FAU

Few people walk down Sistrunk Boulevard in Fort Lauderdale, and cars simply drive through the nearly deserted corridor.

Among old warehouses, an “unsafe building” sign marks a foreclosed plumbing store between a church and a convenience store.

But that abandoned building will soon become a living lab. Florida Atlantic University and Fort Lauderdale are partnering to create a studio for urban agriculture, structural investigations and art installations.  

To keep up with the demand for STEM-related jobs, South Florida's universities are coming up with programs to help prepare their future graduates.

One of them is Discovery Though Distinction, a new effort at Florida Atlantic University to incorporate research in undergraduate programs.

The school is also planning to offer an accelerated master's degree that would take just five years.

"Our goal is to help train a very prepared workforce," says vice president of academic affairs Gary Perry. "As a university, we are part of the economic development of Florida."

Florida Atlantic University has struggled recently with low graduation rates. To improve these numbers, the school is starting the JumpStart program, a college boot camp for students who might look like risky bets for graduating.

JumpStart grants students a conditional acceptance. They take two or three regular courses, and those who do well are officially accepted into the school.

Those who don’t make the grade get the experience, and their less-than-stellar GPA doesn’t follow them or FAU around.

Florida Atlantic University's Recorded Sound Archives at the Wimberly Library will be purged this January. Well, sort of.

The library's sound archive is digitized, and duplicate records or those that don't fit with the school's collection will be given away Jan. 6-10, the Sun Sentinel reports. Possible finds include Glenn Miller, Barbra Streisand, Broadway, Christmas and Jewish albums.

The Nielsen Soundscan reported vinyl to be 2 percent of all albums sold. FAU archivist Ben Roth says the medium has a "warmer sound" than digitally reproduced music.