UCF Today Spring 2012

TODAY

F O R FA M I LY A N D F R I E N D S O F T H E U N I V E R S I T Y O F C E N T R A L F L O R I DA

SPRING 2012

The Road Less Traveled SEVEN OF UCF’S BEST BLAZE NEW TRAILS

Dr. Julee Waldrop Associate Professor, College of Nursing

University of Central Florida UCF Marketing P.O. Box 160090 Orlando, FL 32816-0090

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UCF TODAY

YEARS

D E G R E E P RO G R A M S

1992

[Dr. Hitt] possesses the right kind of leadership skills needed to transform dreams into welldeveloped assets that ultimately enhance the quality of life in Central Florida.

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OF

2012

LEADERSHIP

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with a new president expects a bigger and brighter future. But, in 1992, no one at the University of Central Florida—including its new president, John C. Hitt—anticipated the growth in stature and quality to come at UCF over the next two decades.

A N Y

It’s actually quite difficult to imagine what UCF, our community, and the region would look like had John not been here for the last 20 years.

RICK WALSH

CHARTER UCF BOARD OF TRUSTEE MEMBER AND PAST CHAIR, AND 1977 ALUMNUS

Visionary… historic growth… culture of excellence!

All of these and more describe President Hitt’s time at UCF.

The university has emerged as one of America’s great success stories in higher education since Dr. Hitt started at UCF on March 1, 1992. At that time, UCF’s enrollment ranked 115th in the nation and fifth in Florida. Today, UCF stands as the nation’s second-largest university and Florida’s largest. And UCF has become a major metropolitan research university of global significance.

E N RO L L M E N T

1992

No one embodies the word partnership more so than Dr. Hitt.

Over his 20 years at UCF, he has had a significant impact on the economic prosperity of Central Florida….

C O L L E G E S

U N I V E R S I T Y

21,424 2012

58,587

1992

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But Dr. Hitt is hesitant to take credit: 2012 “If you are fortunate enough to head a large and dynamic organization, people tend to credit you for much of the good that happens. And, while such praise can be flattering, allow me to set the John Hitt’s two decades of leadership record straight. The achievements at … have been marked by significant strides, if not leaps, in positive UCF that coincide with my tenure have growth and impact for UCF. far more to do with [the UCF family] Dr. Hitt’s calm and steadfast than with anything I could ever do.” determination to benefit the Central

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Florida community serves as an example to all of us for the care and consideration that a university president should, and must, have for his community.

TONI JENNINGS

FLORIDA LT. GOVERNOR, 2003-2007, FLORIDA SENATE PRESIDENT, 1996-2000

RAMON A. OJEDA

PRESIDENT, HISPANIC CHAMBER OF COMMERCE OF METRO ORLANDO

Simply stated, I believe Walt Disney and John Hitt have done more to transform Central Florida into a vibrant, dynamic place than any two people. Congratulations, Mr. President, for a job well done!

DR. MARK B. ROSENBERG

PRESIDENT, FLORIDA INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY

JEB BUSH

AV E R AG E F R E S H M A N S AT S C O R E

FORMER FLORIDA GOVERNOR

RICK L. WEDDLE

PRESIDENT AND CEO, METRO ORLANDO ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT COMMISSION

1992

On the 20th anniversary of his tenure at UCF, I applaud President Hitt for building a university that today brightens the bellwether state that is Florida— and tomorrow could light up the world.

1011

Under John’s leadership, UCF has dared to pioneer, to innovate, and to embrace growth.

2012

JOHN DELANEY

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PRESIDENT, UNIVERSITY OF NORTH FLORIDA

DR. BERNIE MACHEN

PRESIDENT, UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA

M I N O R I T Y EN RO L L M E N T

1992

16.9% 2012

37.2%

Beginning with his arrival in 1992, he and Martha have cultivated relationships with key constituencies and have developed the University of Central Florida into one of our nation’s premier public institutions of higher learning.

JIM HEEKIN

John is a visionary for the 21st century. He is a role model for regional university presidents in the United States. He’s never forgotten his roots and is known as the “partnership president.”

