Florida Senate - 2023                            (NP)    SR 1736
       
       
        
       By Senator Jones
       
       
       
       
       
       34-03195C-23                                          20231736__
    1                          Senate Resolution                        
    2         A resolution recognizing April 13, 2023, as “FAMU Day”
    3         in Florida.
    4  
    5         WHEREAS, Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University
    6  (FAMU), Florida’s only public historically black college and
    7  university (HBCU), was founded on October 3, 1887, named a land
    8  grant institution in 1891, and designated a university in 1953,
    9  and
   10         WHEREAS, academic components of the university consist of
   11  98 undergraduate, graduate, postgraduate, and professional
   12  degree programs within 7 colleges — the Colleges of Agriculture
   13  and Food Sciences; Education; Engineering; Law; Pharmacy and
   14  Pharmaceutical Sciences; Science and Technology; and Social
   15  Sciences, Arts, and Humanities — and 7 schools — the Schools of
   16  Allied Health Sciences; Architecture and Engineering Technology;
   17  Business and Industry; the Environment; Graduate Studies and
   18  Research; Journalism and Graphic Communication; and Nursing, and
   19         WHEREAS, under the unwavering dedication of FAMU’s twelfth
   20  President, Larry Robinson, Ph.D., and the FAMU Board of
   21  Trustees, faculty, and staff, FAMU continues its “March to the
   22  Top 100” public universities in the nation, and is now ranked
   23  103, the highest-ranked public HBCU for the last 4 years,
   24  according to the U.S. News & World Report 2022-2023 Best
   25  Colleges rankings, and
   26         WHEREAS, with more than 9,000 students, FAMU has
   27  experienced a record number of applications from students who
   28  will begin their college experience at FAMU, exceeding 20,000 in
   29  a single year, with admitted students for the fall semester of
   30  2023 having an average high school GPA of 3.96, and
   31         WHEREAS, during the 2022-2023 academic year, FAMU continues
   32  to elevate student success through retention, favorable
   33  graduation rates, and degree productivity, and in the 2021-2022
   34  academic year awarded 2,284 degrees, and
   35         WHEREAS, FAMU continues its commitment to meaningful
   36  community service as evidenced by a federal grant from the
   37  Department of Commerce to reduce the digital divide and promote
   38  economic prosperity within Southside Tallahassee, and
   39         WHEREAS, in the 2021-2022 academic year, the FAMU faculty
   40  and staff garnered a record $75 million in research funding, and
   41  the university leads the HBCU community in nonmedical school
   42  research funding expenditures, exceeding $59 million during the
   43  same period, and
   44         WHEREAS, FAMU celebrates the 2023 election of former
   45  Rattler quarterback, head football coach, and athletic director
   46  Ken Riley to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in recognition of his
   47  15-season career with the Cincinnati Bengals, during which he
   48  amassed 65 career interceptions, the fourth-most in National
   49  Football League history at the time of his retirement, and
   50         WHEREAS, under a United States Department of Agriculture
   51  charter, the FAMU Center for Viticulture and Small Fruit
   52  Research maintains the world’s most extensive muscadine grape
   53  germplasm collection, and
   54         WHEREAS, under this close industry-clientele partnership,
   55  the economically feasible and accelerated breeding pipeline has
   56  allowed the release in the last 2 years of three new patented
   57  American native grape cultivars — Floriana, Florida Onyx, and
   58  Blanc du Soleil, and
   59         WHEREAS, the incomparable FAMU Marching 100 and the FAMU
   60  Symphonic Band continue to excite audiences from Paris, France,
   61  to Miami with thrilling performances, and
   62         WHEREAS, among its 14 National Collegiate Athletics
   63  Association programs, the FAMU women’s volleyball team defeated
   64  a top-seeded opponent to win the 2022 Southwestern Athletic
   65  Conference Women’s Volleyball Tournament Championship for the
   66  second year in a row, NOW, THEREFORE,
   67  
   68  Be It Resolved by the Senate of the State of Florida:
   69  
   70         That April 13, 2023, is recognized as “FAMU Day” in
   71  Florida.