Getting admitted to FSU just got a lot tougher

Colleges and Universities A-Z Florida State University
1

<p>Here's an excerpt from the university website:</p>

<p>**"Florida State University President T.K. Wetherell announced today that FSU will freeze enrollment and take aggressive steps to stabilize its budget in the face of declining state revenues, chronic under-funding of enrollment growth, the unknown consequences of tax reform, and a vetoed tuition increase.</p>

<p>The bottom line: Getting admitted to FSU just got a lot tougher.</p>

<p>"We've got a revenue crisis looming in this state that's going to affect students today and tomorrow," Wetherell said. "It doesn't take a crystal ball to see that unknown outcomes of the property tax reform that just passed yesterday are likely to have serious effects on higher education.**
~~~~
**"In 2006-07, FSU enrolled 6,328 freshmen of which approximately 1,000 were unfunded. "Something's got to give," Wetherell said.</p>

<p>Therefore, Florida State will freeze enrollment at current levels and apply stringent admission criteria for spring 2008 for freshmen and transfer students."**
~~~~
**"While making these budget cuts, FSU will take pains to adhere to certain principles, Wetherell said.</p>

<p>"We will protect the integrity of the teaching, research and service mission of the university and continue to enhance our standing as one of the top research and graduate education institutions in the nation.</p>

<p>"We will ensure the safety and security of students, employees and the campus, and we will safeguard the financial integrity of the university."</p>

<p>FSU will not surrender quality, he said, but will have constraints."**</p>

<p>Complete article is here: <a href="http://www.fsu.edu/news/2007/06/15/enrollment.freeze/%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.fsu.edu/news/2007/06/15/enrollment.freeze/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

2

<p>The article that ran in our paper said they would be enrolling 1800 fewer students next year, which is even worse than "freezing enrollment at current levels." </p>

<p>Oh my. Did not tell DD this news. Hoping that taking a hard line will cause the governor to rethink the veto of the 5% tuition increase. I will look for the link for the article that ran locally.</p>

<p>Edited to add: Here it is</p>

<p><a href="http://www.palmbeachpost.com/search/content/state/epaper/2007/06/15/a7a_bog_0615.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.palmbeachpost.com/search/content/state/epaper/2007/06/15/a7a_bog_0615.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Florida State University will deny enrollment to about 1,800 students next year following last month's veto of a statewide tuition increase and a continuing shortage of state dollars. </p>

<p>The measure was disclosed Thursday by FSU Provost Larry Abele at a Board of Governors meeting in Miami where members debated how to handle the budget constraints, but were reluctant to follow FSU's lead on a statewide basis. </p>

<p>The board, which oversees Florida's 11 universities, was given five options by Chairwoman Carolyn Roberts to deal with Gov. Charlie Crist's veto of a 5 percent tuition increase and a $120 million shortfall in enrollment money since 2004. The options include:
• Continue current practices and "hope for the best."
• Challenge the veto in a lawsuit.
• Freeze freshman enrollment.
• Freeze overall enrollment.
• Address through the courts the board's authority to set tuition.</p>

<p>"Today is the day we demonstrate our courage to do the right thing," Roberts said. "Everyone is watching us."
Since the board's creation, it has struggled with the legislature over control of the universities, including the ability to set tuition. Currently, the legislature sets resident tuition, upon the approval of the governor.
The majority of board members seemed less enthusiastic than Roberts, saying they weren't prepared to take action Thursday, and in fact, weren't sure any of the options offered a solution."The veto, more than anything else, has galvanized us. Some might say radicalized us," board member John Dasburg said. "But I just think we need to be pretty cool about this. Taking any type of action today would be a serious mistake." </p>

<p>Board member Charlie Edwards said the reluctance may have been in part because legislators were meeting about property tax issues that could affect university funding.
Florida has the lowest resident tuition in the country and ranks 49th out of the 50 states for the highest student-to-faculty ratios. University presidents also were asked to describe the effects of the tuition veto on their schools.
They answered with concerns about recruiting and retaining faculty, keeping up computer labs, boosting faculty salaries and opening access for future students.</p>

<p>.... The board will meet again in about two weeks to continue its discussion.</p>

<p>Florida State University is expected to officially announce today its decision to limit enrollment and other measures to do with the shortfall of money. </p>

<p>"It cheats the students who are already there if we keep enrolling more that we don't have the money for," Florida State University Provost Larry Abele said.</p>

3

<p>The board of governors needs an email/phone/mail campaign to impress upon the legislature and the governor that something has to give. And it cannot be cutting enrollment. Not now. Not with the number of students coming up through the ranks just now.</p>

4

<p>Could someone enlighten me on the bill to increase tuition again. How much was tuition being raised, more importantly, how much was not going to be covered by bright futures?</p>

5

<p>There were two issues I believe. One was raising tuition 5% across the board for all state U's (covered under Prepaid and Bright Futures), and one was a bill allowing UF, FSU and USF to charge an additional fee (covered under Prepaid but not Bright Futures.) The governor vetod the tuition increase. I think the extra fee passed, but none of the institutions elected to begin the extra charge for 2007-2008, and once it does apply, it will be for new students only, not existing ones.</p>

6

<p>That bill was just passed to the Governor to sign. I would urge everyone to write or call and ask him to sign the bill.</p>

7

<p>I wouldn't mind the 5% tuition increase but don't like that additional fee.</p>

8

<p>Think of it as an investment in your education; which is a bargain by any reasonable analysis.</p>

9

<p>Well here is the minority point again, The money that was asked for in the tuition bill I thought was to increase faculty and resources to raise standards (compete for top notch faculty/students, improve teacher to student ratio, add additional infrastructure and garner more research dollars at the named Florida institutions). I didn't think it had anything to do with correcting budget shortfalls, although I was pretty sure that the additional money would for the most part NOT end-up being spent on it's initial objectives that is just the way it works and there is no governance to make sure that it does. Now we find out that admissions will go down because there isn't enough money regardless of the increased tuition payments proposed by the legislation, so net net it would seem we need more increases to correct the budget shortfall and raise the standards proposal. It just goes back to my point from my NY experience, once tuition goes up it's just like raising taxes. 10 seconds after the money is granted, it's already not enough and more increases need to be granted. It is a spiral with no end, draconian measures are floated as bargaining chip in this whole process to pressure the public to pressure the legislators to get more increase granted.</p>

<p>Just one persons view.</p>

10

<p>I'm actually in favor both freezing enrollment and raising tuition. There are 9 other state universities who can accommodate more students and charge a lower tuition. FSU is really stretching its resources at this point. This is a great move by T.K., one of the best things he has done as president.IMHO</p>

11

<p>If you want FSU to rise in prestige, this will definitely raise the bar to a more elite level of student gaining admittance while marginal students will be forced to go to the other universities or community colleges.</p>

12

<p>looks like more oos students will be accepted. this would certainly help to offset a revenue shortfall.</p>

<p>UF has such a small % of oos students and it certainly would be in its best financial interest to start marketing itself more aggressively toward oos students.</p>

<p>it would seem to me that if UF increased its oos enrollment from 7-8% to 15-20%, they would realize a significant revenue windfall. FSU already has a higher % of oos students, but certainly could increase it further.</p>