Talking Stick - May/June 2012 - 64

coNTINUed

Looking at Things a Whole New Way

companies. Innovation Square serves as a live/work/play community near the university and close to downtown Gainesville that nurtures the development of new ideas and brings technology and business together to take innovative products and services to market. Also located in Innovation Square will be a soon-to-benamed residence hall that will house 180-200 emerging undergraduate entrepreneurs and innovators. All of these projects reflect the direction of the University of Florida, says Evans. While the timeframe of the Innovation Academy’s calendar will be unique, the hall’s programming will also inspire new ways of facing challenges. The residence hall and living-learning community will serve as the University of Florida’s 13th and newest living-learning community, where residents will collaborate with other entrepreneurially minded students, fostering the active exchange of new and exciting ideas. This hall will open its doors for the fall 2013 semester under a partnership between the University of Florida Department of Housing and Residence Education and Trimark Properties, a private development company. Residents will live in apartment-style and supersuitestyle accommodations and will enjoy access to business incubator space, faculty and staff offices, classrooms, an auditorium with seating for 150, meeting rooms, a reception desk, an apartment for visiting entrepreneurs, graduate and undergraduate staff, and other amenities comparable to those of a world class, high-tech incubation environment. Stakeholders for this new residence hall are committed to creating a unique and dynamic living and learning center for developing entrepreneurs. The Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation faculty as well as staff from the housing department and Trimark properties visited on-site and via videoconference with stakeholders
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from five leading entrepreneurship living-learning communities to gather information and discuss best practices during the summer of 2011. The following fall, academic and housing stakeholders attended the Global Consortium of Entrepreneurship Centers annual conference to network and share ideas, while on the home front discussions focused on the partnership agreement with Trimark; the logistics of collections, billing, marketing, applications, and assignments; and project financing and design. During the spring of 2012, many of these conversations continued, and discussion began about the residence life aspects of the new community, including program goals and learning outcomes, staffing, residential curriculum, and conduct and community standards. Design plans are nearing completion, and construction will begin in the early summer of 2012. When the new residence hall opens its doors in August of 2013, the first year of Innovation Academy will be coming to a close. While a natural connection exists between the hall and the spring/summer cohort grounded in innovation and entrepreneurship, it remains to be seen how exactly the two will interact. In the first several years, staff project that the living-learning community will be occupied by a mixture of traditional and Innovation Academy students. However, other opportunities exist for Innovation Academy students to engage with this community and its resources. For example, courses for these students’ minor in entrepreneurship and innovation may be taught in the residence hall’s classrooms or auditoriums. Innovation Academy students may host a business in the attached incubator or visit with a College of Business advisor or College of Engineering faculty member in their offices in the living-learning community. “We are very excited to be able to provide this unique opportunity

for collaboration – collaboration with peers, campus resources, and the greater community,” says PorterRoberts. The impact of Innovation Academy on the University of Florida campus will be immense. In the course of four years, an additional 2,000 undergraduate students will be provided access to the university and will matriculate toward a degree with a minor in entrepreneurship and innovation. Many think this could be the first step of a much larger program. “Right now we have some theoretical interest and curiosity from our friends at other institutions, and I imagine after the first year of implementation we’ll see even more of this,” says Logan. “At that point, I think colleagues will have more of a vested interest in seeing if this could work on their campus, and they’ll check in with us with more questions about really putting a program like this into practice.” An approach such as Innovation Academy has required University of Florida faculty, staff, and students to think about doing business with a very different mindset. Staff are beginning conversations about constructing additional undergraduate housing, as projections on the retention of Innovation Academy students indicate that they will require campus housing. In a year that the higher education community is celebrating the 150th anniversary of the Morrill Act and the creation of the land grant educational system, providing access to additional students could not come at a better time. tS
Mary C. Jordan
is the coordinator for academic residential programs at the University of Florida in Gainesville. Email: maryj@ housing.ufl.edu. is the associate vice president for student affairs at the University of Florida in Gainesville. Email: NorbD@ ufsa.ufl.edu.

Norbert W. Dunkel

Talking Stick - May/June 2012

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