COMPRESSION
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Accreditation is restored
Florida State has won unconditional accreditation from the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE). The action came after a board of the voluntary accrediting agency rescinded its earlier decision to revoke approval.
NCATE President Arthur E. Wise praised the professional education unit and said the next NCATE visit to FSU will be in 2002.
"This reaffirms our belief in the quality of our programs," said Lawrence G. Abele, FSU provost and vice president for Academic Affairs.
FSU had appealed the revocation and had won March 2 in Washington, D.C., when a five-member NCATE review panel remanded the case to the orga-nization's Unit Accreditation Board (UAB) for reconsideration. In granting the appeal, the review panel found that NCATE standards were disregarded and that evidence favorable to FSU had been provided to the NCATE Board of Examiners, who visited the campus, but had not been considered.
At its March 24-28 meeting in San Diego, Calif., the UAB reconsidered FSU's case and found that the university should be fully accredited.
NCATE is a self-designated accrediting body that has approved Florida State University's teacher education programs for the past 44 years. NCATE accreditation does not affect certification of teacher education programs in Florida, nor does it have any impact on graduates' ability to obtain jobs or be admitted to graduate programs anywhere.
"We believed that we had met the standards set forth by NCATE," Abele said, "and we are continuing on the course of creating ever stronger teacher education programs." - Browning Brooks
Stern elected to National Academy of Sciences
Melvin E. Stern, a distinguished research professor of oceanography at Florida State, was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in April.
Stern was one of 60 new members and 15 foreign associates from 10 countries who were recognized for distinguished and continuing achievements in original research.
Election to membership in the Academy is considered one of the highest honors that can be accorded a U.S. scientist or engineer. The total number of current active members is 1,798.
The National Academy of Sciences is a private organization of scientists and engineers dedicated to the furtherance of science and its use for the general welfare. The Academy was established in 1863 by a congressional act of incorporation, signed by Abraham Lincoln, that calls on the Academy to act as an official adviser to the federal government, upon request, in any matter of science or technology. - Margaret Leonard
Another medical year
The Florida Legislature came through this Spring with almost $1 million to expand FSU's medical program from one year to two.
Florida State's Program in Medical Sciences (PIMS) now takes medical students through their first year and then sends them on to finish medical school at the University of Florida. By the year 2000, FSU's PIMS is expected to last two years. - Margaret Leonard
Criminal justice ranks in top five
U.S. News and World Report has rated FSU's master's degree program in criminal-justice policy No. 5 in the nation. The program tied with Carnegie Mellon University, behind Princeton, Harvard, the State University of New York and the City University of New York.
FSU was ranked 3rd among public institutions.
The master's degree program is run jointly by the FSU School of Criminology and Criminal Justice and Florida State's Reubin O'D. Askew School of Public Policy and Administration.
Also for the first time this year, the magazine has ranked public-affairs graduate programs. Florida State's, in the Askew School, ranked 36th among all universities, 19th among public universities. - Amy Welch
Pain and gender
Women feel more pain than men, and deal with it, a Florida State neuroscientist has concluded.
"Most studies show that females are more sensitive to pain than males," Karen Berkley told a conference on pain and gender sponsored by the National Institutes of Health in Washington, D.C., in April. "Females are more ready to identify pain than males and more ready to deal with it."
"This doesn't mean that women are bigger complainers or use the health care system too often," she added. "But being the first to admit it, they can do something about it."
For example, Berkley said, women prepare for childbirth.
Because they know it's going to hurt, she said, they attend breathing and relaxation classes and discuss anesthesia in advance with their obstetricians. "Men wouldn't do that," she said. - Margaret Leonard
Law Dean resigns, students urge him to stay
FSU's new law school dean, Paul LeBel, shocked students and administrators in March with an e-mail that said he was going to step down as dean after only eight months.
"The last few months have convinced me that the things that I value most in life, personally and professionally, are not compatible with the demands of my current position," LeBel wrote.
Students at the school protested his resignation saying he was "such a student-oriented dean" who really cared about their "quality of life." In March they had 200 signatures on a petition they were circling around the law school to keep LeBel.
During the search for a dean last year, students at the law school lobbied for LeBel, who was known for connecting well with students while teaching at the College of William and Mary's law school in Virginia.
LeBel's decision was unhappy news to professors and administrators as well as students.
"I'm sad and disappointed that this deanship has come to such a quick and surprising close," said Nat Stern, an FSU law professor who was chairman of the search committee that selected LeBel.
Provost Larry Abele said he tried to talk LeBel out of the decision, but LeBel wouldn't reconsider. He stepped down officially in April when Donald Weidner, former dean of the College of Law, said he would take over as interim dean until a replacement for LeBel is found. After a break, LeBel plans to teach full-time at FSU. - Amy Welch
Dunn honored again
Tampa Bay Buccaneers' running back Warrick Dunn - recently Florida State's running back - is gathering honors for his attempts to help people.
A recent example was a visit with President Clinton, who gave him a Giant Steps Award in the "Civic Leader" category.
Dunn got it for helping four Tampa single mothers with down payments and furnishings for new homes.
The others honored by the President in the same way were Grambling State University football coach Eddie Robinson, who retired last season after 57 years, 408 victories and an 80-percent graduation rate; and University of Central Florida running back Dwight Collins, who led the Knights with a 6.5-yard rushing average while earning a 3.4 GPA. - Margaret Leonard