[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 153 (Thursday, October 13, 2011)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1850]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




IN RECOGNITION OF THE 50TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE ESTABLISHMENT OF FLORIDA 
           ATLANTIC UNIVERSITY LOCATED IN BOCA RATON, FLORIDA

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. ALLEN B. WEST

                               of florida

                    in the house of representatives

                       Thursday, October 13, 2011

  Mr. WEST. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize Florida Atlantic 
University (FAU) as it marks the 50th Anniversary of its establishment 
in 1961. FAU is Florida's fifth largest public university.
  Through the last five decades, FAU has pursued a mission of 
delivering top-quality higher education, research, creative activities 
and civic engagement. Today FAU provides a national model of excellence 
in serving students across a very large geographical region through a 
well-developed distributed campus system.
  From its humble beginning on an abandoned World War II-era United 
States Army airfield in Boca Raton, FAU has expanded to include 
campuses and sites in Davie, Fort Lauderdale, Dania Beach, Jupiter, 
Port St. Lucie and Fort Pierce.
  The university is currently serving a record-high student body of 
more than 29,000 individuals including the founding class of the 
Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine, America's newest medical 
school.
  FAU takes special pride in the fact that its student body ranks as 
the most racially, ethnically and culturally diverse among the 11 
institutions in Florida's State University System. Forty-six percent of 
students classified as minority or international.
  In the last 50 years the university has awarded degrees to more than 
120,000 alumni. The University and the alumni is a strong engine of 
economic growth and FAU generates an estimated $2 billion annually in 
its six-city service region.
  FAU's 10 distinguished colleges offer students the opportunity to 
pursue more than 170 degree programs on the undergraduate and graduate 
levels. The students are taught by a faculty of 1,500 skilled and 
dedicated men and women who possess expertise in their fields and a 
true passion for passing on their knowledge to the next generation of 
leaders. Areas in which FAU has earned national recognition include 
ocean engineering, marine science, business, accounting and public 
administration.
  Long recognized as an outstanding teaching institution, FAU is now 
claiming a place among America's great research universities. FAU 
researchers are at work in a host of essential areas, ranging from 
discoveries in the life sciences to new engineering technologies.
  In 2010, the United States Department of Energy awarded FAU's Center 
of Excellence in Ocean Technology the broader designation of the 
Southeast National Marine Renewable Energy Center. Researchers at this 
interdisciplinary center are working to address our nation's energy 
needs through the development of technology to generate energy from 
Florida's strong offshore currents. FAU is ranked as a ``High Research 
Activity'' university by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of 
Teaching.
  While FAU excels in the sciences, FAU is also a vibrant center of the 
arts showcasing faculty and student presentations of many kinds, 
including lectures, plays, concerts and exhibitions. The university 
also recognizes its role in the community by offering South Florida's 
retired citizens the opportunity to take a wide variety of interesting 
classes through the FAU Lifelong Learning Society which happens to be 
the largest and most successful program of its kind in the nation.
  FAU's students, alumni, faculty, administrators and staff can take 
pride in all that their university has accomplished during its first 50 
years as they look forward to even greater achievements in the next 
decades to follow. This institution is an asset of great value to all 
Americans and to all Floridians deserving recognition and commendation 
during their Semi-centennial.

                          ____________________