Rick Scott/Florida Senate take shots at USF, threaten to cut state funding by 60%

[RavenSEAL]

Your education is already massively subsidized by the taxpayer and when the taxpayer asks you to chip in a little - while continuing to massively subsidize your education - you throw a temper tantrum?

Talk about ungrateful.

Why it is the job of the casinos or those who drink/smoke to subsidize your education any more than any other taxpayer?

Yes, it sucks but it is what it is.

So Booze & tobacco are more important that the future of this country? No wonder our economy is all going to shit

 

[monovillage]

with how much regular college costs these days i don't know why kids aren't getting more of their basic coursework out of the way through community college. at the very least your humanities, history, language, government, remedial math, whatnot out of the way.

colleges are putting in ridiculous things though. UT is basically a country club now. my fees paid for a resort pool that didn't open until well after i was gone.

what wouldn't i give to be back in school the first hot august weekend of the school year?

It's one of the reasons I want people to check the budget. Huge amounts of waste and special privileges for faculty. Most of the people that are supporters of Universities though won't even glance at their expenditures.

 

[monovillage]

So Booze & tobacco are more important that the future of this country? No wonder our economy is all going to shit

If this is what you're learning, then it's obviously failing badly.

 

[RavenSEAL]

with how much regular college costs these days i don't know why kids aren't getting more of their basic coursework out of the way through community college. at the very least your humanities, history, language, government, remedial math, whatnot out of the way.

colleges are putting in ridiculous things though. UT is basically a country club now. my fees paid for a resort pool that didn't open until well after i was gone.

what wouldn't i give to be back in school the first hot august weekend of the school year?

I will be doing that this summer. The reason I attended USF for the most part is because I did get a good amount of scholarships, grants, etc and I wanted to get away from home.

 

[alphatarget1]

When I was in the CSU system (California State University), times were still good but tuition was still going up at about 10% every year. In-state tuition was $1100 when I started and it was $1700 by the time I left, 5 years later. A lot of the increases are from stupid pet projects like, a rec center. I think the cost of higher ed is becoming prohibitive, but what are people doing about it? Why does a higher-ed institution need all these fancy stuff? Yeah, if you raise the tuition/fees by $100 a semester, it's not a lot and it brings in a ton of revenue, but the way some of the schools spend their money just disgusts me.

And this has nothing to do with your state's governor. I really don't know anything about him. Just food for thought.

 

[RavenSEAL]

Here is a good editorial to read up on if you want a scoop on the situation:

There are no limits to state Sen. JD Alexander's vendetta against the University of South Florida. It's not enough that the Senate Budget Committee chairman wants the Legislature to arbitrarily grant USF's Lakeland campus its immediate independence. Now his proposed state budget would starve to death the university, an unmistakable threat to anyone who dares to oppose his theft of the branch campus.

This is how far Alexander will go to silence his critics and secure his legacy by creating Florida's 12th university at USF Polytechnic. The Senate's proposed budget would cut funding for USF's main campus in Tampa by 58 percent, or $104 million. By comparison, the University of Florida would be cut by 26 percent and Florida State University would be cut by 22 percent, according to a USF analysis. The bull's-eye on USF can be seen from all over Tampa Bay, and the university's board of trustees held an emergency meeting Monday night to sound the alarm and mobilize.

Here's another way to look at this indignity. In the Senate's proposed budget, USF calculates the state would spend $4,741 per student at the University of Florida and $5,470 per student at Florida State. A USF student would be worth half as much, $2,401. That's a fine way to treat a top-tier research university with more than 40,000 students.

Subtlety has never been part of Alexander's political repertoire. For two years, the Lake Wales Republican has used the state budget to try to steal USF's new College of Pharmacy from the main campus and build its home in Lakeland. First Gov. Charlie Crist and then Gov. Rick Scott vetoed it. That hasn't stopped Alexander. Now the Senate's proposed budget for 2012-13 would let the Tampa campus keep the pharmacy school but take away the $6 million it has now to operate it. And USF would hand over all of the Lakeland campus' property and foundation money but keep paying $18 million for its faculty and staff. Cute.

This is the sort of political interference that gives Florida's universities a bad name. It makes it harder to recruit top-level faculty, and it makes it harder to recruit the best out-of-state students who pay higher tuition and add diversity. USF has made tremendous academic strides in recent years and is poised to leap even higher in health care and other areas. President Judy Genshaft and the university are major players in developing Tampa Bay's economy and creating jobs. Yet the Florida Senate would allow USF to be treated as a political pinata, absorbing 20 percent of the cuts for the entire state university system.

The discussion in Tallahassee should be focusing on why legislators promote the importance of higher education in building the state's economy, yet plan to cut spending on universities by hundreds of millions of dollars. The debate should be about how much to invest in higher education and compete with North Carolina and other states that have made that financial commitment. Instead the focus is on one powerful senator's obsession to create a new university and how far he will go to get his way.

The Senate Budget Committee meets Wednesday to consider the proposed budget. Who will speak up for USF and for fairness?

My hate might have been misfired, maybe it's not entirely Rick Scott's fault.

 

[alphatarget1]

It's one of the reasons I want people to check the budget. Huge amounts of waste and special privileges for faculty. Most of the people that are supporters of Universities though won't even glance at their expenditures.

Most faculty members don't get paid that much IMO. At least in engineering, the ones who do make a lot most certainly deserve to have that salary.

There's got to be a lot of kickbacks from the construction industry with all the new buildings universities build. I guess on the other hand, the taxpayers do want the public universities to continue increasing enrollment without regards to the quality of the product.

 

[monovillage]

Most faculty members don't get paid that much IMO. At least in engineering, the ones who do make a lot most certainly deserve to have that salary.

