Creating Space for Global Engagement: 2015-1064 Resolution to Rename "North Lawn" to "Global Garden"

Global Garden is where students grow as global citizens by knocking down the walls of fear and isolation and building bonds of friendship instead. This is an initiative to create an ecosystem where students bloom as global leaders by engaging with the world everyday in a meaningful manner. Global Garden also tells a story of students being their own advocates and standing up to socially construct their own reality. At University of Florida, the Student Body Senate representing all students (undergraduate, graduate, and professional) recently passed a resolution to rename “North Lawn” (most prominent student traffic area) into “Global Garden.” At a time when many institutions are failing to bring such big abstract ideas down to student life in a meaningful way, the student leaders at UF are changing the narrative by their own agency and choice. Global Garden integrates symbol, space, resources, environment, modeling, and leadership into one platform. Drawing on developmental models of multicultural sensitivity and by creating fundamental learning conditions such as inclusion, involvement, and community, the Global Garden creates pathways that can help students develop progressively from one level to another. Leveraging the power of symbols and artifacts, the design and spaces are engineered to develop students’ outward turning pursuit of knowledge and growth beyond tangible rewards. In brief, Global Garden is an initiative to conceptualize our university as garden, where students grow and bloom as global leaders. Faculty, administration, and staff work toward creating an ecosystem that arouses and nurtures students’ intellectual curiosities so that students from various linguistic and cultural backgrounds from across the globe engage in a meaningful way with respect and dignity. University of Florida’s mission envisages creating a “ … broadly diverse environment necessary to foster multi-cultural skills and perspectives in its teaching and research for its students to contribute and succeed in the world of the 21st century.” University of Florida President Kent Fuch’s recent statement in the Independent Florida Alligator further explains the vision: “Our goal is to be a university that the nation and the world look to for leadership.” The impressive level of commitment from the leaders of this university to produce globally minded graduates is manifested in numerous initiative and programs to diversify the campus. Geared toward unlocking the potentials of students for the Gator Good, the idea of Global Garden seems to make sense to all stakeholders including students, faculty, and alumni. Want to know more about the commitment? Click here