Florida Gulf Coast University , also known as FGCU , is a coeducational public university located in Estero near Fort Myers, Florida which promotes environmental sustainability. FGCU competes in the Atlantic Sun Conference in Division I sports and is accredited by the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools to award associate's, bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees.
History
The school was established by then-governor Lawton Chiles in 1991, although the site of the university wasn't chosen until 1992, and construction pushed back even further still (until 1995). The school first held classes in August 1997. Roy McTarnaghan was named as the university's founding president. Under President McTarnaghan, the school was originally intended to be a commuter university which focused on providing classes principally through the internet. In August 1998, the university completed its first phase of student housing which featured traditional dorms in which two students shared a single room and cohabited together. On May 1, 1999, President McTarnaghan announced his decision to step down from his position as President of FGCU.
In July 1999, William C. Merwin was named as FGCU's President. Merwin brought with him a different vision for FGCU. Instead of being a commuter school which dealt mostly with non-traditional students who took classes online, President Merwin envisioned a traditional four-year university which leveraged modern day technology to enhance both the learning and day to day experience of the FGCU student body. New apartment-style dorms were constructed which allowed for FGCU students to have a greater degree of privacy. Every student would have their own room and there would be a kitchen which would be shared by the four other students in the apartment. The internet was not seen as the exclusive means by which students took classes, but as an additional supplement to the traditional classroom environment.
Under the new university structure, students would attend small, in-person classes which used an online system to increase communication between the professor and the students. President Merwin engaged in an aggressive fund raising effort in order to make the construction of the highest quality facilities a reality for FGCU. In an eight year period Bill Merwin raised more than $250 million for the university and engaged in a rapid expansion of the student and faculty populations. Multiple state of the art buildings were constructed, including: The Lutgert College of Business, Holmes Hall (Whitaker School of Engineering), The Whitaker Building, Academic Building V, the student union building, Alico Arena and a massive expansion of on-campus housing. As a result of the fund raising and aggressive construction, student enrollment at FGCU has annually increased in double digits, from approximately 2,000 students in its first year to over 11,000 today. Over the next five years, undergraduate enrollment is expected to increase to more than 15,000 students. In 2007, Bill Merwin was forced to step-down as the university president as a result of an inappropriate relationship which took place between a faculty member and himself. Later in 2007, Wilson G. Bradshaw was named as the University's third president.
Campus
FGCU's campus is located near Fort Myers, Florida and 12 miles (19 km) from Naples, Florida. FGCU is located on 760 acres (3.1 km 2 ) in Southwest Florida. The campus site was originally donated by the Alico corporation after the Board of Regents reviewed 22 prospective sites. An area of 400 acres (1.6 km 2 ) of the main campus is set aside for environmental preservation. There are three other satellite campus locations: Naples, the Cape Coral Center and the Charlotte Center in Punta Gorda), which are yet to be expanded.
The 63,000-square-foot (5,900 m 2 ) Lutgert College of Business building and the 70,000-square-foot (6,500 m 2 ) Holmes Hall - U.A. Whitaker School of Engineering Building have recently been built. In addition, the 40,000-square-foot (3,700 m 2 ) Herbert J. Sugden Hall - Resort & Hospitality Management Building has been completed. The university is nearing completion of the 60,000-square-foot (5,600 m 2 ) Academic Building 7 for the College of Arts and Sciences and has published plans for Academic Building 8: a $24 million, 60,000-square-foot (5,600 m 2 ) building for use by the College of Health Professions to be completed in July 2011. Other current construction projects on the campus include the 20,000-square-foot (1,900 m 2 ) expansion of the student union building, the 24,700-square-foot (2,290 m 2 ) addition to the fine arts building (which will be a 58,000-square-foot (5,400 m 2 ) addition at build-out) and the construction of one of the largest solar panel fields at any university. The university has also announced that they will build a shared-use facility at the Naples Botanical Gardens. In 2008, FGCU became one of the first academic institutions in the country to include the metric system on its roadsigns. They have since been taken down.
In 2007, the university purchased the former Bonita Beach Plantation Resort in Bonita Springs for use as a marine research laboratory. The Norm and Nancy Vester Marine and Environmental Science Research Field Station site has 10 boat slips and is located on Estero Bay. The site includes laboratories, offices, apartments for visiting researchers and a classroom. In addition, the university has been preparing plans for a research center at the Rookery Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve which is mid-way between Naples and Marco Island.
In October 2006, a 12-person panel of leading Charlotte County citizens was tasked with selecting the future location of an FGCU-Charlotte Satellite Center. There were five respondents to the Invitation to Negotiate (ITN). Each respondent met the minimum criteria of the ITN (although one was later removed from the process for falling short on (2) of the requirements) of 150 acres (0.61 km 2 ) of land, $5M in cash to the university. In a unanimous vote by the panel (notably including Charlotte County Board of Commissioners Chairman, Tom Moore), only one was chosen, Hudson Sun-River. In their proposal to the FGCU, Hudson Sun-River offered $5M in cash, 150ac of land (located within their 2,458ac 'University Village' master-planned development), $750,000 in annual operating funds and up to $70M of built-out infrastructure.
Academics
The Fall 2009 acceptance rate for FGCU is 62 percent, more selective than previous terms. US News ranks FGCU as third-tier among Masters-granting institutions in the South.The Lutgert College of business is an AACSB accredited institution, offering undergraduate degrees in Accounting, Computer Information Systems, Economics, Finance, Management and Marketing. In addition, the college offers the following graduate degrees: Accounting and Taxation, Computer Information Systems and Business Administration (both traditional and executive). Princeton Review also cites it as one of the top 301 business schools in the country. Hospitality Management is a popular major on campus, with students getting the opportunity to gain supervised field work experience at one of many resorts in the area. Professional Golf Management is a unique program with limited access, much like the Nursing, Music and Athletic Training programs. FGCU has a unique requirement prior to graduation, University Colloquium, as it was built in an ecologically sensitive area. The aim of this Colloquium is to educate graduates on the importance of ecology and preservation..
FGCU also offers Civil, Environmental, and Biological Engineering. The first graduating classes of all three of these disciplines received their diplomas in May 2009. FGCU engineering majors of the first graduating class will actually have to take the Fundamentals of Engineering exam, which allows one to become an engineering intern, and receive their certification which validates this achievement in an unconventional manner; FGCU will have to become accredited by the board after they graduate. The second engineering class should not have this inconvenience. Holmes Hall was built primarily to facilitate the new Engineering program; however, Computer Science majors also use the building for their majors, and some nursing classes take place there as well.
The university is currently expanding its graduate offerings and is adding to its research capabilities, with an Environmental Forensics Facility or "body farm" in the works, under the direction of Dr. Heather Walsh-Haney. The Division of Justice Studies in the College of Professional Studies is in its 3rd year of offering a Master of Science in Criminal Forensic Studies. Students can choose to become qualified as a Forensic Behavior Analyst, under Dr. Duane Dobbert, or in Human Identity under Dr. Walsh-Haney.
The Death Investigator concentration prepares students to work in the field as medico-legal death investigators for Medical examiner's offices, as well as crime scene investigators or law enforcement detectives. Those in Death Investigations specialize in Human Identity and Trauma Analysis. The Human and Trauma ID concentration, under the direction of forensic anthropologist Dr. Wa
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