DR. JUDY BENSE

PRESIDENT, UNIVERSITY OF WEST FLORIDA

FORMER CHAIR, FLORIDA BOARD OF REGENTS

John Hitt has left an amazing and lasting mark…. His efforts to expand the university and our community are extraordinary; his standards of integrity and partnership exemplary.

He is truly a community hero.

TICO PEREZ

MEMBER, FLORIDA BOARD OF GOVERNORS AND A 1983 UCF ALUMNUS

D E G R E E S AWA R D E D

1992

57,341 2012

225,106

[Dr. Hitt] enjoys a strong and unwavering national reputation as a president who is building a modern American university poised to serve the global community.

FRANK T. BROGAN

CHANCELLOR, STATE UNIVERSITY SYSTEM OF FLORIDA

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UCF TODAY

The Road Less Traveled SEVEN OF UCF’S BEST BLAZE NEW TRAILS Photography by Jason Greene ’10

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Wright

F R O M H O M E L E S S N E S S T O N A S C A R , D R . W R I G H T I S D I S C O V E R I N G W H AT M A K E S U S T I C K

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“Homelessness used to be viewed as a crisis to be solved,” Dr. James Wright, provost distinguished research professor of sociology, says. “Today, however, it’s simply and unfortunately a circumstance that we live with.” And it’s just one of the many pressing areas he has explored during his long academic career.

Dr. Wright, who has written about everything from poverty to politics to NASCAR, has wanted to be a college professor since the sixth grade, when he declared his intentions to his teacher, his parents and his friends. His worldview has expanded quite a bit since those elementary school days, but the curiosity that led him to his chosen profession has never waned. His travel plans this year include Argentina and Europe, but for a quick global fix all he has to do is check his email. As editor-in-chief of the second edition of Elsevier’s International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences, Dr. Wright is working with more than 70 editors and 5,000 authors around the world to document all that has happened in the field of sociology in the past decade. The first edition was 26 volumes.

“I work on it every day except Saturday, and the target publication date is 2015,” says Dr. Wright. Is he daunted by the enormity of the project? “By its sheer audacity? Yes! It’s intimidating, but I also think, if not me, then who? And I just keep pecking away.”

T H E FA C E A N D F I G H T E R B E H I N D T H E N E W C E C S O F F I C E O F D I V E R S I T Y

Every student knows that when you enter a classroom, in any university, if there’s a book bag on a seat, that seat is taken. But as a young Fidelia Nnadi discovered, that rule doesn’t apply when you’re the only female in a University of Nigeria engineering class in 1978.

“I got to class early, put my book bag down on a seat up front, then left to get something to eat,” Dr. Nnadi says.

“When I came back, a young man was sitting there. My book bag was gone. I asked him, ‘Do you mind? This is my seat. I had my book bag on it.’ He said, ‘Get out of my face!

How dare you ask me to get up?’”

It’s hard to imagine anyone speaking this way to Dr. Fidelia Nnadi. A Ph.D. in a blue pin-striped suit. A researcher with awards on the shelf and her name on the door. Of course, in 1978 she was just a girl alone in a room full of boys with no seat and no book bag.

“Everyone in the class was whistling,” she says. “They were ridiculing me. Trying to intimidate me.”

Her voice, lilting and soft up until this moment, gains an edge. She leans forward, cradling her hands around the recorder as though she doesn’t want these next few words to get away.

“I said, ‘You know what? I’m going to fight this through.’”

That day, fighting it through meant toppling the chair— intruder and all—and reclaiming the seat for herself. Now, as an associate professor in UCF’s Department of Civil, Environmental, and Construction Engineering, Dr. Nnadi fights hostility by fostering a supportive environment for every one of her students.

“Hostility is subtle now. But it’s there,” she says.

“Certain students come into a classroom and they wind up very alone. The other students won’t say, ‘We don’t want you.’ But they will say, ‘Our study group is full.’ It’s the same thing.”

