Shannon Colavecchio-Van Sickler covers Florida's higher education system, with a focus on the 11 state universities and 28 community colleges. A native Floridian and graduate of the state university system here, she looks for stories that reflect what it's like to be a college student today — and the policies and politics that go into creating that experience.

That means writing about budget cuts that affect academic quality, and university leaders competing for money and prestige. It means writing about students who get their class lectures on iPods instead of the old-fashioned, in-person way.

When hanging out on campuses from Miami to Tallahassee, she looks for stories both serious (enrollment cuts, financial mismanagement on campus) to the quirky (the 90-year-old USF professor who finally retires; the UF "tree guy" who spends his days preserving the Gainesville campus' lush, decades-old landscape).

And during the spring, she is in Tallahassee covering lawmakers' decisions affecting both higher education and K-12 schools.

Phone: (813) 226-3403

E-mail: svansickler@sptimes.com