Florida International University

Florida International University  is an American metropolitan public research university located in Greater Miami, Florida, United States.     Florida International University  has two major campuses in Miami Dede County, with its main campus in University Park.  Florida International University is classified as a research 

university with high research activity by the Carnegie Foundation  and a first-tier research university by the Florida Legislature. Founded in 1965,     Florida International University s the youngest university to be awarded a Phi Beta Kappa chapter by the Phi Beta Kappa Society, the country's oldest academic honor society

FIE belongs to the 12-campus State University System of Florida and is one of Florida's primary graduate research universities, awarding over 3,400 graduate and professional degrees annually. The university offers 

191 programs of study with more than 280 majors in 23 colleges and schools. FIE offers many graduate programs, including architecture, business administration, engineering, law, and medicine, offering 81 master's degrees, 34 doctoral degrees, and 3 professional degrees.

FIE is the largest university in South Florida, the 2nd-largest in Florida, and the 4th-largest in the United States.Total enrollment in 2014 /2015 was 54,099 students, including 7,814 graduate students. According to U.S. News college rankings and reviews, 92% of     Florida International University  students live off-campus while only 8% of students live in "college-owned, college-operated or college-affiliated" housing.


The story of Florida International University's founding began in 1943, when state Senator Ernest 'Cap' Graham  presented the state legislature with the initial proposal for the establishment of a public university in


 South Florida. While his bill did not pass, Graham persisted in presenting his proposal to colleagues, advising them of Miami's need for a state university. He felt the establishment of a public university was necessary to serve the city's growing population.

In 1964, Senate Bill 711 was introduced by Florida Senator Robert M. Dangerfield. It instructed the state Board of Education and the Board of Regents   to begin planning for the development of a state university in Miami. The bill was signed into law by then-governor W. Haydon Burns in June 1965, marking Florida International University  official founding.


Florida International University 's founding president Charles  Chuck Perry was appointed by the Board of Regents in July 1969 after a nationwide search. At 32 years old, the new president was the youngest in the history of the State University System and, at the time, the youngest university president in the country. Perr

y recruited three co-founders, Butler Waugh, Donald McDowell and Nick Sile. Alva Chapman, Jr., former Miami Herald publisher and Knight Bidder chairman, used his civic standing and media power to assist the effort. In the 1980s, Chapman became chair of the FIE Foundation Board of Trustees.

The founders located the campus on the site of the original Tatami Airport on the Tatami Trail  between Southwest 107th and 117th Avenues, just east of where the West Dede Expressway   was being planned. The abandoned airport's air traffic control tower became Fin's first building. It originally had no telephones, 

no drinking water, and no furniture. Perry decided that the tower should never be destroyed, and it remains on campus, where it is now known variously as the  Ivory Tower,  the  Tower Building, or the "Public Safety Tower," and is the former location of the FIE Police Department.


Harold Crosby, the University's second president and the founding president of the University of West Florida in Pensacola, agreed in 1976 to serve a three-year  interim  term. Under his leadership,         Florida International University North Miami Campus located on the former Interact site on Biscayne Bay was opened in 1977. State Senator Jack Gordon was instrumental in securing funding for the development of the 


Gregory Baker Wolfe, a former United States diplomat and then-president of Portland State University became Fin's third president, from 1979 to 1986. After stepping down as president, Wolfe taught in the university's international relations department. The student union on the Biscayne Bay Campus is named in his honor. 

campus. President Crosby emphasized the university's international character, prompting the launching of new programs with an international focus and the recruitment of faculty from the Caribbean and Latin America. President Cosby's resignation in January 1979 triggered the search for a  permanent  president.

On November 14, 2008, Martinique announced that he would be stepping down and asked Fin's Board of Trustees to begin the search of a new president. He said he would remain president until a new one was found.On April 25, 2009, Mark B. Rosenberg was selected to become Fin's fifth president. He signed a five-year contract with the Board of Trustees. On August 29, 2009, Rosenberg became Fin's fifth president.