Florida Gulf Coast University begins its tenth year when classes start next week. In what’s become an annual tradition the President delivered his State of the University address to faculty and staff Tuesday. President Bill Merwin says the state of the university is outstanding. 8100 students will attend classes this fall – including 16 hundred freshmen. That’s up from 200 freshmen in 1999. Merwin says the challenge is to provide the infrastructure needed to support FGCU’s growth.

“It’s exponential what we’re accommodating so I and my administrative staff are really working very diligently to raise the money to buy new facilities and new classrooms and get people in the community willing to come out here and help support us…”

New resident halls are planned and several classroom buildings are under construction. President Merwin says satellite learning centers in Cape Coral, and Charlotte and Hendry Counties are also in the planning stages.

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Florida Gulf Coast University President Bill Merwin gave his annual state-of-the-university address to faculty and staff Tuesday. 81-hundred students will attend classes this fall. Merwin says efforts to attract more minority students to F-G-C-U have been successful.

“I think you’ll see a very cosmopolitan group of students on the campus and as you can see in here today when all the new faculty and staff walked across the stage that’s a very diverse group as well. so diversity has become a real issue with us and I’m very proud of what we accomplished.”

Merwin says African-American enrollment in the freshman class is up 24 percent over last year. The number of Hispanic students is up 22 percent.