FAU steps up
John Kelly put Head Football Coach Charlie Partridge on the spot. The second big announcement puts Dr. Daniel Flynn on the spot.
The December announcement tied much of FAU’s future to athletics. A $16 million gift from the Schmidt Family Foundation is the start of a campaign to build a multi-discipline athletics/academics complex on the main campus in Boca Raton. Kelly wants the complex, which will cost between $45 million and $50 million, built in two years. He wants the complex to be part of transforming FAU into a national university. Success will require a football team that does better than last year’s 3-9 record – and does better soon and often.
On Monday, Kelly put down his second big bet. This one is that FAU can collaborate with Scripps Florida and the Max Planck Florida Institute to make the university’s Jupiter campus a biotechnology hub that in 10 years will attract 3,000 of the best STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) students from around the country and perhaps around the world. And 100 grad students.
The STEM number now? Zero.
If the goal is lofty, the partnership is predictable. Since starting work last March, Kelly has complained about lack of awareness for the two world-class research facilities on the Honors College campus. In an interview Monday, Kelly called that a “differentiating niche” that FAU can leverage.
Essentially, FAU, Scripps and Max Planck will try to offer a combined menu that will draw students and researchers. Example: If FAU can hire a faculty member whose work will complement Scripps, each may pay a share of that person’s salary. Kelly said the three will do “joint planning on priorities” and will “find the best expertise.” Present at Monday’s announcement were Scripps Research Institute CEO James Paulson and Max Planck Florida Institute CEO David Fitzpatrick.
FAU, Scripps and Max Planck will work together to improve the cluster’s ability to secure National Institutes of Health grants. Scripps Florida alone has received $400 million, even as NIH’s share of the federal budget has declined. The focus will include start-up companies to develop and market what the research produces.
In 2003, when former Gov. Jeb Bush announced the arrival of Scripps to Palm Beach County, then-FAU President Frank Brogan fended off other state universities that wanted a Scripps affiliation. After getting the shut-up done, though, FAU had not tried the put-up. Until Monday.
Never spoken all that publicly, but acknowledged privately, is that FAU hasn’t been on the heft level of Scripps and Max Planck. Though the effort to build Scripps at FAU’s Jupiter campus and not way out west on a former citrus grove was successful, the ties were more geographic than academic.
Kelly doesn’t just want that to change; he says FAU needs that to change. The guy in charge of the change is Flynn, who in January started as FAU’s vice president for research. Flynn is a breast cancer specialist whose doctoral thesis in Microbilogy/Virology was titled “Conformational changes in the surface glycoproteins E1/E2 of Sindbis virus upon attachment and penetration.”
Flynn agrees that FAU’s relationship with Scripps and Max Planck has been “underforming,” adding, “We need to show that we can play on the same field.” He sees the work widening to include area hospitals, such as the Boca Regional and its Marcus Neuroscience Institute.
You can’t accuse Kelly of aiming low or of understating. The news release that went out over the weekend promised a “monumental announcement,” and the release that laid out the details referred to the partnership as “groundbreaking.” Put-up time has begun.
Netanyahu news
Many big world and national stories touch Florida start here or affect us. So it is with the world and national story of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s address today to a joint session of Congress (10:45 a.m. EST).
After New York and Los Angeles, the country’s largest Jewish population is in South Florida. The Anti-Defamation League holds its annual convention at The Breakers in Palm Beach, and its Florida office is in Boca Raton. The American Jewish Committee has regional offices in Boca Raton and Miami. The Jewish Federation of South Palm Beach County complements the work of the Jewish Federation of Palm Beach County. The American Israel Public Affairs Committee, whose annual conference in Washington concludes today, has an office in Fort Lauderdale. The director of the Daniel S. Abraham Center for Middle East Peace is Robert Wexler, who represented southwest Palm Beach and northwest Broward counties in Congress. In this part of the world, the Middle East is a local story.
So there’s been lots of talk, public and private, in South Florida since news broke that House Speaker John Boehner had invited Netanyahu without consulting the White House. That breach of protocol is without precedent. Moreover, Netanyahu intends his speech as a rebuke of President Obama’s efforts—with five other countries—to negotiate a deal on Iran’s nuclear program.