So Dr. Nnadi started creating the study groups herself, making them purposefully diverse instead of allowing students to segregate along racial and gender lines. When she notices some students being isolated, she asks the top performers in that class to study with them as a personal favor to her. And now, she is preparing to fight hidden discrimination on a larger scale as director of the newly created Office of Diversity and Inclusion at the College of Engineering and Computer Science (CECS).

The office is charged with recruiting and retaining more students, staff and faculty members from underrepresented groups—a term that refers to not just ethnic minorities, but gender-, religious-, and sexual preference-based minorities as well. Step one for Dr. Nnadi is evaluating current college enrollment: “What we have will tell us what we need.”

What the office hopes to accomplish is what she has been fighting for all along—a learning environment that isolates no one. And a learning experience that welcomes and inspires the best from everyone.

“Diversity links unique ideologies,” Dr. Nnadi said. “My experience is different from yours, so we have different views to the same problem. Together, we can harness our strong points and build something beautiful.”

Should he decide to peck his way on to a 22nd book, the “new poor” may be the subject. “These are people who have never experienced poverty before and don’t really know how to be poor. They define themselves by their ability to consume, right up to the point where they suddenly realize that they can’t afford their lives.” His takeaway: easy credit is one of the most consequential things our society has encountered. It has encouraged people, and even entire countries, to live beyond their means.

Some people might question sociology’s place in today’s highly technical, STEM-focused world, but Dr. Wright is quick to explain that sociology is a STEM discipline. He and his graduate students analyze huge data sets. “And what good is it to engineer a solution to a problem if you don’t know how to get human beings to adopt that solution?” he says.

Oh, and about the NASCAR book. That was the result of a six-month sabbatical when he needed a break from weightier topics. Dr. Wright earned enough from the book to pay for his trips to the races and discovered a way to strengthen his marriage—by promising never to take his wife to another race again.

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The Road Less Traveled UCF TODAY

Puig

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N A V I G A T I N G T H E B R AV E N E W W O R L D O F R E A D I N G

When Dr. Enrique Puig, director, shows visitors around the Morgridge International Reading Center (MIRC), there are two things that make his enthusiasm bubble over. The first is his collection of elementary reading books, holdovers from 25 years of teaching in the Orange County Public School system.

“They’re all from actual classrooms,” he says, gesturing to the rows of brightly colored spines.

The second is a state-of-the-art teleconferencing device equipped with an enormous high-definition screen and voice-automated cameras.

“Very sci-fi,” is his succinct but apt description.

Clearly, the man is comfortable straddling several worlds at once.

Growing up in a bilingual household, filled with “people reading all the time,” imparted both a love of reading and the ability to embrace multiple perspectives and ideas. His father read newspapers. His mother read books.

And his grandfather, a Pan Am pilot, brought home magazines from all over the world. As a result, Dr. Puig got hooked on the written word in all its forms.

Now that there are more forms than ever, he has become the catalyst for a new generation of readers. As director of the annual UCF Book Festival, Dr. Puig spearheads an event that will bring 51 authors and a projected 4,000 readers to campus this year. And as director of MIRC, he develops educational programs that teach instructors how to teach reading—a complex job now that students rely on so many different resources in so many different media.

But has technology changed his own personal reading habits?

“E-books are great for traveling,” he says. “But when I come home, I go back to traditional bound books. I just can’t imagine curling up with a tablet.”

Biraimah

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F I G H T I N G F O R E D U C AT I O N A L E Q U A L I T Y

Dr. Karen Biraimah, professor of education and co-director of the School of Teaching, Learning, and Leadership, loves walking by the UCF Student Union on Wednesdays. That’s the day student activist groups stand outside to rally support for their causes and recruit students to join their efforts. But for Dr. Biraimah, it’s bittersweet. She remembers a time when university students were passionate about causes all the time. Not just on Wednesdays.

Her advice to students today? “Get involved,” she implores. “Have a purpose other than getting a good job so you can have two cars and a huge TV. If you don’t have a reason and a cause, it just seems so empty.”

