While its oak-lined paths and small class sizes have remained a constant at Jacksonville University for decades, the University’s academic experience is unrecognizable from what it was 10 years ago.
In the past decade since President Tim Cost took the helm at the University, it’s grown beyond a core liberal arts education through strengthening offerings in healthcare, business and interdisciplinary studies and filling industry needs. That growth came from developing strong community and corporate partnerships and leaning into, and deepening existing offerings like the arts and sciences, but also creating new avenues in healthcare, and most recently, legal education.
“When I hear people who have known JU for years comment on the University now, they just can’t get over it,” said Executive Vice President of Partnerships and Development Dr. Christine Sapienza. “It’s just not even the same.”
But the new areas of study are far from randomly selected, said Dr. Sapienza, who came onboard at Jacksonville University several months after President Cost arrived.
For a president who went from leading Fortune 500 companies to leading a private university, the strategy was a natural fit — a market-focused approach to adding programs that will produce successful graduates in areas that need them. “What he’s done here is incredible and, as a city, we’re very fortunate to have someone with his background, skill set and relationships leading Jacksonville University,” said Aundra Wallace, President of the JAXUSA Partnership, the economic development arm of the Jacksonville Chamber of Commerce.
For example, as the healthcare industry continued to grow, not just in Jacksonville, but across the country, expanding the University’s offerings in nursing and in more specialized fields made sense.
“Most people, even myself, look back and say ‘How did we ever get this far so fast?’ We knew we were inside of a city that had major healthcare players, Mayo Clinic, HCA, Ascension, UF Health, Baptist Health, Florida Blue, Brooks Rehabilitation,” Dr. Sapienza said. “So you're sitting inside this healthcare mecca. How do you not take advantage of that?”
Some, like Baptist Health, had already been engaged with the University for decades. A founding partner of the Keigwin School of Nursing, its connection with Jacksonville University has benefitted Florida since the School’s inception in 1981. But as times changed, so did Baptist Health’s workforce needs. The 12-month Accelerated Bachelor of Science in Nursing and Practical Nurse programs were a direct result of conversations between President Cost, Dr. Sapienza, and the Baptist Health team.
“President Cost is a forward-thinking leader who seeks community partnerships to address unmet needs,” said Baptist Health CEO Michael Mayo. “He and his team want to know what the employers of their graduates, like Baptist Health, need.”
The program has grown to support other partners, such as the Mayo Clinic, and new markets in Palm Coast. But it’s just one example of market-focused growth in the Brooks Rehabilitation College of Healthcare Sciences in the past decade. The Practical Nurse program, Master of Science in Respiratory Care, Speech Language Pathology, Oral Implantology and others were all launched in the last 10 years. Space was needed to house these programs, so the 30,000-squarefoot Brooks College building and the 104,000-square-foot Health Sciences Complex on the north end of campus were constructed for that purpose. The Healthcare Simulation Center came along in 2019, now used to train JU students and working healthcare professionals across the region.
And the next addition to the University’s healthcare offerings is the city’s first four-year medical school. It will be constructed near the Health Sciences Complex, in an area designated as the Jacksonville University Medical Mall, a mixed-use development anchored by the medical school.
The College of Law, which opened with its inaugural class in August 2022, is a prime example of the market-focused approach President Cost has maintained in his 10 year tenure. As the largest city in the U.S. without a law school, the opportunity was clear to not only provide the community with something it needed, but to build on the legacy set forth by the University’s founder, William J. Porter, in 1934. Porter was a judge who emphasized the importance of legal education.
Developing support from the City of Jacksonville and the region’s legal community, President Cost and his team made that vision a reality, advancing from the College of Law’s announcement to opening its doors in just seven months. A unique aspect of the College of Law is the ability for students to pursue interdisciplinary courses, tying in areas like public policy, healthcare or marine science into their legal education. That interdisciplinary philosophy is one that’s utilized across campus, and for good reason, Dr. Sapienza said.
The STEAM Institute is the latest effort to incorporate more interdisciplinary learning into program offerings, but it certainly isn’t the first. Programs like healthcare administration, game design, public policy and others integrate different disciplines that the University already excels in teaching to create distinct offerings that will prepare students for real-world careers. A proprietary mobile app, the Pathways of Distinction, better known as PODs on campus, allows students to mix and match more than 100 majors and minors to develop a customized degree.
It all goes back to the market-focused mentality – preparing students to be the multi-dimensional citizens the workforce needs.
“Why do you do interdisciplinary? Because that's real life,” Dr. Sapienza said. “You know, when you're a business person, you are interacting around a table with multiple disciplines, and you have to understand how they think, what they want. So if you understand education, communication, policy, business, government, the arts, you're more holistically prepared to be a better team player in whatever discipline you end up in.”
Dr. Sapienza said that it’s rare to find a University leadership team that’s as synergistic as Jacksonville University’s. She and the President see the academic opportunities and together, they create the growth plan.
“A lot of universities have the right plan, but they don’t enact it,” she said. “We enact it. And that’s what makes us different. So people look at us now, 10 years later, and they say that when JU wants to do something, and says they’re going to do it, they do it.”