In two weeks, Israel holds elections, with Netanyahu’s party facing a strong challenge in part because of concern that his decision to accept Boehner’s invitation and insult the Democrats has jeopardized the longstanding consensus in Washington that Israel is a bipartisan issue. Almost everyone acknowledges that Netanyahu will use his speech as an election commercial.
Reaction from Jewish groups varies, sometimes in interesting ways. Last week, ADL National Director Abe Foxman issued a statement saying, “While the original decision by Prime Minister Netanyahu to accept the invitation to address Congress without consulting the Democratic leadership was, in our view, ill-advised, now that it is happening, the speech deserves support from both sides of the aisle.” Foxman urged lawmakers to “transcend the political controversy” and “underscore the broad support for Israel’s security.”
Foxman added that the United States and Israel “have a common interest” in making sure that Iran “should not have the capability of building a nuclear weapon.” The interesting thing is the use of the word “capability,” Foxman seems to differ from Netanyahu’s stated position that Iran should not even be able to enrich uranium. The Bush administration tried unsuccessfully in 2003 to lay down that marker. Foxman noted the invitation to meet with Democratic senators angry about the speech was a hopeful sign. Unfortunately, Netanyahu declined the offer.
Matthew C. Levin, president and CEO of the Jewish Federation of South Palm Beach County, noted that recent terrorists attacks in Europe “underscore the virulent anti-Semitism facing the Jewish people in part of this world. The prime minister’s warnings about the intent of the radical fundamentalists of Hezbollah, ISIL, Al Qaeda and the murderous regime in Iran (which) seeks nuclear weapons should be heeded by Western governments that believe democracy is central to their freedom.
“The shared values of democracy, freedom of speech, freedom of religion and freedom of the press are just a sample of what draws the United States and Israel together. . .Under this banner, I salute the prime minister’s visit to America.” The interesting thing is the talking past the speech and focusing on the alliance.
According to Rachel Miller, who runs the Boca office, the American Jewish Committee “has refrained from commenting on Netanyahu’s speech before Congress.” The interesting thing is the lack of comment on such a big issue from a group that calls itself “the leading global Jewish advocacy organization.”
As for AIPAC, which considers itself the most important pro-Israel lobby group, an Israeli journalist reported that AIPAC opposed Netanyahu’s visit because of the open rebuke to a sitting president and the damage it could cause to U.S.-Israeli relations. AIPAC, which also was blindsided by Boehner’s announcement – though it has supported Netanyahu’s criticism of the talks with Iran — then denied that it had opposed the speech. Netanyahu got lots of applause during his speech Monday before AIPAC’s annual meeting in Washington.
For many strong supporters of Israel in this area, it is an awkward moment that they are trying to get past. Fortunately, despite Netanyahu’s attitude, the Obama administration continues to advocate on Israel’s behalf. Just recently, as commentators in Israel noted, the administration intervened to ease hostilities when an Israeli air strike in Syria killed an Iranian general. The administration continues to oppose efforts by the Palestinians to take Israel to the International Criminal Court, and the U.S. plans more money for Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system.
Some Democrats will boycott the speech rather than become Netanyahu campaign props. I wouldn’t expect that from South Florida lawmakers, but even if they attend don’t assume that they agree with the prime minister on policy or his decision to give the speech. Netanyahu has pleased some of Israel’s strongest supporters in South Florida, but he also has angered even some of Israeli’s greatest friends in South Florida. They just won’t go on the record with their anger.
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You can email Randy Schultz at randy@bocamag.com
For more City Watch blogs, click here.About the Author
Randy Schultz was born in Hartford, Conn., and graduated from the University of Tennessee in 1974. He has lived in South Florida since then, and in Boca Raton since 1985. Schultz spent nearly 40 years in daily journalism at the Miami Herald and Palm Beach Post, most recently as editorial page editor at the Post. His wife, Shelley, is director of The Learning Network at Pine Crest School. His son, an attorney, and daughter-in-law and three grandchildren also live in Boca Raton. His daughter is a veterinarian who lives in Baltimore.