There's got to be a lot of kickbacks from the construction industry with all the new buildings universities build. I guess on the other hand, the taxpayers do want the public universities to continue increasing enrollment without regards to the quality of the product.

As if it's a good quality now?

 

[shira]

why should the childless couple down the street have to pay increased taxes on their alcohol and cigarettes to support your overpriced education?

By your reasoning, why should a childless couple have to pay ANY taxes on ANYTHING to support public schools?

 

[glenn1]

So Booze & tobacco are more important that the future of this country? No wonder our economy is all going to shit

If this is what you're learning, then it's obviously failing badly.

^ This x 100. OP, you should consider yourself lucky that the cut isn't 100% since that's what I would support.

 

[RavenSEAL]

^ This x 100. OP, you should consider yourself lucky that the cut isn't 100% since that's what I would support.

Wow. You people are sad as hell.

READ THE EDITORIAL I POSTED

 

[Genx87]

Pop goes the higher education bubble inflated by govt spending.

 

[EagleKeeper]

Why does the Senate have such a hard on for USF.

That might be worth looking into

 

[rudder]

Tell the poor people to buy more lottery tickets. But this is what happens when schools are subsidized by the government and lotteries. The state tries to get everyone into college and whether they should really be there or not doesn't matter.

So now these systems have to expand to accommodate all these students. Economy tanks, tax revenue is down... and the state is stuck with the very large school systems with no way to pay for them.

 

[lothar]

do you think they'll lower tuition when funding from the gov increases?

This.

 

[Exterous]

How about you look into how much money the damn University is wasting on crap instead of spending the money on what they're supposed to do which is educate students. Try to find out about their budget, I dare you to try. Good luck.

A lot of the increases are from stupid pet projects like, a rec center. I think the cost of higher ed is becoming prohibitive, but what are people doing about it? Why does a higher-ed institution need all these fancy stuff? Yeah, if you raise the tuition/fees by $100 a semester, it's not a lot and it brings in a ton of revenue, but the way some of the schools spend their money just disgusts me.

We are in a vicious cycle. Tution costs are going up so people expect more for their money. Some Universities are adding nice rec centers, nicer dorms etc to woo customers (students) and doners (Look what a magnificent University we are! Our chief rival build this megaplex so we built this super-megaplex to show we are better. Please come here/send us money)

This won't stop until students say enough and stop shouldering more debt to attend. The school doesn't really have that much of a vested interest in how much debt you take on since they get paid while you go not when you are spending $1000 a month paying back your loan.

Most faculty members don't get paid that much IMO. At least in engineering, the ones who do make a lot most certainly deserve to have that salary.

There's got to be a lot of kickbacks from the construction industry with all the new buildings universities build. I guess on the other hand, the taxpayers do want the public universities to continue increasing enrollment without regards to the quality of the product.

Agreed. Granted this is from my experience working for a single University but there were very few professors that actually got a high amount. Over 65% of my college's professors made under $55,000 a year with only 5% making more than $100k. About 25% made under $40,000

Construction costs are HUGE for a University. A big problem we ran into were rennovation costs. Most Universities have older buildings that need to be rennovated frequently. A side effect of this is a constant expediture on updating the buildings to comply with current code. During the year I worked there $18 million was spent on code compliance alone. That doesn't even count all the changes you need to make to make an existing project code compliant (Rennovate more than 50% of a floor and the whole floor needs to be code complaint. Rennovate more than 50% of the building and the entire building needs to be code compliant.) Small changes like slightly lowering the classification to be considered a high rise building can have massive financial impacts to rennovation projects

 

[silverpig]

Geez, you could come to UBC and pay foreign student rates and be just as well off. Canadians pay about $5k/yr in tuition, foreigners are about $21k.

 

[highland145]

Pop goes the higher education bubble inflated by govt spending.

:thumbsup:

I'm already spending 20k/YEAR as a freshman.

 

[Nintendesert]

By your reasoning, why should a childless couple have to pay ANY taxes on ANYTHING to support public schools?

Up to 18 children are provided for their education by everyone. That's fine. After that, there's no compelling reason to keep funding idiots to have the "college experience" and simply not wanting to live near mommy and daddy like the OP.

They can pay for it themselves.

 

[Capt Caveman]

Outside of bitching here, have you actually done anything to protest this?

 

[RavenSEAL]

Up to 18 children are provided for their education by everyone. That's fine. After that, there's no compelling reason to keep funding idiots to have the "college experience" and simply not wanting to live near mommy and daddy like the OP.

They can pay for it themselves.

Buddy, I pay for not living near my mommy and daddy with my 35hr/week job. So please, STFU.

 

[Nintendesert]

Buddy, I pay for not living near my mommy and daddy with my 35hr/week job. So please, STFU.

So pay for your own school and stop crying about it here. :'(

 

[TalonStrike]

Typing on an internet forum instead of doing your job? And you're saying they shouldn't fire you?

 

[the DRIZZLE]

Your education is already massively subsidized by the taxpayer and when the taxpayer asks you to chip in a little - while continuing to massively subsidize your education - you throw a temper tantrum?

Talk about ungrateful.

Why it is the job of the casinos or those who drink/smoke to subsidize your education any more than any other taxpayer?

Yes, it sucks but it is what it is.

This. We need to find ways to reduce the costs of higher education not shift them to the taxpayers.

 

[EagleKeeper]

This. We need to find ways to reduce the costs of higher education not shift them to the taxpayers.

Remove the need to keep up with the Jones.

the costs also go up as the funds are provided whether or not there is a need.

Schools have found that $$ will become available - no need to compete on costs.

Under grad education is very similar across the board - Why is a UM (Miami) undergrad worth so much more than a UF (Florida) is costs (as an example)
Or Georgetown vs UM (Maryland)