Orange and blue balloons, streamers and banners draped the walls of the Florida State Capitol. UF mascots Albert and Alberta posed for photos with legislators and passersby alike.
Hundreds of UF faculty, students and alumni flooded the halls of the capitol building in Tallahassee to display their research and academic achievements. Representatives from the UF Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, the Colleges of Engineering, Nursing, Liberal Arts and Sciences and countless others were in attendance.
They gathered on Tuesday for Gator Day, the one day each year when volunteers travel to show their support for the university — and ask that the state show it back.
Members of the UF Board of Trustees met with state legislators behind closed doors. They lobbied state representatives for a recurring investment of $50 million and in turn asked: “What can we do for you?”
In exchange for their continued financial support of the university, legislators asked the university to help promote legislative internships, UF’s Director of Government Relations Samantha Sexton said.
“How can we help you help us?” asked Leonard H. Johnson, a member of the UF Board of Trustees. “It’s a very obvious answer. We open the pipeline to get students working in internships, and they continue to support us.”
The board met with about 10 representatives who Sexton said are UF alumni, university stakeholders or state influencers. These include Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody, representatives Chuck Clemons, MaryLynn Magar, Dane Eagle, Chris Sprowls and Ray Rodrigues as well as senators Bill Galvano and Rob Bradley.
Many belong to the Gator Caucus, a group of legislative advocates for UF. These are the representatives who will advocate on behalf of the university to the rest of the House and Senate, Sexton said.
“They’ve been very supportive,” UF President Kent Fuchs said. “The budgets are always tight, so they have to make tough choices. But I think the response has been positive.”
If granted, the $50 million request will help UF achieve its goal of becoming a top-five ranked public university, Fuchs said. The funds will be used to hire more faculty, provide pay raises for existing employees and reduce the student-professor ratio to 16:1.
Outside of the meetings in a busy capitol hall, UF astronomy’s department chair Elizabeth Lada stood before a model telescope. She told visitors about the star formation and research on the universe’s expansion that’s underway in her department.
Her blue galaxy earrings shook when she spoke.
“Science today is expensive,” she said. “We’re really grateful to the university and the state for what they’ve provided us, but there’s always more that can be done.”
Contact Hannah Phillips at hphillips@alligator.org. Follow her on Twitter @haphillips96.
Adam Lizek, a 20-year-old UF computer science junior, uses virtual reality as part of the College of Engineering’s Gator Day display. The college is researching virtual reality applications in education to create smart classrooms, Lizek said.
