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The pace quickens
As UF celebrates its 150th anniversary, it's time for the university and Gainesville community to look into future
The pace of life in Gainesville begins to quicken this week. The signs are everywhere.
In recent days, an army of young women have been parading up and down University Avenue, visiting sorority houses and hoping to land the pledge of their choice. Moving vans and U-Haul trailers have been infiltrating our neighborhoods as new and returning University of Florida students and new faculty and staff members move into homes and apartments. The downtown night scene is coming alive again.
And, yes, traffic is picking up as well. For the next couple of weeks at least, certain parts of University, 13th, Archer and 34th streets will be all but impassable during certain hours of the morning and afternoon. And only the sight of crammed RTS buses will remind us that the congestion could be much worse indeed.
After a relatively quiet summer, Gainesville is shaking itself out of its slumber. The beginning of the new academic year at UF and at Santa Fe Community College is very much Gainesville's de facto new year.
And with the returning students and faculty comes much more than annoying traffic congestion. Even before the first hint of crisp autumn air arrives will come the excitement of the football season. Thousands of fans from around the state, and around the South, will soon begin to converge on Gainesville for frenetic weekends that will pose both challenges for local law enforcement and opportunities for local businesses.
And it's not all just football. The new year brings stimulating new cultural and social offerings as well - at the Hipp, in the Phillips Center, in our museums and in our community theaters.
And of course, this isn't just another academic year. This is the University of Florida's 150th anniversary; an occasion that should appropriately be accompanied not only by pomp and circumstances, but by introspection and visioning. How should Florida's best and most comprehensive university reinvent itself for the next 150 years? What are the challenges facing a venerable public institution that is forced by shortsighted state politicians to accept more and more students and demonstrate more accountability in return for fewer state dollars?
And what about Gainesville? If UF continues to mature and improve, can its host community do any less? What does it take to be a great university community at the dawn of a new century? How can the ties of town and gown be enhanced and improved?
We are already seeing those ties strengthen with UF's decision to begin moving more of its administrative functions into east Gainesville. The university's involvement - and investment - in off-campus transportation improvements and the partnership that has made the city's bus system one of the fastest growing in America also indicates the degree to which the university and the community have come to depend upon each other.
UF begins the new year ranked among the top 48 public universities in the nation, according to U.S. News & World Report. The students it attracts - from around the state and around the world - are high achievers (freshmen arrive with a GPA approaching 4.0 and average SAT scores of 1190) who come here in search of excellence. The fact that UF has received a record $458 million in research funding this year demonstrates that its faculty and scientists continue to do world-class work despite the Legislature's penny-wise, pound-foolish budget cuts.
This is an exciting time to be a Gator and to live in Gainesville. The pace of life quickens and the new year is upon us. It is UF's 150th birthday, an occasion to celebrate the past and lay plans for the future. The new and returning students and faculty add depth and body to the rich texture of life that is a university community.
We welcome the new year with all of its promises and challenges. Because this is what Gainesville is all about.
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