University of Florida

The first substantial videos to emerge from a panicked stampede at the University of Florida during a nighttime vigil for Israelis killed in the Hamas attacks show waves of terrified students sprinting out of their shoes, discarding phones and water bottles and colliding with startled and confused police officers who had drawn their pistols searching for a possible gunman through the melee.

Ben Sasse, the former Republican U.S. senator for Nebraska, was formally inaugurated Thursday as the 13th president of the University of Florida during a ceremony full of pomp and symbolism that dated to the Middle Ages.

The University of Florida fell one position to No. 6 among public universities in the new, annual national rankings published overnight Sunday by U.S. News & World Report, even as the state's flagship school climbed one spot to No. 28 in the magazine's rankings of top public and private universities overall.

After only one year, Florida has temporarily suspended a highly controversial, statewide survey required under a new state law compelling public colleges and universities annually to ask students and faculty to identify political bias in college classrooms.

The University of Florida is making sure its newly hired president can dive into the job. The school in Gainesville confirms it is building a new $300,000 swimming pool behind the stately mansion on campus where former U.S. Senator Ben Sasse of Nebraska will live with his family. Construction on the expensive addition to the 7,400-square-foot, four-bedroom mansion started in November and is nearly complete. The university says Sasse – who had no pool at his family’s home in Fremont, Nebraska – did not ask for the pool to be built and provided no input over its design. The money is coming from private donors. It wasn't immediately clear why the new pool for Sasse is so expensive, or how much it will cost the university to maintain. The average cost for an in-ground residential pool in Florida is just under $60,000. Features such as tanning ledges, beach entries, hot tubs, lighting, gas-fired heating systems and more can increase design and installation costs. Sasse begins work on campus on February 6. He will be paid $1 million in base salary for five years plus a raise of up to 4% and a bonus after five years of up to another $1 million. He did not respond to phone messages or a letter sent to his home asking to discuss his swimming habits.

University of Florida scientists are breeding better-tasting, Florida-grown blueberries with the help of consumers through taste-testing in the University’s Sensory Lab.

Amid a spike in demand for locally-sourced foods, the University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS) is offering a free education program for budding and seasoned agricultural entrepreneurs about how to market their small-growing operations in the digital consumer era.

An international climate change conference in Orlando featured dozens of experts who spoke of carbon sinks, carbon traps, carbon sequestration and of being carbon neutral. However, it was the youngest, most soft-spoken, and newest scientist who received the only standing ovation. 26-year-old Precious Nyabami, a University of Florida graduate student, was honored for her discovery that farmers can easily trap large amounts of planet-warming carbon.

New technology being tested by researchers at UF/IFAS to help Florida farmers reduce their costs as much as possible in order to try and stay profitable in the face of what’s called ‘citrus greening.'

Find out how you can get started with your own edible, Florida-friendly garden, and if you’re not a homeowner, find tips on creating indoor and container garden setups.