[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 11]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 15752]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




     HONORING THE FLORIDA ATLANTIC UNIVERSITY FOR OVER 40 YEARS OF 
            EXCELLENCE IN OFFERING VALUABLE HIGHER EDUCATION

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. ALCEE L. HASTINGS

                               of florida

                    in the house of representatives

                        Friday, October 11, 2013

  Mr. HASTINGS of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor Florida 
Atlantic University (FAU) for their excellence in offering valuable 
educational opportunities to the residents of South Florida for more 
than 40 years.
  FAU first began operating in my district in 1971 with the opening of 
the Commercial Boulevard campus in Fort Lauderdale. This campus saw 
high enrollment and immediate success, and in 1987--just eleven years 
later--FAU began construction of the Reubin O'D. Askew Tower in 
downtown Fort Lauderdale. In 1989, the Florida Legislature designated 
FAU as the lead state university serving Broward County. Shortly 
thereafter, another large campus was established in Davie. The latest 
addition to these FAU campuses is a state-of-the-art, 12-story Higher 
Education Complex, also located in downtown Fort Lauderdale.
  Throughout its history in Broward County, FAU has worked in close 
cooperation with Broward College, establishing a system of seamless 
transition from lower-division to upper-division work that can be 
called a model for the Nation. Thousands of place-bound students who 
otherwise would have been unable to obtain a university education have 
earned degrees on FAU's Broward campuses, and have gone on to pursue 
successful careers in fields that include architecture, public 
administration, business, communication, engineering, computer science, 
criminology and criminal justice, social work, urban and regional 
planning, education, nursing, the arts and sciences, and many more.
  FAU boasts the most diverse student body in all of Florida's public 
universities. With nearly half of the population representing minority 
groups or foreign nations, their 30,000 member student body was 
recently ranked the 27th most diverse university in America by the U.S. 
News & World Report. Students from Broward make up almost 40 percent of 
this body, maintaining the county's historic status as the home of the 
greatest number of FAU students and alumni.
  Furthermore, it is focused on preserving and protecting the future of 
South Florida and helping cities all over the world face the challenges 
of the 21st century. On the Davie campus, FAU researchers are engaged 
in a critically important initiative to understand and mitigate the 
major human-caused stressors that have created grave damage to the 
Everglades. In the Atlantic Ocean, off the coast of Broward County, FAU 
engineers affiliated with the Southeast National Marine Renewable 
Energy Center are working to establish the world's first offshore 
turbine test site, with the goal of advancing the effort to generate 
energy from ocean currents.
  In Dania Beach, residents are being served by a new nano-filtration 
facility that has vastly improved the quality of the water they receive 
in their homes. Designed with input from FAU engineering faculty 
members and students, this is the first water treatment plant in the 
world to receive Gold Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design 
certification from the U.S. Green Building Council.
  Mr. Speaker, it is my distinct pleasure to recognize Florida Atlantic 
University for the tremendous work that the institution has done in 
South Florida for over 40 years. I want to express my sincerest 
gratitude for their leadership in both providing opportunities for 
higher education and addressing many environmental issues in the 
community. I wish the University all my best and many more years of 
continued success.

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