Friday, April 1, 2016

March 1-3, PBSC Emerging Leaders Program


Palm Beach State College
Emerging Leaders Program
March 1-3, 2016, Tallahassee, Florida
 

     Palm Beach State College Emerging Leaders on the steps of the Florida Supreme Court
(Photo Credit: Janet DeVries, 2nd row, 2nd from left)
Submitted by
Janet DeVries, MLIS
Library Technician II
Palm Beach State College
 
On March 1-3, I visited Florida’s State Capitol in Tallahassee to learn about the Florida College System, the State University System of Florida and see the Florida legislative process in action. This Palm Beach State College sanctioned visit was part of the PBSC Emerging Leaders curriculum. While in Tallahassee, our contingent participated in several group events with leaders from other Florida colleges.
 
The current Florida State Capitol is a twenty-two story building, dedicated in 1977.
It is home to Florida's Executive and Legislative branches. Other buildings at the Capitol Complex include the two four-story office buildings for the House of Representatives and Senate as well as the Historic Capitol and Knott Building. This year, The Florida Legislature convened on January 12, 2016 and officially ended on March 11, the 60th day of the Regular Session. Our group sat in on the legislative sessions of the House and the Senate, viewing the action from the 5th floor galleries.
 
      View showing the Great Seal of the State of Florida in the Capitol rotunda

 
The PBSC Emerging Leaders booked a private meeting with Jeff Atwater,
Florida’s Chief Financial Officer. 
 


Atwater, a fifth-generation Floridian, has strong ties to Palm Beach County and several members of the Atwood family have attended Palm Beach State College.
 
Atwater served as Vice Mayor of North Palm Beach and as a Florida House of Representative and Senator before his election to the office of CFO.  He talked to our group about the budget process, the proposed $9 million budget allocation for the Dennis P. Gallon Loxahatchee Groves Campus and the vital functions his office oversees. Atwater encouraged us to continue to write or visit our representatives to voice our opinion about state finance legislative issues.
 
As the state’s CFO, Atwater also serves as the Florida’s State Fire Marshal, consequently he invited us to the annual Florida Fire Service Awards held later that evening on the 22nd floor observation deck.  We stopped in to see the festivities and were treated to a breathtaking, commanding, panoramic view of downtown Tallahassee,  Florida State and Florida A&M Universities and the surrounding countryside.
 
 
   A peek into the Rare Book Room at the Florida Supreme Court
 
 
 
 The next morning, the Palm Beach State College Emerging Leaders joined staff and faculty from other Florida Colleges for a joint session called the Educational Leadership Enhancement Program. We convened on the 17th floor of the Florida Department of Education Turlington building to meet with Chancellors Marshall Criser III and Madeline Pumariega, and members of their senior staff.  




  Palm Beach State College Emerging Leaders at the Florida Department of Education http://www.fldoe.org/
At the Department of Education, we learned about the history, the purpose, and the goals of the State University System of Florida and the Florida College System. Palm Beach State is one of the 28 colleges, state colleges, and community colleges in the Florida College System that serves individuals, communities, and the state with low-cost, high-quality education opportunities. Our affordable college system is the primary access point to undergraduate education for Floridians, including recent high school graduates and returning adult students.

Chancellor Marshall Criser, III, is the chief executive officer of the system and reports to the Commissioner of Education, who serves at the CEO of Florida’s K-20 System. Chancellor Criser explained that the taxpayers are the investors in our system, and presented an overview of the system. A number of senior staff members explained their role in the system and their path to getting there. Mentorship, planning and growth were three common themes shared by the senior staffers to the future leaders.
 
Madeline Pumariega, Chancellor of the Florida College System, grew up in Hialeah, attending Broward Community College then Barry University in Fort Lauderdale. She is an outspoken advocate for student success, and instrumental in establishing Take Stock in Children’s largest affiliate at Miami Dade College. Pumariega articulated as an inspiring, innovative leader with passion as a change agent for communities.
 

  A view of the Senate floor from the gallery during the
final days of the 2016 Regular Legislative Session

Next stop was the Association of Florida Colleges office. The Association of Florida Colleges (AFC) was founded in 1949 as the Florida Association of Public Junior Colleges by the presidents of Florida's first four public junior colleges. Its mission was to unite the colleges for the purposes of helping the Florida Legislature understand the junior college mission and to advocate for Florida's public junior colleges in the development of the state's long-range plan for higher education.

 
The Associate Executive Director, Juanita Scott, welcomed us and invited us to use their office as our office and meeting place while we were in Tallahassee. Several lobbyists from AFC shared insight on the legislative process with us and explained how they work to make the Florida Colleges voice known to the legislature. They stressed the importance of AFC members to meet face to face with legislators to communicate their needs early on in the process.


Scoping out the Florida statutes and records books while awaiting our appointment
with Policy Chief Heather Bishop
 
After viewing the many educational Florida history displays in the Capitol building, we headed over to the House of Representatives to talk to Policy Chief Heather Bishop, Education Committee. Her division carefully researches, writes and prepares the House bills that are sent over to the Senate and may ultimately go to the Governor. Heather explained the intricacies of policy research and planning during the off-season.
 

    The 'Five Flags Mural' at the entrance of the Florida Senate gallery. The man in the cameo portrait is James Weldon Johnson who served as the first secretary of the NAACP and wrote the anthem "Lift Up Every Voice and Sing". The man in the brown suit is Henry Flagler, builder of Florida's east coast railway. The woman in green is Harriett Beecher Stowe, author of "Uncle Tom's Cabin" and attributed with ushering in tourism in Florida. The woman is blue is Zora Neale Hurston, a very popular Florida artist.

 
Our last meeting was an informative, interactive, Florida Supreme Court session with Justice Barbara Pariente, who hails from Palm Beach County. Pariente practiced law in Palm Beach County until her appointment to the Fourth District Court of Appeal. The late Governor Lawton Chiles appointed Pariente to the Florida Supreme Court in 1997, where she served as chief justice from 2004 through 2006. Pariente, a 2008 Florida Women’s Hall of Fame inductee, talked about the judicial process, described some of her duties and her community involvement, and talked about some of her landmark court cases. Afterward we took photographs with her and visited the Florida Supreme Court Law Library and Archives.

 
We couldn’t leave Tallahassee without exploring the original Florida Capitol building. The 1845 building has been preserved and now houses a museum. It sits on the same grounds as the new Capitol. Several rooms contain historical vignettes including the Governor’s Suite, Governor’s Private Office, and the Stenographer’s Office.
 

  The “Stenographer’s Office” display at The Old Florida Capitol Museum. http://www.flhistoriccapitol.gov/exhibits.cfm
This is a charming building housing dozens of interesting historical displays on Florida's history. There was a Civil Rights exhibit, a past Governor’s exhibit, and an exhibit on the 2000 presidential election debacle. For thirty-six days after the election, Florida was at the center of the battle for the Presidency of the United States.  The display of election memorabilia and newspapers even includes a Palm Beach County’s infamous “butterfly ballots” and election booth.

 
If you have not visited the Florida State Capitol, I highly recommend it as an educational, cultural and historical destination.
 


Old Capitol of Florida Heritage Marker in front of Old Capitol at 400 S. Monroe St.

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