Skip to Content
President Rosenberg: 'Welcome to early fall!'

President Rosenberg: 'Welcome to early fall!'

June 17, 2019 at 11:01am


On Monday, June 17, President Rosenberg sent the following message to the university community:

At FIU, school is definitely in for the summer.

Early fall – what you may know as Summer B – is the new fall! This is when we welcome the majority of our new students. Today, nearly 1,900 new Panthers will come to campus – and many make up our incoming Class of 2023. This is an outstanding group! Their average GPA is 3.9! These students truly show that our FIU is an incredible cluster of talent!

This time of year is a reminder that the sun never sets on our FIU! In fact, over the past few months, we have continued to make noteworthy gains in virtually every aspect of our work. Here are just a few highlights:

  • FIU’s rise in the rankings:Today, FIU is a top 100 public universityGraduate programs in six FIU colleges are ranked among the top 50 in public universities. Recently, the Florida Board of Governors (BOG) designated FIU as an “emerging preeminent state research university.”
  • Next Horizon:To take our efforts to the next level, we’ve launched our Next Horizon fundraising campaign to support student success and research preeminence. To date, we’ve raised $500 million – and are getting closer to our goal of $750! This campaign’s success will help us build an even better FIU, one that can continue to provide economic mobility for our community while becoming a Top 50 public research university. Your support for the campaign through Ignite is exemplary. To date, faculty and staff have provided over $5 million to support their favorite FIU programs.
  • Strategic Plan:Recently, FIU’s Board of Trustees approved our 2025 Strategic Plan! This is the next step in our university’s evolution and builds on our past achievements while prioritizing learner success. Our new plan will allow us to achieve our vison of being a 21st century student and learner-centric institution.
  • Learner success:In this era of performance funding, we’re more focused than ever before on ensuring our students are successful, graduate on time – and go on to good jobs! Recent graduates have landed positions at IntelMicrosoftGoogle, the World Bank in D.C. – and more!
  • Lifelong learning:As you have heard me say before, higher education is changing. We must transition to a new mindset that prioritizes lifelong learning. Recently, the first cohort from our Urban Potential Laboratories — UpLabs — graduated! This 14-week program connects Miami’s underemployed with non-BA jobs in high growth sectors. Our first cohort focused on healthcare careers. FIU’s Office of Engagement worked in collaboration with the Office of Advancement to build partnerships, recruit learners and fund the program – and working in collaboration with advisors from Baptist Health South Florida, Memorial Health System and Health Foundation of South Florida, curriculum was developed by an interdisciplinary team led by FIU’s Continuing Education.
  • FIU is Worlds Ahead:FIU is strengthening our ties and expanding our research around the world! Recently, I was a part of the Florida delegation that traveled to Israel with Governor Ron DeSantis. While there, we announced a $5.2 million National Institute of Mental Health grant to fund a collaboration between researchers at FIU and Tel Aviv University (TAU). That’s not all! FIU’s Stempel College signed a memorandum of understanding with the Universidad de Cartagenaand the Universidad de Córdoba in Colombia. These partnerships are critical because they allow us to form strong bonds with other institutions across the globe and work together to find solutions to some of society’s most pressing concerns!
  • FIU is growing:We will soon have several new additions to our main campus! The Florida Board of Governors approved a public-private partnership to establish an FIU alumni, conference center and hotel. This will be South Florida’s first university-affiliated conference center and hotel – and it’s expected to open by the fall of 2021. Thanks to a $5 million gift from Philanthropists Trish and Dan Bell, we will also soon have a non-denominational chapel. And we’re getting closer to our dream of CasaCuba, because of a recent grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities!
  • FIU athletes shine:Our FIU athletes continue to make us proud on and off the field! In the past academic year, FIU Football went to their fourth bowl game in university history – and won. FIU men’s basketball won its first-ever post-season game. FIU volleyball made it to the finals of the Conference USA Championship. FIU Swimming and Diving won its fifth consecutive Conference USA title. And in the spring our student-athletes earned a 3.29 GPA – the highest average in the department’s history! Please cheer on our student-athletes! And mark your calendars: FIU Football will play the University of Miami on November 23 at 7 p.m. at Marlins Park!

All of this is possible because of you and your dedication to our FIU. Every day, you turn minor miracles into major miracles.

Make no mistake: There’s so much good yet to come! We must be better at getting better. This starts now, with our new class of students. Welcome to them and to you! This is going to be an amazing early fall – that is going to energize and prepare us for an outstanding new academic year!

Now, let’s go!