UNF has considered moving Engineering School Downtown

[KenFSU]

Sounds like it will be up to the new President.

Interesting notes from Lamping about very preliminary discussions about a JU Law School potentially setting up shop downtown as well.

https://www.jaxdailyrecord.com/article/lamping-drops-hint-ju-and-law-school

[FlaBoy]

A shared campus with FSCJ just makes too much sense to happen...

[Tacachale]

Sounds like it will be up to the new President.

Interesting notes from Lamping about very preliminary discussions about a JU Law School potentially setting up shop downtown as well.

https://www.jaxdailyrecord.com/article/lamping-drops-hint-ju-and-law-school

I am in no way an authority on UNF Engineering, but I will say this: UNF has a 130,000 square foot science and engineering building that's less than 15 years old and just got a $6 million renovation last year. As the colleges have outgrown it, we did a $30 million project connecting and expanding two additional buildings, most of which is occupied by Engineering. This is the first I'm hearing about "moving the Engineering school" out of these recently expanded facilities.

[KenFSU]

Sounds like it will be up to the new President.

Interesting notes from Lamping about very preliminary discussions about a JU Law School potentially setting up shop downtown as well.

https://www.jaxdailyrecord.com/article/lamping-drops-hint-ju-and-law-school

I am in no way an authority on UNF Engineering, but I will say this: UNF has a 130,000 square foot science and engineering building that's less than 15 years old and just got a $6 million renovation last year. As the colleges have outgrown it, we did a $30 million project connecting and expanding two additional buildings, most of which is occupied by Engineering. This is the first I'm hearing about "moving the Engineering school" out of these recently expanded facilities.

That's what genuinely surprised me about the quote.

The existing Engineering college is among the brightest and shiniest spaces on campus.

Seems like it would be kind of silly, and exceedingly expensive, to relocate Engineering downtown.

[Sonic101]

Or it could just be MORE engineering.

I don't see all engineering disciplines integrating well into the downtown core. Mechanical, Civil, and Industrial Engineering use lab equipment that fits better into a warehouse. But Computer, Electrical, and Chemical Engineering have labs that could more aptly fit into an office environment.

[remc86007]

My vote would be for the upper level classes at the college of business to be moved downtown. That building is old and relatively small, and most upper level business classes are all in the one building. My situation was pretty unique, but it would have been very nice to attend classes downtown since I was working downtown while in college.

Also, I'd love to see JU start a law school downtown when FCSL fizzles out.

[FlaBoy]

It is not difficult to repurpose a building already on the campus. There is a true opportunity for a Medical-Education District "Med-Ed" District between Springfield and CBD with UF Health, UF Pharmacy, UF Nursing, JU Nursing, JU MBA, FSCJ, Darnell-Cookman, Lavilla, etc. There is a real opportunity for UNF to expand its student population upcoming and really impact downtown. It is not like UCF, USF, FAU, FIU, etc., haven't basically laid out the formula   

Furthermore, ASU and UA did it in Phoenix, and revitalized a portion of their downtown, so we can do something here, especially with UNF being so small at this point with the potential for so much growth upcoming.

[RattlerGator]

The existing Engineering college is among the brightest and shiniest spaces on campus.

Seems like it would be kind of silly, and exceedingly expensive, to relocate Engineering downtown.

Why would there have to be a relocation? I've been saying for a few years on this board the FSCJ presence is simply insufficient to really make a difference downtown. To do that, you need a University presence. Preferably with grad school or professional students included in that presence.

Could it be that Shad Kahn, a 1971 Industrial Engineering graduate of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, will help jump start a new Engineering program at UNF?

Very interesting possibilities that even the density crowd will have to bow down to if this (or something similar that brings hundreds, if not thousands, of students to the core) comes to pass.

If UNF (as the smallest urban university in the State University System) has the will and desire, partnering with these efforts could transform downtown Jacksonville.

