News - The Independent Florida Alligator

The UF Levin College of Law located at 309 Village Drive Friday, Nov, 4, 2022.

NEWS | CAMPUS UF ADMINISTRATION

UF announces Levin College of Law interim dean

By Claire Grunewald | Apr. 26, 2023

UF Provost Joe Glover announced that law professor Merritt McAlister will fill in the position of Levin College of Law interim dean in an administrative memo sent Wednesday afternoon. McAlister will begin in her role June 1. UF plans to conduct a national search to replace former dean Laura Rosenbury soon, according to the memo

Former National Football League tight end Rob Gronkowski speaks at UF's final ACCENT Speaker Bureau show of the Spring semester Tuesday, April 25, 2023.

NEWS | CAMPUS STUDENT LIFE

Gronk talks “Party” Reputation, College Experience

By Peyton Harris | Apr. 26, 2023

UF students filled the Stephen C. O'Connell Center Tuesday night for the ACCENT Speakers Bureau’s final show of the semester. Former National League Football tight end Rob Gronkowski spoke about his time in the NFL, his "party" reputation and his college experience.

UF religion professor Vasudha Narayanan takes photos during her research work in Cambodia.

NEWS | CAMPUS UF ADMINISTRATION

UF religion professor elected to American Academy of Arts and Sciences

By Sophia Bailly | Apr. 26, 2023

UF religion professor Vasudha Narayanan joins the ranks of Yo-Yo Ma, Nelson Mandela and Martin Luther King Jr. after she was elected into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. The academy invited Narayanan to the Sept. 29 inauguration at the Academy’s headquarters in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Heckenberger watches Kuikuro performers prepare for a Hagaka ritual, in which they honor the dead, in 2018.

NEWS | CAMPUS

Living in the CO2 Capitol: UF professor studies Indigenous issues in the Amazon

By Peyton Harris | Apr. 24, 2023

A UF anthropology professor for over two decades, Micheal Heckenberger has authored several books on Amazonian Indigenous peoples as a result of living with the Kuikuro tribe in Brazil for two years.

NEWS | CAMPUS

UF continues searches for directors, deans and provost

By Allessandra Inzinna , Alissa Gary and Sophia Bailly | Apr. 24, 2023

Over the past year, UF has found itself in a period of transition, including a new president appointed in February, the search for a new provost beginning in the Spring, a new UF Honors Program director to be announced within the next month and searches for a new dean of the Levin College of Law and Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering.

NEWS | CAMPUS

UF says goodbye to oldest campus tree

By Ella Thompson | Apr. 24, 2023

UF’s first resident wasn’t a person, but a tree. Sprouting before the university was founded, a longleaf pine near Keene-Flint Hall has watched UF grow into what it is today. In April, the tree was declared dead.

UF President Ben Sasse makes an appearance at the Orange and Blue football game Thursday, April 13, 2023. This is one of the few public appearances Sasse has made after taking office Feb. 3.

NEWS | CAMPUS UF ADMINISTRATION

Sasse’s semester of selective silence

By Alissa Gary | Apr. 24, 2023

Since UF President Ben Sasse took office in early February, he’s been selective about his public appearances. But behind the scenes in Tigert Hall, his first semester in Florida has featured a complicated state legislative session, a potential graduate campus in Jacksonville and meetings with faculty leaders.

UF Faculty Senate President Amanda Phalin goes over the goals for the meeting Thursday, Jan. 19, 2023.

NEWS | CAMPUS UF ADMINISTRATION

UF Faculty Senate appoints new chair-elect, discusses state legislation

By Ella Thompson | Apr. 23, 2023

Faculty senators gathered Thursday in the Reitz Senate Chambers to hear UF President Ben Sasse, Senate Chair Amanda Phalin and UF Provost Joe Glover deliver reports on rebuilding UF’s foundation, senior position searches and multi-year contracts for non-tenured professors.

NEWS | SFC

Santa Fe College announces 3 provost finalists

By Peyton Harris | Apr. 20, 2023

Santa Fe College announced it narrowed its search for a new provost to three finalists Wednesday afternoon, after a search to replace Provost Edward Bonahue.

