Joe Negron kicks off State University listening tour

Senate President-Designate Joe Negron is heading back to college.

Negron kicks off a four-day listening tour of Florida’s State University System on Monday. The Stuart Republican is expected to visit all 12 of the state universities during the listening tour.

“Over the last several years, I have had the opportunity to discuss with fellow senators my goal of making Florida’s good universities great,” he said in a statement earlier this month announcing the trip. “My colleagues share this goal. We look forward to making our state University System a focus of the next two years, and this listening tour will provide important insight for future legislative action.”

Negron will visit three schools each day. During each stop, he is expected to take a tour of the program or college that each university considers a center of excellence, meet with the school’s president and representatives of the university to talk about each school’s goals, and meet with students to talk about their public university experience.

On Monday, Negron is scheduled to visit the University of West Florida in Pensacola, Florida State University and Florida A&M University, both in Tallahassee.

Negron will start his day at the University of West Florida, where he will tour of the school’s Department of Nursing. He is scheduled to have a discussion with nursing and chemistry students, before presentations on key initiatives by senior faculty and administrators.

He’ll then head to Florida State University, where he’ll visit the university’s criminology program. Negron is scheduled to talk with senior criminology faculty and graduate students, before a discussion about key initiatives with students, senior faculty, and administrators.

He’ll end the day with a walking tour of Florida A&M University’s campus. Negron is scheduled to talk with FAMU student researchers and senior STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) faculty, before talking about key initiatives with senior faculty and administrators.

All of the meetings are open to the public.

State University System listening tour schedule:

Monday, April 18

9:30 a.m. (CDT) – University of West Florida in Pensacola

3 p.m. — Florida State University in Tallahassee

5 p.m. — Florida A&M University in Tallahassee

Tuesday, April 19

9 a.m. — University of North Florida in Jacksonville

12:30 p.m. — University of Florida in Gainesville

4:30 p.m. — University of Central Florida in Orlando

Wednesday, April 20

9 a.m. — Florida Polytechnic University in Lakeland

12 p.m. — University of South Florida in Tampa

3 p.m. — New College of Florida in Sarasota

Thursday, April 21

9 a.m. — Florida Gulf Coast University in Fort Myers

1 p.m. — Florida International University in Miami

4 p.m. — Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton