Several young athletes took their own lives in 2025, and the impact has spread within and beyond their communities, including to experts at the University of Central Florida Athletics department.

The search for camaraderie during the often isolating COVID-19 pandemic motivated self-proclaimed non-runner Eliza Whitmore to start Your Run Club in Oviedo.

Dr. Jane Goodall, a world-renowned primatologist, conservationist and humanitarian, was laid to rest on Wednesday at Washington National Cathedral after having died in October at age 91 from natural causes.

The news of Goodall's death had an immediate impact on members of the UCF community, from faculty to students.

Dr. Christina Kwapich, a UCF biology assistant professor, said she felt a great sense of loss after reading a headline on the Apple News app.

After sharing the article in a GroupMe chat with her research lab members, students and postdoctoral researchers, Kwapich described everyone as “devastated” and said the news was a shock to all of them.

“I immediately thought this is a giant of that era who's now gone,” Kwapich said.

UCF students, families and friends gathered in the 77-degree Florida weather on Sunday morning at Blanchard Park to run for a cause.

The love of teaching nutrition to his undergraduate health sciences students led a UCF instructor to create a four-dimensional immersive experience that shows how stressful it can be to treat individuals in harsh environments.

Danny Martinez did not believe comic book stores existed any longer growing up. Watching the portrayal of those stores on television shows, such as “The Simpsons,” led him to think it was only around in the 1980s and early 1990s.

At the time, Danny and his brother, Alex Morales, often went to a GameStop at the Palm Beach Lakes Mall, where they lived at the time. Not only did he enjoy the feeling of buying a new video game, but also the camaraderie of talking about them with other enthusiasts. Danny wanted to work at GameStop when he grew up, but Morales mocked the idea, telling him it was not a career.

After moving to Orlando in 2011, Danny said he was pleasantly surprised to discover multiple comic book stores in the area, and a place he once thought was gone became reality.

A man was arrested and accused of threatening to shoot a group of five men playing basketball at the UCF Recreation and Wellness Center on Wednesday, according to an arrest affidavit.

Darius Lafabium Rivers Jr. allegedly approached the five men around 5:30 p.m. at the recreation center's basketball courts, asking them if they were from Israel, if they were Jewish and for their Social Security numbers, the affidavit stated.

Rivers, 37, began telling them they did not belong in the country and threatened to contact law enforcement to report them for being here, the affidavit states.

The U.S. Department of Education announced Sept. 10 a cut to approximately $350 million in discretionary funding to Hispanic-Serving Institutions, along with other Minority-Serving Institutions, affecting over 300 colleges and universities across the country — including UCF.

The leaders of the UCF student hub for Sunrise Movement said they are focusing on matters beyond the mission of its national organization, including a campaign to provide resources for UCF students affected by U.S. immigration policies and an effort to offer more diverse opportunities to the student body through a referral program.

Assembly Bill 1955, the Support Academic Futures and Educators for Today’s Youth Act, went into effect on Jan. 1.

The SAFETY Act prohibits employees or contractors in education from disclosing a student’s sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression to another person without their consent. Governor Gavin Newsom approved the bill on July 15, 2024, making California the first state in the country to ban forced outings in schools.

The SAFETY Act protects LGBTQ+ students from...