Top stories of 2011

In no particular order, these were 10 of the biggest stories from 2011 that brought UCF recognition, good and bad.

Occupy protest come to Orlando, UCF

The people-powered demonstration of Occupy Wall Street became a movement that more than 100 cities in the U.S. and 1,500 cities globally took part in at some point during the last four months of 2011. The movement, inspired by popular uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia, developed as a means to fight back against the richest 1 percent of people having a heavy hand in the economy. The Occupy movement also found a place a UCF, though the turnout was much more modest. Though 65 had confirmed their attendance on the Occupy UCF Facebook event page, the Student Labor Action Project-organized event brought out about 35 students. Some protesters shared stories of middle-class oppression; other students took the stage to convey their thoughts on the state of the country. UCF alumni Matt De Vlieger and Eric Eingold were among the thousands who participated in the Occupy Wall Street movement.

Japan's earthquake/tsunami

When one of the largest earthquakes ever recorded hit Japan on March 11, 2011, and triggered a massive tsunami, members of the UCF community felt its effects in Japan and back in the United States. The magnitude-9.0 earthquake and tsunami killed 15,844 people and left 3,451 unaccounted for, according to a statement from the National Police Agency. Health administration major Stephanie Klingensmith was just 300 miles from where the earthquake hit. She was at an aquarium in the Port of Nagoya with her sister and nephew when the earthquake hit. Director of the Department of Sustainability and Energy Management David Norvell and two other UCF engineers were in the Tokyo area during that time helping build a power plant. Though they weren't close to the tsunami, they were near a petrochemical plant that erupted in flames. At UCF, 20 Japanese foreign exchange students feared the worst. Teruhisa Souma wasn't able to make contact with his family until a few days after the disaster. Fortunately, Souma's family was all right. In the wake of the catastrophe, UCF's Pi Delta Psi fraternity raised more than $2,000 in relief funds.

NCAA violations

UCF saw some major victories in 2010 when it came to sports; the same could not be said of 2011. On Nov. 9, 2011, following allegations of NCAA rule violations, UCF President John C. Hitt announced that UCF Athletics Director Keith Tribble and the football team's top recruiter, assistant head coach David Kelly, resigned. The NCAA's Notice of Allegations cited Tribble and Kelly for violations and lying to investigators. It was also announced that men's basketball coach Donnie Jones was suspended for three conference games without pay, a suspension imposed by UCF and not the NCAA. Jones was cited in the report for not promoting "an atmosphere of compliance."

PBS/WUCF-TV partnership

In late May 2011, the fate of PBS Orlando hung in the balance. Members of the community were soon able to celebrate the saving of the station after the Board of Trustees voted to approve a partnership with Brevard Community College. PBS programming was made available on WUCF-TV and WBCC after WMFE went dark on June 30, 2011. Despite the amount of support from the community, the launching of the station didn't occur without first running into obstacles. The station had six weeks to upgrade its reception quality to high definition, reach agreements with cable companies, launch a website and begin broadcasting, according to Grant Heston, assistant vice president of UCF News and Information. On July 1, 2011, WUCF-TV launched and, on the same day, Gov. Rick Scott vetoed $4.8 million in funding for public broadcasting.

First safe-ride service launches

It was a few years in the making, but on Jan. 28, 2011, a safe-ride program finally came to fruition at UCF. The school teamed up with Lynx, the Central Florida Regional Transportation Authority. The KnightLYNX service, which launched during Student Government Association President Michael Kilbride's association, affords students safe transportation to the areas they frequent and many of the housing complexes they live in on Fridays and Saturdays, from 8 p.m. to 3 a.m. KnightLYNX has two routes: the Green Line and the Blue Line. The Green Line stops at Knights Plaza, Northgate Lakes, Tivoli Apartments, University Palms Shopping Center, Knights Circle, University Commons Shopping Center, University Shoppes, Sterling Central Apartments and UCF's Recreation and Wellness Center. The Blue Line stops at Knights Plaza, the RWC, The Edge Apartment Complex, Campus Crossings (Alafaya), The Pointe at Central, Alafaya Village Shopping Center, Waterford Lakes Town Center, Waterford Lakes Parkway and Woodbury Road, Alafaya Commons Shopping Center, Campus Crossings (College Station), Boardwalk Apartments and Lake Claire Apartments/Greek Park Drive. The service, which was budgeted $110,000 for the current fiscal year, has served more than 7,000 students.

Professor named one of decade's best researchers

Out of a pool of 500,000 materials scientists, one UCF professor was ranked as one of the top 100 researchers of the past decade by Thomson Reuters, formerly known as the Institute for Scientific Information. Challapalli Suryanarayana, a UCF College of Engineering professor, was ranked No. 40 out of the group and ranked No. 21 among the scientists living in the United States. Suryanarayana has written more than 20 technical books, published more than 300 academic research papers and has received several awards and honors throughout his career. Suryanarayana, whose work has taken him all over the world, has degrees in engineering, metallurgy, math, physics and chemistry.