They didn't exactly sugar-coat it: Continual state budget cuts and a draining of funding for new campus construction has left the University of South Florida trying to "minimize" disaster. That was the message from USF Chief Operating Officer John Long, at a Board of Governors workgroup on finance Thursday morning. "That's really where we are at now," Long said. "Trying to avoid catastrophe." In the past few years, USF and other state universities have seen their state funding shrink by close to 50 percent -- $300 million cut from the universities this year alone. Meanwhile, a tax on utilities that pays for the Public Educational Capital Outlay fund, used to build new educational buildings on campus, has shriveled -- partly because people have stopped using ... Continue reading →
DAYTONA BEACH — Florida's newest university is already millions over budget for the construction of its new campus, has no faculty to attract students, few people volunteering to govern it and no money for technology labs.Bringing to life the law that created Florida Polytechnic — billed by state leaders as the solution to a need for more graduates in science, technology, engineering and math — seems to be shaping up to be a bigger challenge than anyone anticipated."If people thought, 'Well, now the law's passed and that's it,' they are mistaken," said Mori Hosseini, the Florida Board of Governors member who heads a task force charged with overseeing the new university's creation. "It's an unbelievable process."Hosseini stood by the goal of having students enrolled by ... Continue reading →
As the Board of Governors begins working through the many issues involved in creating the new Florida Polytechnic, with the hope of admitting students beginning next fall, one thing they certainly need to get set up ASAP is a Florida Polytechnic governing board. The Board and Gov. Rick Scott both put out calls earlier this month for applications to that 11-member board, with the deadline set for the end of May. Both parties called for applicants from across the country to help start the university from scratch. So far, 10 people have applied: four people for the five BOG-appointed slots, and six people for the six slots Scott will appoint. That revelation came at a meeting in Daytona Beach today, where members of the BOG ... Continue reading →
Florida Polytechnic is on its way to becoming the state’s 12th university, with higher education leaders meeting today in Daytona Beach to talk about the process. It’s not the first meeting of the Board of Governors task force charged with overseeing the transition of the University of South Florida’s Lakeland branch campus into independence, but it is the first time the group is meeting since Gov. Rick Scott gave the new university his rubber stamp last month. By signing SB 1994, Scott brought Florida Polytechnic to life right away — a priority for departing Senate budget chairman JD Alexander, R-Lake Wales. That move shortcut a path already laid out by the Board of Governors, which oversees the state university system. Last year, the board had ... Continue reading →
TAMPA — It's a nightmare scenario: a hurricane swirling off Florida as delegates start to arrive here for the Republican National Convention. How strong would it have to be to change the convention schedule or force a cancellation? What if it's just a tropical storm? How about a major storm that makes landfall in another part of the state, redirecting personnel and resources? And who makes the final call on what to do? The odds of a hurricane hitting the Tampa Bay area between Aug. 27-30, when the convention takes place, are mercifully slim — less than 1 percent, according to the National Weather Service. But officials are preparing for the worst, just in case. "Planning for the RNC is very difficult. There are lots ... Continue reading →
A new task force has just been set up to study higher education in Florida. No, not that one. Or that one. Or that one. This new group, set up by the Florida Board of Governors, will study a statewide need for future baccalaureate degree attainment, board Chair Dean Colson wrote in a letter to higher education leaders Wednesday. "With the emergence of other task forces, some may question whether we need another group studying higher education. I am of the opinion that now is the time to focus on the crucial issue of capacity," Colson wrote. The board's recently released new strategic plan, taking the state university system through the year 2025, calls for an increase of 37,000 baccalaureate graduates per year during that ... Continue reading →
TALLAHASSEE — Florida A&M University's Marching 100 band will remain suspended for the 2012-13 school year, university President James Ammons announced Monday.Ammons told the Board of Trustees that the hazing death of drum major Robert Champion "continues to present difficult days for the university family," and that the band's continued suspension is part of an effort to eradicate hazing rituals."The band must be restructured," Ammons said.The announcement, made six months after the death of Champion, follows news that 101 members of the band were not enrolled at the university, including a few people arrested in connection to Champion's death aboard a bus in Orlando last November.Longtime band director Julian White offered his retirement last week.The band had been suspended indefinitely since Champion's death. Since then, ... Continue reading →
One of the two top University of South Florida Polytechnic leaders who were recommended for termination a couple weeks ago, following an investigation into claims of financial mismanagement at the campus, has resigned. Alice Murray, the campus's regional vice chancellor for planning and facilities, told interim USF Poly chancellor David Touchton in a letter Monday that she was "proud of the many accomplishments I have made on behalf of the institution, most especially in the many strides that were made in the maturation of USF Polytechnic into the state's twelfth university." Beginning July 1, USF Poly will cease to exist and an independent Florida Polytechnic will be born. It's a shift that was pushed by Senate budget chairman JD Alexander, in addition to USF Poly's ... Continue reading →
LAKELAND — A good leader, state Sen. Paula Dockery told the graduating college students, is not someone who dictates.It's not someone who rules with fear, abuses power or acts unethically. Not someone who forces his will onto others.Monday night's ceremony marked the last graduating class of University of South Florida Polytechnic before the school breaks off from the USF system and becomes the state's 12th public university.And as commencement speaker, Dockery, who had once called the split "folly," didn't bother being subtle.At Monday's ceremony, Dockery, a Lakeland Republican, praised students who joined her to fight against the split — even in the face, she said, of "what can only be described as a textbook example of the antithesis of leadership.""I wish I could say in ... Continue reading →
