Controversial Education Secretary DeVos Plans FIU Visit

MIAMI, FL — Controversial Education Secretary and Michigan billionaire Betsy DeVos will meet Florida International University faculty and students on Thursday. This will be her first visit to a public university since she was tapped by President Trump to become the nation's chief educator.

DeVos, who has made a series of controversial missteps in the months since joining the Trump Cabinet is scheduled to tour the Nicole Wertheim College of Nursing and Health Sciences’ Simulation Teaching and Research Center (STAR) during her visit to FIU.

Like Miami Patch on Facebook

"The STAR Center resembles a hospital ward, where the patients, including a new mother and her baby, are all symptomatic mannequins," explained FIU spokeswoman Maydel Santana.

Sign up for our free Daily Newsletters and Breaking News Alerts for the Miami, FL Patch

DeVos will also also meet with FIU professors and students as well as FIU President Mark B. Rosenberg from 10:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. at the main campus of the university, 11200 SW 8th Street.

A proposal to invite DeVos to San Diego to showcase public school successes there was yanked from a school board agenda in February because of the "polarizing nature" of her nomination and confirmation. And in Washington, D.C., she was physically blocked by protesters when she tried to visit Jefferson Middle School.

FIU has awarded more than 220,000 degrees and enrolls more than 54,000 students in two campuses and centers including FIU Downtown on Brickell, FIU@I-75, the Miami Beach Urban Studios, and Tianjin, China. FIU also supports artistic and cultural engagement through its three museums: Patricia & Phillip Frost Art Museum, the Wolfsonian-FIU, and the Jewish Museum of Florida-FIU.

Photo of Secretary DeVos courtesy of FIU