tampa a day early to visit Florida Polytechnic University in nearby Lakeland, Florida. Florida Poly was established in 2012 to advance the state's high- tech economy. It's a very small school with only 1600 undergraduates, 93% of whom come from in-state, and over 80% of whom are male. There are 2 new gorgeous academic buildings and several dorms. But other than that there's just an enormous amount of space. The university would like to establish partnerships with companies in the tech industry to pursue research together, and I believe there are plans to develop facilities on or adjacent to campus to facilitate this.

There are majors in civil, computer, cybersecurity, electrical, environmental, industrial, and mechanical engineering as well as applied math, business analytics, computer science, data science, and engineering physics. All students are assigned and academic success coach.

The campus was extremely quiet when I visited over Veterans Day weekend but there was a lot of evidence of a strong campus culture with flyers everywhere offering all kinds of clubs and events. We were told that the college's Florida PolyCon is 50% Comic-Con and 50% spring fling.

They are undergoing a presidential search as the current president will be retiring in July 2024. It will be interesting to see where new leadership takes them!