Governor & Legislators Oppose Bernie Machen's $1,000 Fee

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Florida
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<p>CRIST & LEGISLATURE OPPOSE $1,000-A-YEAR FEE at UF</p>

<pre><code>The proposed charge conflicts with the governor's tuition freeze.
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<p>By SHANNON COLAVECCHIO-VANSICKLER, Times Staff Writer
Published February 9, 2007</p>

<p>TALLAHASSEE - University of Florida president Bernie Machen's proposal to charge undergraduate students an extra $500 per semester is already in trouble with Republicans, Democrats and a new governor intent on leaving Florida's rock-bottom tuition right where it is.</p>

<p>On Thursday, as some legislators wore orange and blue ties to celebrate the national championship UF football team's strong recruitment signing day, one of Gov. Charlie Crist's policy advisers told a group of senators that Crist will not support the UF fee.</p>

<p>Echoing that sentiment were a few powerful lawmakers.</p>

<p>"I'm not very optimistic about it passing," said state Sen. Jim King, R-Jacksonville.</p>

<p>The proposed fee would raise the annual cost of attending UF from about $3,200 a year, not including room and board, to $4,200.</p>

<p>The chancellor of Florida's 11 public universities supports the fee, as does the board that oversees those universities.</p>

<p>But Scott Kittel, Crist's education adviser, said Crist considers it a form of tuition. His proposed $3.5-billion budget for state universities next year freezes tuition for in-state undergraduates because he wants to help families afford college.</p>

<p>Machen was traveling Thursday and could not be reached.</p>

<p>He wants to vault UF into the elite top 10 class of public universities, a group that now includes institutions such as the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He says the fee would improve the quality of UF's undergraduate programs by generating about $36-million each year - enough to hire 200 additional professors and 100 academic counselors.</p>

<p>UF would start charging the fee to students, including transfers, who enroll this fall for the first time. Those students, and the ones who follow, would pay the fee every semester.</p>

<p>This week, UF lobbyists visited with legislators, handing out editorials in favor of the fee and surveys showing that UF's tuition is cheaper than the nation's 74 other flagship institutions.</p>

<p>But the governor and key legislators from both parties so far aren't biting. The bill had no sponsors as of Thursday afternoon.</p>

<p>"This is a way to get around the tuition freeze," said Sen. Mike Fasano, R-New Port Richey, who said he regularly receives e-mails from parents in his district opposing the fee.</p>

<p>"It's going to be very difficult for me to vote for something like that."</p>

<p>Democrats are just as skeptical.</p>

<p>"It's an end run around the lack of a tuition increase," said Rep. Dan Gelber, D-Miami Beach, the House Democratic leader.</p>

<p>Machen does not plan to charge the fee to students who qualify for need-based aid, and he is not proposing the fee be covered by Bright Futures, the state's popular merit-based scholarship program that covers full or partial tuition for Florida high school graduates who meet certain SAT and grade point standards.</p>

<p>Still, there are big questions about how the fee would affect families signed up for the Florida Prepaid Tuition Program, which allows them to lock in the cost of tuition, housing and other fees years before their children enroll in a Florida public institution.</p>

<p>Gelber, a proud graduate of the UF law school, said charging an extra $1,000 per year would "break the deal" with the nearly 1-million Florida families in the prepaid program who believed they were paying upfront for their children's college expenses.</p>

<p>If the fee were to survive, the prepaid board would want the Legislature to exempt families already enrolled in the Prepaid College Plan.</p>

<p>The board also wants the authority to alter its prepaid plan so families enrolling in the future can include the $500-per-semester fee in their payment contracts.</p>

<p>King said Machen's proposal will no doubt get support from some legislators who are "University of Florida folk, or from some Florida State folk who think if UF gets it, FSU won't be far behind."</p>

<p>King, an FSU graduate, said he isn't comfortable with the UF fee because it gives one university privilege over the others.</p>

<p>"I'm not so sure that in a state that has 11 universities, I want to say, 'Gosh you're the flagship, so you deserve to charge more because you're better.' I don't buy into that."</p>

<p>Times staff writer Steve Bousquet contributed to this report. Shannon Colavecchio-Van Sickler can be reached at 850 224-7263 or <a href="mailto:svansickler@sptimes.com">svansickler@sptimes.com</a>.</p>

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<p>I don't necessarily disagree with the fee, but I do have a problem with UF not being up front about it. UF Provost has said that she will not publicly tell incoming students about the fee; that they have to keep up with the news if they want to know about it.</p>

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<p>FACT: The student body actually voted in favor of the new fee.</p>

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<p>It was a survey.</p>

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<p>I thought the student government endorsed the plan as well.</p>

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<p>Since when did the student government = the student body?</p>

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<p>Well the student government is elected by the student body.</p>

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<p>But it isn't the student body. What was the voter turn out in the last election? LOL, they have their own agenda.</p>