She certainly lives her own life by these values.

She attended college when Vietnam protests rocked American campuses. After graduation, she joined the Peace Corps and became a teacher at a secondary school in Ghana. Today, in her research on comparative education, Dr. Biraimah examines the chasm that exists between the best learning environments and the worst—a difference she has witnessed first hand throughout her career.

At Kenyatta University, she taught classes comprised of up to 700 students, none of whom had books.

At a high school math class in Detroit, she had to hold the blackboard to the wall with one hand and write with the other, all while hoping that mice wouldn’t come through the air vents and disrupt the class.

And once, she was brought to tears by a Lake Mary classroom equipped with an overhead projector, working electrical sockets, and a book for every child.

“I’m not upset that people have good things,” she says. “I’m upset that it’s not spread around.”

Now, helping educators spread those good things around has become Dr. Biraimah’s cause. Yes, it’s disheartening when she considers how many factors influence educational inequality. Yes, it’s frustrating when parents fight the changes that would improve educational access for so many children. And yes, it’s surprising how much American and African schools have in common sometimes. (“You just change a few nouns, and we have the same exact problems.”) But it’s her cause nonetheless, and the only thing she knows how to do is fight for it.

King

T H E M A N W H O S TA R E S AT A N T S

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A molten aluminum cast of an ant’s nest hangs from the ceiling. On the desk, six dead ants are pinned inside a box, awaiting identification. Next to them sits a vial of dead termites. Still, the most interesting thing you’ll find in the office of Dr. Joshua King, is the truth.

Consider a queen, executed for not producing enough offspring. A community whose entire male population functions solely as “sperm rockets.” A group of female workers tasked with invading their neighbors and stealing their children. It may sound like the history of a vicious alien empire, but it’s just another day for the invasive species known as fire ants.

Dr. King, an assistant professor in the Biology Department, has been studying Florida’s diverse ant population (200+ species) for the past 11 years. Along the way, he discovered that fire ants, once thought to have forced native ants out of their natural habitats, actually rose to dominance by seeking out and colonizing areas in which other species can no longer survive. A fire ant’s heaven, according to Dr. King, is created through massive soil disturbance and the removal of vegetation—like what happens when people push nature aside to build roads and shopping malls.

Now, Dr. King is exploring a potential role for ants in ecosystem services (when an organism’s natural functions provide some value to humans). Maybe his discovery will finally answer the question that has plagued him throughout his career: “What good are ants anyway?”

Then again, for the man who calls himself the “Head Ant Nerd,” that’s probably not a question at all.

UCF TODAY The Road Less Traveled

Tucker

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Dr. Jennifer Tucker doesn’t want this story to be about her. She’d rather it be about her students, doctor of physical therapy candidates who spend their spring breaks sitting on the floor of a third-world orphanage instead of lying on the sand of a sun-soaked beach. They are part of a joint effort mounted by UCF and SHARES International (the outreach program of the Florida Hospital Foundation) to provide physical therapy and education to children’s homes in Kingston, Jamaica. Dr. Tucker, an instructor in the Department of Health Professions at COHPA, spearheaded the

C O M PA S S I O N B LO O M S I N K I N G S TO N

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project, and since 2008, 25 of her students have taken the trip. This year, three of them will return as clinicians leading a team of their own.

This story is also about the women who work in those orphanages year-round— mothers and grandmothers from the surrounding village who had the heart but not the training to care for specialneeds children. Each year, the visiting therapists teach them a little more.

And this is definitely the story of Bimbola, a 10-year-old boy with muscular dystrophy who has lived in an orphanage all his life. He’s looking forward to this

W H Y WA L K W H E N I C A N R U N ?

Dr. Julee Waldrop wasn’t just on time for our 3 p.m. interview, she was early. Knowing Dr. Waldrop, this should hardly come as a surprise. She has a history of getting where she wants to go—fast.

Usually, it’s a finish line. As a former division 1 crosscountry runner, elite road racer and triathlete, she never seems to tire of pushing her body to go faster.

