Established 1905 Chancellor Marshall Criser III | Endowment $3.5 billion (2014-15) Students 341,000 (2015) | |
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Type Public University System Location Tallahassee, Florida, U.S. | ||
The State University System of Florida (SUS, or SUSF out-of-state) is a system of twelve public universities in the U.S. state of Florida. As of 2015, over 341,000 students were enrolled in Florida's state universities. Together with the Florida College System, which includes Florida's 28 community colleges and state colleges, it is part of Florida's system of public higher education. The system, headquartered in Tallahassee, is overseen by a Chancellor and governed by the Florida Board of Governors.
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The Florida Board of Governors was created in 2003 to centralize the administration of the State University System of Florida. Previously, Florida's State University System had been governed by the Florida Board of Regents (1965–2001) and the Florida Board of Control (1905–1965).
History and governance
Prior to 1905, Florida's state institutions were governed by a Board of Education and even earlier variations thereof, reaching back to the Florida Constitution of 1838 wherein higher education and normal education was established, based on grants of land from the U.S. Congress. From 1905 to 1965, the few universities in the system were governed by the Florida Board of Control. The Board of Control was replaced by the Florida Board of Regents in 1965, to accommodate the growing university system. The Board of Regents governed until it was disbanded by the Florida Legislature in 2001, and its authority was divided between the Florida Board of Education (which was given some authority over all levels of public education in the state), and appointed university boards of trustees, which operated independently for each separate institution. In 2002, Floridians led by U.S. Senator Bob Graham passed an amendment to the Florida Constitution establishing a new statewide governing body, the Florida Board of Governors.
Member institutions
^A In 1851, the Florida legislature voted to establish two seminaries of learning: West Florida Seminary (which later became Florida State University) and East Florida Seminary (which later became the University of Florida). In 1905, when the Buckman Act reorganized higher education in Florida, the three resulting state institutions all adopted 1905 as their founding date. In 1935 the Florida Board of Control changed the founding dates of UF and Florida State to the years their predecessor Seminaries opened: 1853 and 1857, respectively. In 2000, Florida State declared 1851 to be its founding date, reflecting the date the legislature authorized both seminaries. In 1836, the United States Congress authorized the establishment of the University of Florida.