50@50: Governor signs bill to create FIU in 1965

To celebrate the university’s 50th anniversary, FIU News is sharing 50 moments in FIU’s history as part of our “50@50″ series. Below is a digital copy of Senate Bill 711, which led to the creation of FIU. The bill was signed into law by Governor W. Haydon Burns on June 22, 1965 [courtesy of the State Archives of Florida]. 

State Senator Robert M. Haverfield introduced Senate Bill 711, which led to the founding of FIU, during the 1965 legislative session.

By Joel Delgado ’12 MS ’17 

When former Florida Governor W. Haydon Burns signed his name on Senate Bill 711, (also known as the “Haverfield Bill”) on June 22, 1965, Florida International University was born.

The bill, introduced by state Sen. Robert M. Haverfield during the 1965 legislative session, instructed the state Board of Education and the Board of Regents (BOR) to begin planning for the development of a state university in Miami.

It was the culmination of a path that began more than two decades earlier by another state senator named Ernest R. Graham, for whom the Graham Center at Modesto A. Maidique Campus is named.

In 1943, Graham presented the initial proposal to the Florida legislature to establish a state university in South Florida to serve its growing population. But Graham, the father of future Florida governor and U.S. Senator Bob Graham, was ahead of his time. The bill failed to pass. His efforts, though, laid the groundwork for the legislation that would pass eight years after his death.

South Florida’s population continued to grow and by the mid-1960s, it became indisputable that a public university would be needed to support the region’s emergence as a center for trade and commerce.

That’s when Haverfield – a former Dade County commissioner who was elected to the Florida Senate in 1964 – stepped in and introduced the legislation. He persuaded 24 of his colleagues to co-sponsor the bill and it passed in the Senate on May 26, 1965, with unanimous approval – 41 “Yeas” and no “Nays.” The House of Representatives followed suit on June 1.

After becoming the first president of FIU, Charles “Chuck” Perry called Haverfield “The Father of Florida International University” for crafting the legislation that turned the dream of a state university in Miami into a reality.

After serving in the Senate, Haverfield became a third district court judge and remained on the court until his death on Sept. 8, 1980.