Florida Institute of Technology (Jensen Beach Campus)

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Florida Institute of Technology

Jensen Beach Campus

School of Marine and Environmental Technology, SOMET
Motto: Ad Astra Per Scientiam
Active: 1972—1986
Type: Private 4-year technical college
Dean: Ernest Teal
Undergraduates: 800
Location: Jensen Beach, FloridaUSA
Branch Campus of: Florida Institute of Technology
Colors: Crimson and Gray         

Florida Institute of Technology (Jensen Beach Campus), also known as School of Marine and Environmental Technology or (SOMET), was a specialized Florida Institute of Technology (FIT) branch campus located on the former campus of Saint Joseph College of Florida on the Indian River Lagoon in Jensen Beach, Florida' some 50 miles south of FIT's main campus in Melbourne.[1]

Contents

[edit] History

In 1972, with financial assistance from Ralph Evinrude, the chairman of Outboard Marine Corporation and a resident of Jensen Beach, FIT was able to buy the Saint Joseph College campus for its Hydrospace Technical Institute (HTI), which had been founded in 1968. HTI was renamed the School of Marine and Environmental Technology (SOMET)and moved to Jensen Beach with 16 students. Its full time enrollment soon grew to around 800. To adapt the campus to its new use, FIT built the Marine Science and Marine Maintenance buildings, a 720-foot dock out into the Indian River and an athletic field for recreation..[2]

Within a few years the SOMET name was replaced by SAT (School of Applied Technology). By the early 1980s the campus was simply FIT Jensen Beach. Unlike Saint Joseph College, its predecessor, FIT was able to attract local full-time students as well as part-time ones who took advantage of the many courses offered at night.

FIT also took advantage of the local academic and technical talent and hired them as adjunct faculty. The campus was headed by a Dean and had a great deal of autonomy. Grade reports and transcripts, though, came from the main campus. In the mid 1980s, however, the board of trustees on the main campus determined that FIT Jensen Beach was not paying its own way and the campus was closed in 1986 and transferred back to the main campus in Melbourne where it became the Department of Marine and Environmental Sciences (DMES).[3]

In addition to bachelor's degrees, FIT Jensen Beach also offered an MBA program for local business people taught almost entirely by adjunct faculty. After the campus closed, the MBA program stayed on in rented space in Sewall's Point for a few years until it was merged into the MBA program on the main campus

[edit] Current use

  • The smaller area west of Indian River Drive was eventually acquired by a national corporation which demolished the twin dormitory buildings and the cafeteria building that sat between them. The site is now occupied by a large luxury retirement home-assisted living facility called Summerville at Jensen Beach.[4]
  • The larger area east of Indian River Drive is now owned by Martin County and is called Indian Riverside Park. All FIT buildings were demolished except for the Chapel and the Administration Building. The dock, however, has been restored. The Chapel is now being refurbished to become the Children's Museum of the Treasure Coast.[5] The Administration Building, listed on the National Register of Historic Places as Tuckahoe (Florida), is now boarded up after being vandalized and is awaiting restoration by the Friends of Mount Elizabeth.[6] The midden on which the building sits is part of the Mount Elizabeth Archeological Site, which is also listed on the National Register. The Mount Elizabeth area is now fenced off and is closed to the public. Access to the park is from a driveway at the crest of the hill on Indian River Drive where the student crosswalk used to be. The old entrance further north is barricaded and the old roofed wooden FIT welcome sign on the opposite side of the road is bare except for graffiti.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Thurlow, Sandra Henderson, Sewall's Point, The History of a Peninsular Community on Florida's Treasure Coast, Sewall's Point: Sewall's Point Company, 1992. pp. 184-185
  2. ^ Thurlow, Sandra Henderson, Sewall's Point, The History of a Peninsular Community on Florida's Treasure Coast, Sewall's Point: Sewall's Point Company, 1992. pp. 184-185
  3. ^ Thurlow, Sandra Henderson, Sewall's Point, The History of a Peninsular Community on Florida's Treasure Coast, Sewall's Point: Sewall's Point Company, 1992. pp. 184-185
  4. ^ Summerville Senior Living - Summerville at Jensen Beach
  5. ^ Children's Museum - Home
  6. ^ Friends of Mount Elizabeth, Jensen Beach, Florida

[edit] External links