[Steve]

If UNF (as the smallest urban university in the State University System) has the will and desire, partnering with these efforts could transform downtown Jacksonville.

Pretty confident that UWF and Florida Poly are both smaller than UNF.

[FlaBoy]

If UNF (as the smallest urban university in the State University System) has the will and desire, partnering with these efforts could transform downtown Jacksonville.

Pretty confident that UWF and Florida Poly are both smaller than UNF.

UNF, UWF, and FGCU are all roughly the same size. Poly is smaller but only recently opened.

[CityLife]

UNF is larger than FAMU and New College too. UNF is the 7th largest of the 12 SUS schools. The 6th largest, FAU is almost double UNF's size, however.

I'll go against the grain and say that a Beach campus or St. Augustine campus would be more advantageous for UNF from a student desirability perspective, but a downtown Jax campus has a higher ceiling if done right. I'm no academic, but it seems like there are programs that would have more synergy Downtown than engineering. Especially when you consider that most of Jax's big engineering firms (ETM, RSH, Stellar, etc) are located on the Southside. Seems like breaking UNF's College of Arts and Sciences in half and putting the Arts programs downtown would make more sense. These are programs like Communications, Fine Arts, International Relations/Political Science/Public Admin, Music, and Social Work. These programs will always have some type of synergy with Downtown and could form the permanent base of a Downtown campus. Then UNF over time, could add in niche programs like entrepreneurship, MBA, nursing, etc.

[FlaBoy]

UNF is larger than FAMU and New College too. UNF is the 7th largest of the 12 SUS schools. The 6th largest, FAU is almost double UNF's size, however.

I'll go against the grain and say that a Beach campus or St. Augustine campus would be more advantageous for UNF from a student desirability perspective, but a downtown Jax campus has a higher ceiling if done right. I'm no academic, but it seems like there are programs that would have more synergy Downtown than engineering. Especially when you consider that most of Jax's big engineering firms (ETM, RSH, Stellar, etc) are located on the Southside. Seems like breaking UNF's College of Arts and Sciences in half and putting the Arts programs downtown would make more sense. These are programs like Communications, Fine Arts, International Relations/Political Science/Public Admin, Music, and Social Work. These programs will always have some type of synergy with Downtown and could form the permanent base of a Downtown campus. Then UNF over time, could add in niche programs like entrepreneurship, MBA, nursing, etc.

Yeah. Here is the model. In 20 years, with the growth of Florida, UNF could easily support a campus for 10-15k students downtown in synergy with potential for other schools like JU and FSCJ working in tune, much like what is seen in Phoenix or Orlando.

https://www.azcentral.com/story/opinion/op-ed/2014/06/07/asu-phoenix-downtown/10109551/

[RattlerGator]

I'm not counting Pensacola in the urban club. Miami, Broward, Palm Beach, Orlando, Tampa, Jax. YMMV, and that's cool.

[MusicMan]

I was on the Faculty at UNF for several years in the School of Music. The facility is pretty nice and replicating that downtown would be expensive I imagine.  There are several performing arts spaces that are quite nice (3 come to mind) Lazarra Hall plus the recital hall and another large space ....... Plus at least two LARGE rehearsal facilities.   Don't know how they could afford that (i.e. new construction) or what they would do with an empty music building on campus but who knows....

Hotel and Restaurant Management I think could work downtown, do they have that?

[Steve]

I was on the Faculty at UNF for several years in the School of Music. The facility is pretty nice and replicating that downtown would be expensive I imagine.  There are several performing arts spaces that are quite nice (3 come to mind) Lazarra Hall plus the recital hall and another large space ....... Plus at least two LARGE rehearsal facilities.   Don't know how they could afford that (i.e. new construction) or what they would do with an empty music building on campus but who knows....

Hotel and Restaurant Management I think could work downtown, do they have that?

I don't know if UNF has a hospitality program, but absolutely downtown could work for that.

Not knowing a darn thing about formal music education, could a partnership with the symphony and using Jacoby Hall be an avenue?