The University of North Florida on Friday announced a $2.5 million endowment from the Crowley Maritime Corp. to strengthen the school’s transportation and logistics programs.
The money will be used to form the Crowley Center for Transportation and Logistics within the Coggin College of Business. The center will offer scholarships, pursue federal grants and contracts, and connect students to careers in logistics, said UNF Business Dean Richard Buttimer.
He said the center will allow students to get more hands-on experience dealing with data science and logistical problems that would not be possible without the endowment.
“They get an opportunity to get really engaged in a very deep and meaningful way while they are still students,” he said. “When they come out, they are prepared to work for a firm like Crowley and hit the ground running.”
The center will support the college’s existing 110 undergraduates and about 25 graduate students enrolled in transportation and logistics programs. Over 90 percent of the programs’ graduates have gotten logistics jobs in Jacksonville, Buttimer said.
Buttimer said the center will allow them to share what the industry's current problems are so the school can better prepare students.
“It gives us the chance to work directly with Crowley and others to talk about what are the pressing problems? What are the challenges? And how do we solve them? So our students get to see real world problems right away,” he said.
Crowley is a Jacksonville-based supply chain company that employs over 5,300 people and averages $2.2 billion in yearly revenue.
CEO Tom Crowley said “This donation represents a strategic investment in our industry’s future: the talent and knowledge of our leaders of tomorrow and the research needed to propel our industry forward successfully.”
Tristan Wood can be reached at newsteam@wjct.org or on Twitter at @TristanDWood.
