April, 2008
Critical Funding Cuts Hurt Colleges, Majors
Nicholas Fitzpatrick
Florida’s higher education financial fiasco
Fridays bring groups of high school students to the University of Florida campus. The prospective students walk the campus listening to the overenthusiastic but lovable Cicerones. The Cicerones explain the noteworthy buildings and answer questions. I never took one of these tours so I decided to listen to one for a few stops. The guide was great and I learned quite a few things that I didn’t previously know. There’s something that these bright eyed kids and their parents didn’t stroll past on their tour, the university accountants. The University of Florida is in a financial crisis and our future classmates are in for a big surprise.
Anyone who has attempted to register for classes sees the problem, there are none. General Education courses are being cut, upper level class sizes are increasing, and the dreaded Teaching Assistants are taking an ever growing role in the classes that are still around. I came to the University of Florida with the expectation of a world class education, and that reality is fading quickly.
The university says that it is out of money. There are hiring freezes nearly campus wide, some professors haven’t been given a raise in years, and there is a push to expedite graduations. This, to vastly understate the obvious, is a problem.
UF is facing financial problems for several reasons. One that is commonly cited is that the state of Florida, in November 2007, told the university to cut funds by $22.1 million in recurring funds. Another factor is an apparent mismanagement of funds by the university and individual colleges. In February 2008, a College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Financial Report stated that “As this committee reported last year, we believe that CLAS has been under funded relative to other colleges at UF for several years now.” The report is available on the University of Florida website, www.ufl.edu. The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences is facing the brunt of problem. Not only is it losing $3 million in recurring funds, but it also has a multi-million dollar debt.
While all this is happening, there is another fight in Tallahassee. The Board of Governors, the committee that oversees Florida’s eleven public universities, is fighting the Legislature over the power to set tuition. To the everyday student, we have reached a point where it doesn’t matter who sets the tuition, as long as someone fixes the problem.
Initially I was opposed to the increase in tuition. I, like most students, enjoy the low cost of enrollment. I even thought that the university must have a surplus of funds if it can make a multi-million dollar addition to Ben Hill Griffin Stadium. Then I saw the light. The athletic department is paying for the stadium addition, and there isn’t a surplus of funds. Instead, the university is facing draconian cuts.
I’m not sure where our beloved university went astray, but it has. If there is any sense of academic or scholarly pursuit left in the school, I’d like administration to show the way. If the university is concerned with teaching students, why are classes being cut? If the priority of UF is to prepare students to be tomorrow’s leaders, why is it pushing us out the door before we are done learning?
While I am quick to blame the university, huge fault rests at the state level. The Board of Governors and Legislature must stop bickering about who can raise tuition and raise it! This is not a popular stance to take, but it must be done. Yes, it might prevent a few students from being able to afford to get a UF education, but if we continue at our current pace the entire school will be deprived of an adequate education.
This situation is another example of the public sector’s inability to outperform the private sector. If a private college is not earning enough money to educate the students like it promised, it charges more money. The state of Florida should do the same. The students that walk our campus today will be leading our state tomorrow. The University of Florida’s reputation attracts future doctors, businessmen, teachers, scientists, and politicians. How is our state to survive and compete if its most prominent leaders are undereducated? When thinking of the issue in that light, why would we not do what is necessary to make them the most educated?
President Bernie Machen has made no secret his desire for alumni to donate large sums of money. Yet here is the problem, without the necessary refocus of the quality of education at the university that money won’t come in as easy as expected. We can not have successful alumni without giving students the skills to succeed.
This issue affects everyone. Students, faculty, and parents should be outraged. We all share a common vested interest in the prosperity of the university. We can not continue to sacrifice the academic and scholarly pursuits that are the trademarks of every educational institute in favor of a drive-thruesque generic education. The University of Florida must be the flagship college in a state of great schools. Next time President Machen goes to Tallahassee, he should not take no for answer.