NEWS | CAMPUS STUDENT GOVERNMENT

UF Student Senate elects leadership after monthlong gridlock

By Amanda Friedman | Apr. 20, 2023

Student Government Senate leadership elections Tuesday evening marked the end to a monthlong political standoff, sparked by the Change Caucus gaining a Senate majority in the Spring SG elections.

NEWS | FEATURES

Re-examining decades of climate change, environmental activism in Alachua County

By Claire Grunewald | Apr. 17, 2023

From petitions to protests, residents and students advocated and fought for decades. For “Where We Stand,” The Alligator looked through decades worth of its archives to chronicle some highlights of the county’s environmental activism.

NEWS | CAMPUS

UF students face environmental anxiety as threat of climate change looms

By Ella Thompson | Apr. 17, 2023

With forests on fire, hurricanes gaining strength and regularity and other natural disasters becoming more frequent, members of Generation Z wonder: What does our future look like? What will be lost? What’s possible for the future?

NEWS | CAMPUS

Students, faculty fear UF won’t meet 2025 carbon neutrality goal

By Allessandra Inzinna | Apr. 17, 2023

In June 2021, the UF Board of Trustees approved the $235 million Central Energy Plant Project to build a combined heat and power energy facility on campus. Set to begin construction this year, it will be the university’s largest energy provider, relieving UF of purchasing 750,000 pounds of steam from Duke Energy every year.

Chris Harchick, the senior agricultural assistant at UF, stands in the middle of his tree-planting IFAS research that tests the growth of oak and sycamore trees, Wednesday, March 29, 2023.

NEWS | CAMPUS

UF Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences extensions work to mitigate climate change

By Sophia Bailly | Apr. 17, 2023

IFAS has dispersed its climate change research to center on greenhouse gas emissions, ocean acidification and sea-level rise. Extensions take a local approach to educating Florida residents about climate change, whether it’s regarding forestry, farming or waterways.

NEWS | CAMPUS UF ADMINISTRATION

UF recommits to climate action

By Alissa Gary | Apr. 17, 2023

The UF Office of Sustainability is in the final stages of developing its Climate Action Plan 2.0, a revival of CAP 1.0, the 2009 original, meant to curb the university’s greenhouse gas emissions.

NEWS | CAMPUS STUDENT LIFE

Samuel Proctor Oral History Program debuts ‘Oscar Mack vs the Ku Klux Klan’

By Ella Thompson | Apr. 15, 2023

Samuel Proctor Oral History Program screened the premiere of “Oscar Mack vs the Ku Klux Klan” — a 58-minute film that deep dives into the life of Oscar Mack, a World War I veteran and Kissimmee resident who was attacked by the KKK in 1922.

NEWS | CAMPUS UF ADMINISTRATION

UF Chief Financial Officer Chris Cowen to resign this summer

By Alissa Gary | Apr. 13, 2023

Chris Cowen, UF senior vice president and chief financial officer, will resign from the university July 1. He will trade his current job for a similar one at Cornell University, according to a UF press release.

NEWS | CAMPUS

UF among wave of college ‘swatting’ hoaxes, investigating with FBI

By Christian Casale and Ella Thompson | Apr. 13, 2023

UF is just one of at least 16 colleges and universities that received a hoax call of an active shooter in April, according to an analysis by The Alligator. Many of these instances have been referred to by authorities as “swatting” — when a fake call is made to authorities to cause chaos and send a large amount of police to a certain location.

Inner Road Closure: From Newell Drive to 13th Street

NEWS | CAMPUS

UF’s Inner Road to undergo 16-month construction project

By Ella Thompson | Apr. 12, 2023

In a press release Thursday, UF announced it will close Inner Road to all traffic starting Wednesday. The closure is due to improvements to underground utilities that serve nearby buildings like Broward and Newell Halls.

NEWS | CAMPUS

UF Honors Program director candidate Kathy Cooke speaks at final campus Q&A session

By Ella Thompson | Apr. 12, 2023

Kathy Cooke, a professor of history and founding dean of the University of South Alabama Honors College is the final of three candidates to present their Honors plan to the Honors community and participate in a Q&A. The search committee will make their selection for the next UF Honors Director in the next week.