Palm Beach State College
Emerging Leaders Program
March 1-3, 2016, Tallahassee, Florida
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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
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Palm Beach State College Emerging Leaders at the
Florida Department of Education http://www.fldoe.org/
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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.
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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.
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Scoping out the Florida statutes and records
books while awaiting our appointment
with Policy Chief Heather Bishop
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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The “Stenographer’s Office” display at The Old
Florida Capitol Museum. http://www.flhistoriccapitol.gov/exhibits.cfm
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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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