After all, Dr. Waldrop, associate professor, College of Nursing, has been running, racing and moving fast for 37 years, and shows no signs of slowing down.

“I can’t even remember when I started; it just seems like I was always running wherever I went. Even today, even if I just have to go across campus, I think, ‘Why walk when I can run?’” Dr. Waldrop says.

It’s that drive and attitude that have propelled Dr. Waldrop to excel—on the track, in her career, and in life in general.

When asked who it was that inf luenced and motivated her to chase her dreams, Dr. Waldrop sits back, gazes out the window at the crystal blue sky and thinks for a moment. Then, seemingly from nowhere, “Nadia Comaneci,” she says. Dr. Waldrop recalls watching the Romanian gymnast earn three

gold medals and the first perfect score at the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal. “That was the first time I remember seeing someone truly striving to be her best, someone so driven to do what no one had ever done before,” she says.

As a runner, professor and nurse practitioner, Dr. Waldrop has certainly put the lessons of Comaneci into practice. She is driven, relentlessly so, to raise the standards and the stature of the nurse practitioner profession. And she is a tireless advocate for parental education, newborn safety and health, pediatric care, and the early prevention of obesity. The way she sees it, her professional, academic and athletic pursuits are not mutually exclusive. “When the body moves, the mind opens up,” she says. “Running is my private time, a time to figure out problems. It definitely helps me write.” Her pages-long list of publications, including a provocative bi weekly blog for The Clinical Advisor, are evidence that all those miles, all those hours of running have helped Dr. Waldrop achieve more than an enviable level of fitness and a plethora of medals. She has earned the respect of students and colleagues.

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March, when the therapists will bring him a bigger wheelchair to replace the one he’s outgrown.

Still, when it comes right down to it, this story must be about Dr. Jennifer Tucker, who in 1997, answered an ad for a “pediatric therapist with a spirit of adventure and a driver’s license,” then went on to create a program that changed the lives of every student, caregiver and child in its path.

More than anything, though, this is a story to be continued.

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UCF TODAY

Knights in the News Energized Hospitality

Theatre Knights Blossom

The Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival awarded junior Kevia Goins “Distinguished Performance by an Actress” for her role as Black Mary in Gem of the Ocean.

Be Boyd, associate professor, was awarded “Distinguished Performance by a Faculty Guest Artist” in the same play.

Gem of the Ocean was directed by faculty member Julia Listengarten.

“The faculty-student working relationship in production, just as in the laboratory, often yields new creative angles that may not be realized across the distance in the typical professorstudent relationship in the classroom. This benefits the entire creative team and the audience, and more directly mirrors the professional theater, where there may exist a variety of skill levels,” said Christopher Niess, chair and artistic director of the Theatre Department.

Gravity Research Gets Lift

More jobs and economic investment may be coming to Central Florida thanks to the creation of the new Center for Microgravity Research and Education.

“If we’re going to be exploring and operating equipment and scientific instruments on environments such as the moon or asteroids, it’s essential to understand how things behave in that lowgravity environment,” said Joshua Colwell, the director of the center and an associate professor of physics at UCF. The center will establish Central Florida and the Space

Coast as a national leader in scientific utilization of the emerging commercial suborbital launch industry. Its facilities are at the Kennedy Space Center’s Space Life Sciences Laboratory and the UCF Orlando campus.

The center will conduct fundamental research in ground-based laboratories, on parabolic microgravity airplane flights, with a laboratory drop tower, and on suborbital rocket flights.

The center will also develop experiments for the International Space Station.

“It’s an awesome feeling to see something that started in my apartment being implemented over an entire campus,” said Rosen College of Hospitality Management entrepreneurship student Zac Lee. Lee’s concept—light switch plate decals with a written reminder to conserve electricity—earned him the Green Initiative Scholarship.

The scholarship was a collaboration of Rosen College Dean Abraham Pizam and the Student Government Association Scholarship Committee.

Transportation Solutions UCF transportation experts —led by Civil Engineering Professor Essam Radwan—are part of a team that has been awarded $3.5 million from the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) to establish a Southeast-based university research center to study the nation’s transportation needs.

