This blog site will track and provide constant updates for The University of Central Florida: Campus History, a collaborative effort between the University of Central Florida Alumni Association and Arcadia Publishing. Set for an '09 release, this book will be the first (and, to date, only) complete book-length history of the school's first four decades.
The Project
The University of Central Florida has stood at the edges of Orlando for forty years, a major institution of research, culture, education, and professional development, stitched into the very fabric of one of the nation's most dynamic and influential metropolitan areas.
It is a school that, founded in 1963 (the same year Walt Disney made his fateful fly over Central Florida and chose the location for his now-famous Walt Disney World), has grown along with the surrounding community, year by year, in size, prominence, and power.
Over 50,000 students currently attend the University of Central Florida, and hundreds of thousands have earned their degrees here since the first semester of classes in 1968. Each has left a mark on the campus, and for the last forty years, it seems as if each new year has seen the school pass some new milestone: a living and working hospitality management school, an on-campus football stadium, a medical school. For a young university, this is a place whose history is being written and revised each year, whose accomplishments are far from over...but this is also an institution with a rich history and a rich tradition.
And, for the first time ever, we are attempting to collect that full history.
But this won't simply be a dry, newspaper-style account of the university's growth, nor will this simply be a bullet-pointed list of accomplishments, as you might see on a web site or brochure.
This will be your history, a collection that showcases the University of Central Florida through extensive photographs, archival material, and individual accounts. What were the most important moments to define the school, from 1963 to the present? What are the most lasting images? What have been the most important landmarks, the most important traditions, the most important events? Who are the people who have helped to build this school into what it is today?
UCF is a school that has been writing its history for the past forty years, and now we will truly have a document to capture that history. Check back to this blog site frequently for updates, calls for interviews and stories, and calls for photographs. This is a project that can only succeed with the help of the students and alumni who call UCF their alma mater.
Here's a quick schedule of the upcoming book signings:
Saturday, November 14 (Homecoming): 9-12, Barnes & Noble outside Brighthouse Networks Stadium
Saturday, November 21: 10 AM, CB&S Bookstore (Football vs. Tulane starts at 2 PM)
Saturday, December 12: 1-3 PM, UrbanThink! Bookstore, downtown Orlando (near Lake Eola)
Here's a quick link to the UrbanThink! press release, also.
I know that it's been awhile since I've posted on this blog, but the project has been complete since February (in other words, it's been almost a full year since the book has been finished!). Since that time, we've been fine-tuning the manuscript and the layout, and working hard to make sure that we're putting the best possible product into the hands of readers.
I'm proud to report that the University of Central Florida campus history is now available, both online and in local bookstores around the Orlando metropolitan area. I've posted a few links below, if you'd like to order online. Later, I'll post the dates, times, and places, for book signings at local stores.
Amazon.comBarnes & NobleArcadia Publishing
