New state university drains funds from Florida schools

By: Philippe Buteau/Staff Writer

Sometimes I worry people in charge don’t know what they are doing.
The state legislature is currently in the working stages of making the University of South Florida’s Polytechnic campus its own University.
This would make USF Polytechnic the 12th state university in the State University System, which is managed by the SUS Board of Governors.
USF Polytechnic is the Lakeland campus of USF. Polytechnic focuses on the programs of science, technology, engineering and math.
With all due respect to the gentlemen on the legislature, the last thing the SUS needs is to be a complete dozen. This applies if looking five or 10 years into the future.
Florida, let alone the entire country, is still reeling from the effects of the recession. Public funding has and is still on the decline. Let’s take our own university for example.
This fiscal year, 2011-2012, the University received $157 million from the state compared to last year’s number of $228 million.
That number is down by $71 million – about 33 percent. And FIU isn’t high on the legislature’s list of state universities to receive funding. So imagine what a possible new university to the SUS would receive in funding.
The legislature hasn’t shown any signs of possibly providing more funding, causing FIU and other public state universities to seek alternate sources of revenue.
The main one being students. Compare the $157 million FIU received from the state to the $174 million students paid in tuition to FIU. In 2007, tuition was $106 million.
So, again, imagine what the tuition would be for the students of a new state university. Or even if Polytechnic starts with low tuition and raises it every year, I don’t think that plus its unique nature would appeal to students more than the established state universities.
This also creates smaller pieces from an already shrinking pie for the current state universities.
All the universities in the state system are seeing cuts in their state funding, some more than others. So adding another university could mean deeper cuts from year to year. The state could even divert more money to the new university that would desperately need it. Understandable, but not in the best interest of the entire SUS.
While the pie is getting smaller, student money is being used to somewhat fill the hole left by the decreasing state money, an understandable concept, but I disagree.
But I really don’t want to be a student when it becomes readily apparent state money is disappearing much faster than tuition increases.
This also has political undertones as the timing of the release of the proposal was not too long after Gov. Rick Scott made comments about the state not graduating enough students with STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) degrees and too many students with anthropology degrees.
“Is it a vital interest of the state to have more anthropologists?” Scott said. “I don’t think so.”
There will be a 12th state university as the legislature hasn’t shown any signs of wavering on their position – they’ve shown by this ignoring the complaints of USF Polytechnic’s students, faculty and staff.
Thankfully, my heart will beat easier as USF Polytechnic will have several benchmarks, if it does, Florida and its higher-education customers-eventual students and parents, are more capable of supporting another university. And the people in charge will know how to use that support.

philippe.buteau@fiusm.com