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<p>Your right it's a FLORIDA BLUE KEY conspiracy to boost our rankings (JK).</p>

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<p>Governor & Legislators are dumb asses.</p>

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<p>Suppose a Florida politician said:</p>

<p>“I propose a law saying that no Florida state university should ever rank in the top 10 nationally in the sports of football or basketball.”</p>

<p>I suspect we would be talking impeachment, or recall, or riots.</p>

<p>Well, it shows an awful lot about our values that Florida politicians of all stripes were able to say pretty much exactly that the other day about academics.</p>

<p>See, Florida is the cheapest of the cheap when it comes to state universities — low tax support, compared with most states, but also tuition among the nation’s lowest.</p>

<p>Without question, that’s a cheap deal for taxpayers, and a cheap deal for families trying to pay for college.</p>

<p>But in the long term, it puts Florida’s schools in a bind.</p>

<p>That’s why the University of Florida, in a burst of desperation, came up with the idea of charging an extra fee of $500 a semester. The money would be used to hire more professors and staff, toward the Gators’ goal of becoming a top-10 state university.</p>

<p>But when the idea came up at a meeting in Tallahassee the other day, Florida’s politicians of all ranks and parties, from Gov. Charlie Crist on down, stomped all over it.</p>

<p>The nerve of those Gators! Never mind that at $3,200 a year, Florida already ranks at rock bottom among 74 state universities that might be considered “flagship’’ schools.</p>

<p>Never mind, also, that the fee would not apply to students with need-based financial aid, nor would it be charged against Florida’s “Bright Futures’’ scholarship program.</p>

<p>Here was an interesting quote from state Sen. Jim King, R-Jacksonville:</p>

<p>”I’m not so sure that in a state that has 11 universities, I want to say, 'Gosh you’re the flagship, so you deserve to charge more because you’re better.’ I don’t buy into that.”</p>

<p>Now me, I am willing to say exactly that, but that’s probably just one more reason I am not a state senator.</p>

<p>The big picture here is that Florida lags far behind the curve in developing a strong state university system. </p>

<p>Last month, a consultant hired by the state Board of Governors set a pretty good stage for what Florida needs to be talking about.</p>

<p>We need stronger vision at the state level, instead of parceling out law schools and med schools and other programs willy-nilly, depending on who has the best backers in the Legislature.</p>

<p>We need to create a “middle tier’’ of state schools that can meet the demand for four-year college degrees, without stuffing everybody into a few mega-campuses.</p>

<p>We need to figure out how to give Florida’s state universities the financial support they ought to have, without being either wasteful with tax dollars, or heartless with tuition.</p>

<p>One of our problems is that we have locked ourselves into cheapness — we have promised both the Bright Futures scholarship and a prepaid tuition program. Any change would cost those programs a bundle, but breaking the deal is politically unthinkable.</p>

<p>Yet the one thing we ought not do is what Florida has always done — drift along, school against school, the Legislature meddling here and there, backing into the future.</p>

<p>Yes, our insurance crisis is a mess, and folks are mad about property taxes — but higher education, more than any other issue, cries out for the leadership of Florida’s new governor, and it gives him the chance to achieve greatness.</p>

<p><a href="http://www.sptimes.com/2007/02/12/State/State_has_paid_price_.shtml%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.sptimes.com/2007/02/12/State/State_has_paid_price_.shtml&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

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<p>it would seem to me that uf has an alternate opportunity of pulling in additional revenue. Based upon the published statistics currently showing that only 6% of those attending are from out of state, it would seem like a no brainer to start accepting more out of state students. president machen has little control over the political motivations of the legislature, however he has far greater control over the schools admissions process. </p>

<p>(these are just rough, not well thought out numbers)</p>

<p>of the 7,000 or so students who attend uf each year, approximately 6% are from oos (420). If president machen decided to try and increase the % of oos students to say 20% (1,400 students. that would still leave 80% for in state), the university would see a windfall of about $15,000,000 to $20,000,000 each year.</p>

<p>there is no mandate i am aware of that requires uf to accept a certain percentage of in state vs. oos students. in fact, i believe this has already started. I think you will see that the % of oos students will increase with the class of 2011 and beyond. most other large state schools president machen is trying to compete with (michigan (34% oos), North Carolina(15% oos), Virginia(33% oos), wisconsin(39% oos), illinois (11% oos) etc) all accept a much higher % of oos students than uf. </p>

<p>i know its not what florida residents and students want to hear, but it only seems logical that this is going to occur, if it already hasn't started.</p>

<p>if i were president machen, i would direct my admissions department to start recruiting oos students more aggresively and accept a much higher percentage of oos especially during the early decision period when you are not competing with other schools and would not have to offer as much financial assistance to oos students.</p>

<p>this is the way to go, for uf to get to where it wants to be.</p>