President Saunders' Blog
President Saunders shares how the University is launching the next generation of big thinkers who will change the world.
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Igniting Higher Education and Economic Development with UWF's Innovation Network
June 20, 2018 | Martha D. Saunders, Ph.D.Education and economic growth go hand in hand.
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Increasing Access to Mental Health Services on College Campuses
June 5, 2018 | Martha D. Saunders, Ph.D.The Fall 2017 National College Health Assessment by the American College Health Association found that in the past 12 months, nearly 40 percent of college students felt so depressed “that it was difficult to function,” and more than 60 percent felt “overwhelming anxiety.”
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UWF Breaks the Mold in Active Learning in Higher Education, Makes Graduates “Career Ready”
May 24, 2018 | Martha D. Saunders, Ph.D.There’s a buzz in higher education, a hot topic that we’re all talking about: active learning in higher education.
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Opinion - Graduation Day: An Occasion for All
May 22, 2018 | Martha D. Saunders, Ph.D.I do believe May is my favorite month of the year. At UWF, the highlight of the month is graduation day when we confer hard-earned bachelors, masters and doctoral degrees to our students and send them off to change the world.
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UWF Students Tackle Real-World Problems
May 8, 2018 | Martha D. Saunders, Ph.D.Research expands student-learning opportunities beyond the classroom and teaches valuable skills such as critical thinking and problem solving. Students learn to work in teams and combine different disciplines to find answers to pertinent questions.
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Supply Chain Logistics Plays an Important Role in the Economy
April 16, 2018 | Martha D. Saunders, Ph.D.Even with the advancements in e-commerce, automation and artificial intelligence, supply chain logistics professionals remain in high demand. In 2014, the U.S. supply chain delivered 48 million tons of freight worth $48 billion dollars daily.
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UWF Tracking Role in Regional Progress
April 9, 2018 | Martha D. Saunders, Ph.D.If you noticed UWF folks nodding vigorously when CivicCon speaker, Tom Murphy, spoke, there’s a good reason for that. The former mayor of Pittsburgh was talking about public-private partnerships and the keen role universities play in moving communities forward. We agree! UWF is squarely in the game with our community and region and our plans for moving forward are already in motion.
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UWF Celebrates Banner Year
January 2, 2018 | Martha D. Saunders, Ph.D.As we say farewell to 2017, I think it’s safe to say it has been a very good year for UWF. From scoring high on the State University System Performance Based Funding metrics to scoring big in football, we made our mark on the past year and continue to build momentum for good things to come.
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50 Years later, this economic engine has revved up
December 12, 2017 | Martha D. Saunders, Ph.D.Today, the University of West Florida pumps $1.1 billion into Northwest Florida’s economy each year.
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UWF Stands with Our Community
November 6, 2017 | Martha D. Saunders, Ph.D.We see opportunities to help our region experience a profound transformation by making the most of our assets, helping businesses grow and thrive and coming to the aid of our neighbors when disaster strikes. We stand with our community through good times and bad.
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UWF: Channeling the Legacy of the Argonauts
October 10, 2017 | Martha D. Saunders, Ph.D.Recently, I was delighted to receive a visit from a community member who brought greetings from Volos, Greece. Why is that special? As it turns out, Volos proudly hails as the Home of the Argonauts – the site where the mythological hero, Jason, and friends set off for adventures in search of the Golden Fleece.
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UWF Football Builds Sense of Community
September 6, 2017 | Martha D. Saunders, Ph.D.Football plays a unique role in college athletics in that it creates a common identity among students, alumni, faculty, staff and the community itself. Everyone wants to root for the home team, and UWF delivers with 24 teammates from our area.
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Can Northwest Florida become Florida’s Cyber Coast?
August 7, 2017 | Martha D. Saunders, Ph.D.By working with our regional and national partners, UWF has the tools in place to help our area take the resources we already have and use them to create what is called an economic cluster around cybersecurity.
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Introducing the UWF Innovation Campus Network
June 19, 2017 | Martha D. Saunders, Ph.D.The UWF Innovation Campus Network will connect our students, our communities and area industries as we work toward mutually beneficial goals.
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Part-time Students Finish in Four at UWF
April 20, 2017 | Martha D. Saunders, Ph.D.Lawmakers in Florida are advancing legislation that would link four-year graduation rates with performance funding at Florida universities. This growing interest prompted the University of West Florida to thoroughly examine our progress.
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UWF’s Newest Division Connects University to Community
March 21, 2017 | Martha D. Saunders, Ph.D.UWF launched the Division of Research and Strategic Innovation, which will serve as an incubator where big ideas come to life.
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Major gift transforms UWF and our community
February 24, 2017 | Martha D. Saunders, Ph.D.Every gift and every donor play an important role in allowing the University of West Florida to provide students with access to high-quality, relevant educational opportunities. But every once in a while, a gift like the one from Dr. Usha and Mahadeb Kundu comes along that has the ability to transform what we do.
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2017: Our Journey Begins
January 6, 2017 | Martha D. Saunders, Ph.D.So, my fellow Argonauts, UWF has been on a journey for 50 years now. Just like the Argonauts of old, we’ve had challenges thrown our way, but we overcame them by working together. It’s time now to take our trusty ship and chart the course for the next 50 years.