The Brogan Years Begin

On January 31, 2003, by unanimous vote of the university’s Board of Trustees, Frank T. Brogan – Florida’s incumbent Lieutenant Governor and a 1981 graduate of FAU’s master’s degree program in educational administration – was named the fifth president of Florida Atlantic University.

President Brogan’s return to his alma mater as its president marked the latest development in his career in public education in Florida, which began in 1978 when he became a teacher at Port Salerno Elementary School in Martin County. After serving as a teacher and administrator for 10 years, he was twice elected Superintendent of Schools in Martin County. In 1995, voters around the state sent him to Tallahassee as Commissioner of Education. He was elected Florida’s Lieutenant Governor in 1999 and 2003, leaving the state’s second-highest post early in his second term to accept the presidency of FAU.

President Brogan has taken the reins of an institution that bears little resemblance to the university that opened its doors on an abandoned airfield 39 years ago. Today’s FAU offers students a selection of 60 bachelor’s degree programs, 53 master’s degree programs, three specialist’s degree programs and 17 doctoral degree programs on seven well-designed and beautifully maintained campuses. Modern residence facilities are available on the Boca Raton and Jupiter campuses.

FAU students are served through eight colleges: the Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts & Letters, the Charles E. Schmidt College of Science, the Christine E. Lynn College of Nursing, the Harriet L. Wilkes Honors College, and the Colleges of Business, Education, Engineering, and Architecture, Urban & Public Affairs. Additional educational programs are offered by Open University & Continuing Education and the Lifelong Learning Society. In fulfillment of the original vision of the university’s founders, FAU finally is able to make full use of distance learning technology, delivering many courses online, via interactive television and on videotape. By 2002, the number of students taking advantage of distance learning opportunities had reached 16,000.

In the aftermath of FAU’s 12 years of rapid expansion, President Brogan is focusing on bringing added depth and quality to all of the university’s programs and services. He and his wife, Courtney, are the first presidential couple to live in the Eleanor R. Baldwin House, the university’s newly built president’s home and reception center on the Boca Raton Campus.
In accepting the challenge of leading his alma mater, President Brogan said, “I am humbled and thrilled to be selected FAU’s fifth president. My lifetime of public service and commitment to public education continues as we all work together to lift FAU to the next level of excellence.”

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