Sen. Bill Nelson to speak about 2010 election

November 15, 2010

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., will talk about the significance of the 2010 election as part of the Ernest R. Bartley Memorial Lecture Series at 7 p.m. Friday in McCarty Auditorium, Room 100, on the University of Florida campus. The lecture, titled “What the 2010 Election is Telling Us,” is free.

The lecture series honors the late Ernest “Bart” Bartley, professor emeritus of the department of urban and regional planning in the College of Design, Construction and Planning. Bartley served 24 years as a UF political science professor before helping to form the urban and regional planning department in 1975. The series is funded by the department and the Bartley family.

Nelson began his career of public service in 1972 with the Florida Legislature, and continued this path when he was elected to the U.S. Congress in 1978. He served in the Florida Cabinet for six years before being elected to the U.S. Senate in November of 2000. He currently serves on the Senate Commerce, Armed Services, Budget, Finance, Intelligence and Aging committees and is recognized as the leading congressional expert on NASA.

Christopher Silver, dean of the College of Design, Construction and Planning, finds Nelson’s visit very fitting.

“We are so fortunate and it is so appropriate that Senator Nelson will present this year’s Bartley lecture,” Silver said. “He was among the many UF students who went on to prominence who got an early lesson in politics and government under Dr. Bartley.”