Led by Georgia Tech, the Southeast hub will also include Florida International University and the University

of Alabama at Birmingham and will focus on transportation systems performance and management, specifically dealing with safety, transportation infrastructure and services, and economic competitiveness.

The Southeast regional center is one of 22 such hubs funded for a total of $77 million by the DOT’s Research and Innovative Technology Administration.

The Rosen College also participated in a campuswide competition to reduce its consumption of water, electricity and natural gas.

The overall results of the challenge exceeded goals and led to more than $30,000 in savings. The college recorded 10 percent savings in electricity, 25 percent savings in water and 20 percent savings in gas for the semester.

When Art Meets Science During the past two years, research students have met with art students to explain scientific breakthroughs and concepts. The artists, in turn, create tangible artifacts to exemplify the ideas.

“Some painting students were inspired to create futuristic visualizations about the wondrous and often abstract theories presented. Others attempted to illustrate the scientific principles,” said Carla Poindexter, an associate professor of art.

“Others responded by creating works that suggest the social and cultural opportunities

and sometimes the potential ramifications of the science we discussed.”

Michael Georgiopoulos, electrical engineering and computer science professor and interim assistant vice president for research and commercialization, said the initiative, funded by a five-year National Science Foundation grant, establishes collaborations between researchers from different disciplines.

“Researchers sometimes have a difficult time communicating what they’re doing in nonscientific terms, but the project involving UCF visual arts students is helping to bridge that gap,” says Georgiopoulos.

UCF TODAY Athletics: Then & Now

First Day on the Job During his first week, Vice President and Director of Athletics Todd Stansbury traveled to the Big Apple for the BIG EAST Conference meetings. Joined by President John C. Hitt, he also met with a large group of energetic UCF alumni. Here are Todd’s reflections on the trip: The power of the New York media is amazing. The BIG EAST’s huge media platform will present outstanding opportunities and exposure for UCF. I am even more excited about joining the BIG EAST in 2013-14.

The conference is an excellent fit for UCF both on the field and academically.

I saw a lot of familiar faces. I know many of my peers in the BIG EAST, and those relationships will be a huge help as we make the transition.

Our young alumni in New York are so enthusiastic! I can’t wait to see—and hear—them in the stands when we play in the BIG EAST men’s basketball tournament!

JOIN THE CONVERSATION AT FACEBOOK.COM/UCF

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UCF TODAY

U C F

K N I G H T S

F O O T B A L L

A NEW SEASON OF MEMORIES

It’s great to be a UCF Knight! Thank you so much for your incredibly warm welcome and kind words of encouragement as my wife Karen and I join the Knights family.

Our Golden Knights Club members and season ticket holders are the backbone of our program and among our most dedicated supporters.

Thank you in advance for your generous support and loyal commitment to our team and university!

In 2012, our football team will be competing for a record-breaking third C-USA title. And in 2013, we’ll be contending for our first BIG EAST title!

Today, outstanding coaches and their support staffs are pushing our student athletes to reach their full potential in modern facilities where fans can enjoy championship performances. And in classrooms, laboratories, courts and fields, leaders are being created because of your generous financial support. In fact, all of our teams improve with your help in funding scholarships, attending games and buying UCF merchandise.

As an incentive to act now, and to cement our commitment to our most loyal fans, we are offering a new, two-season pricing offer for football season ticket holders. As a 2012 football season ticket holder, you will be able to lock in the same discounted, per game pricing next year when you renew your season tickets for the inaugural 2013 BIG EAST football season.

We now must take care of the business at hand and maintain our focus on our final season in C-USA while preparing to make the statement in 2013 that a trip to Bright House Networks Stadium is not a Florida vacation.

Thanks again for your loyalty and support. Go Knights!

M. Todd Stansbury VICE PRESIDENT AND DIRECTOR OF ATHLETICS

P.O. Box 163555 | Orlando, FL 32816-3555 | 407.823.1000