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

[RavenSEAL]

They just announced cuts to the Florida state university system. Which in this case, the school I currently attend to [USF], is facing a state budget cut of up to 58% [compared to ~20% for other schools].

NO!!!!! Let's not fucking increase taxes on alcohol and tabbaco! NOOOO, let's not fucking increase taxes on Casinos!!! NOOOOO, let's fucking cut the educational budget so that schools are further forced to increase tuition! So less people can afford to get a secondary education! So that more people drop out because they can't fucking afford it. I'm already spending 20k/YEAR as a freshman.

Someone PLEASE impeach these SOBS.

TAMPA --
The University of South Florida trustees have called an emergency meeting this evening to address a Florida Senate proposal to cut USF's state funding by nearly 60 percent.

Under the proposal, state revenue going to USF Tampa would drop from $178 million to $74 million, says USF's early analysis of budget language approved on Friday night.

The cut to the state university system budget would total about $400 million. USF's percentage loss is the highest. The University of Florida's cut amounts to about 26 percent; Florida State's is 22 percent.

The state funding makes up more than half of what the universities have to spend, with money also coming in from other sources, such as tuition.

"Obviously it's a devastating cut," said USF spokesman Michael Hoad. Officials are in the process of figuring out what would have to go – faculty, programs, departments – to make the budget numbers.

"We're in the process of putting together a plan to let the community, faculty, staff, alumni, know what this means," said USF spokeswoman Lara Wade-Martinez.

The legislative proposal, set to be heard in the Senate Budget Committee on Wednesday, would also pile new expenses on USF in the process of creating the new Florida Polytechnic University.

Budget committee chairman, Sen. JD Alexander, is pushing the new university plan. It would shut down USF Polytechnic, transferring all its money, property and foundation assets to the new university while shifting the costs of Poly's students, faculty and staff to USF's budget.

If the new university plan passes, USF would get an extra $25 million to cover transition costs.

State Sen. Arthenia Joyner, a Tampa Democrat and Senate Budget Committee member, said she was surprised to hear the details of USF's disproportionate cut.

She knew the overall university cuts in the Senate budget would be high.

But "the major discussion was that everyone would basically take a 25 percent cut" and that they would raise tuition to make up for some of the loss, she said.

USF St. Petersburg would lose about $600,000 under the budget plan, 2.6 percent of its state funding.

USF Sarasota-Manatee would get $1.7 million more, a 15 percent increase.

USF Health would lose $2.6 million, about 4 percent.

Under the new Polytechnic university bill, USF would continue to run the new College of Pharmacy, which was originally to be part of USF Polytechnic, but without the $6 million that had been in Poly's budget for the college.

The emergency USF meeting is open to the public. It's at 5:30 in the Patel Center for Global Solutions, on the USF campus.

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.

 

[MotF Bane]

Um, it's 5:53. Why are you not at the meeting?

 

[TheVrolok]

For many more reasons than this, yes, yes he is.

 

[TheVrolok]

Um, it's 5:53. Why are you not at the meeting?

It's easier to rant about politics, than actively participate?

 

[RavenSEAL]

Um, it's 5:53. Why are you not at the meeting?

I'm stuck at my job, watching it live. I work for the university IT department

 

[MotF Bane]

I'm stuck at my job, watching it live. I work for the university IT department

Oh, you're going to get double fucked. Your job will probably be cut to save money, and your tuition is going up. That sucks.

 

[RavenSEAL]

Oh, you're going to get double fucked. Your job will probably be cut to save money, and your tuition is going up. That sucks.

Yep, I wouldn't be surprised if they outsource the shit out of our department. :thumbsdown:

 

[dmcowen674]

Rick Scott is a ****ING retard

He just announced cuts to the Florida state university system. Which in this case, the school I currently attend to, is facing a state budget cut of up to 58%.

NO!!!!! Let's not fucking increase taxes on alcohol and tabbaco! NOOOO, let's not fucking increase taxes on Casinos!!! NOOOOO, let's fucking cut the educational budget so that schools are further forced to increase tuition! So less people can afford to get a secondary education! So that more people drop out because they can't fucking afford it. I'm already spending 20k/YEAR as a freshman.

Someone PLEASE impeach this SOB.

He is 100% right.

It is exactly what Republicans want for the country and getting.

Americans no longer need secondary education since the jobs were sent overseas.

If for some reason you have the desire for one of the jobs that went overseas that requires the advanced education you simply move to the country where the jobs went and get your education there.

When are you packing and leaving?

 

[monovillage]

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.

 

[RavenSEAL]

He is 100% right.

It is exactly what Republicans want for the country and getting.

Americans no longer need secondary education since the jobs were sent overseas.

If for some reason you have the desire for one of the jobs that went overseas that requires the advanced education you simply move to the country where the jobs went and get your education there.

When are you packing and leaving?

Hopefully soon, New Zealand sounds really fucking nice right about now.

 

[MotF Bane]

Oh, and it's apparently the Florida Senate you want thrown out too.

 

[woolfe9999]

Welcome to what has been going on in California these past two years. My daughter just graduated from a UC. We're lucky we only had to pay for the first round of tuition increases for any length of time. The second and larger one affected us only for her last quarter.

 

[Gonad the Barbarian]

Don't worry, I'm sure the Koch brothers will step up and buy more college depts:
http://www.tampabay.com/opinion/editorials/koch-gift-too-costly-for-florida-state/1168851

 

[monovillage]

Don't worry, I'm sure the Koch brothers will step up and buy more college depts:
http://www.tampabay.com/opinion/editorials/koch-gift-too-costly-for-florida-state/1168851

LMAO, oooh those bastards

 

[MotF Bane]

Don't worry, I'm sure the Koch brothers will step up and buy more college depts:
http://www.tampabay.com/opinion/editorials/koch-gift-too-costly-for-florida-state/1168851

They get to review the hires if they are paid by foundation money, so existing personnel or those hired outside of their $250k/yr are unaffected. More minor of an issue than everyone is making it out to be.

 

[nageov3t]

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

 

[monovillage]

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

It's his job, he's pissed because the Gov. won't put a gun to other peoples heads and say "cough up more money for government workers ya cheap bastards"

 

[benzylic]

Jay Nixon is doing the same thing in Missouri, granted its only a 12% cut to the schools budget but amounts to my tuition likely going up almost 9%

 

[nageov3t]

Jay Nixon is doing the same thing in Missouri, granted its only a 12% cut to the schools budget but amounts to my tuition likely going up almost 9%

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

 

[Nintendesert]

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

Why wasn't he smart enough to get a scholarship?

 

[Jaskalas]

Obama speaks of shared sacrifice. Where's yours?

This is it.

 

[bwoody2016]

Sounds like California....Welcome to the new era of education. Too expensive no one can afford it.

 

[RavenSEAL]

Why wasn't he smart enough to get a scholarship?

Already have 6K/semester worth of those.

 

[ElFenix]

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?

 

[Patranus]

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.