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"I think FIU will be the preeminent public university in the southeast United States, and one of the premiere universities in the world. From a global perspective, FIU will be the major public university in Florida. The University will have a full range of professional schools, which will be either independent or major components in a regional higher education system for South Florida.
"Two driving components will shape FIU's future over the next 25 years: the demands of the local population and funding for public higher education for Florida as a whole. It depends on whether wešll continue to have the State University System (as it is currently constituted) in Florida or three or four regional systems like we have here in Texas; wešll see how that will develop over time. FIU will be the major driving force for public higher education in South Florida. Therešs not one doubt in my mind about that.
"From an overall perspective thatšs where FIU will be 25 years from now. However, there are three or four critical elements. There is the funding issue: whether there will be a continuation of the current type of funding formula that continues to be in favor of the University of Florida and that kind of institution. Or whether the funding will be changed to enable newer and different types of institutions to flourish.
"The management and control of institutions is also a major issue. For instance, the development of regional systems: like the FIU System for southeast Florida, the University of Florida System for central Florida, the Florida State System for north Florida. That would level the playing field. All the schools would have the medical schools and law schools and so on, plus large undergraduate populations.
"Also, what will Greater Miami and South Florida demand in terms of program development and research and community service and outreach? What kind of focus will that take? There will also be a significant international component, the globalization of higher education. American higher education has been slow to globalize. With the Internet and instant communications worldwide, how can this institution respond to the challenge of globalization?
"The University cannot forget the importance of the individual to its future. This dynamic major institution cannot lose its soul or heart. It has to continue to be an institution that is very people-oriented and it cannot lose that element of its being. That element is important and must remain dominant as the University moves forward."
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"FIU will be the dominant institution in higher education in greater Miami and the clear leader in higher education in southeast Florida. Our alumni, even more so than they do today, will assume the lion's share of business and public service leadership in Dade County.
"I expect that we will have somewhere on the order of 45,000 students. There will still be a significant number of part-time students, but I would say half our students, 25,000, will be full-time. We will also have upwards of 5,000 to 6,000 students living on campus.
"We'll add another dozen or so Ph.D. programs. By that time we certainly will have a flourishing law school that will have been around for 25 years and our academic programs programs like music, architecture, physics and many others will be nationally recognized and ranked. We will have developed the program and concept for a new type of medical school in South Florida, which will be operated by FIU and FAU and be located somewhere between the main campuses of the two universities.
"At that point we will be involved in a multi-billion-dollar fund-raising campaign. We will go from the current campaign in the next five to 10 years to a $500 million campaign and then later to a several billion dollar campaign.
"By then we will have a major convocation center seating 12,000, where our men's and women's basketball teams compete. The teams will regularly go to the NCAA tournaments and on good years will reach the Sweet 16, the Final Four and beyond. Wešll have a football team that will be about 20 years old and be able to compete with any Division I-A football team in the nation. Our Community Stadium, which will be the FIU football stadium, will be developed to accommodate some 40,000 to 50,000 people. Tamiami Park will become part of the University, and new grounds will be opened by the state to accommodate all of the events that are currently held there. Our partnership with the Youth Fair will be even deeper and more complete than it is now.
"There will be a different distribution of undergraduate and graduate students. At that point we will be 30 percent graduate and 70 percent undergraduate. Another major indicator of university quality is sponsored research sponsored research will rise to the $150 million -$200 million range.
"I think that by that time and this is the analogy I have made for years we will be the UCLA to the University of Florida's (UC) Berkeley. We will emerge as the leading urban institution in the state of Florida and one of the leading urban institutions in the country."
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