New Fee Plan Includes FSU

Colleges and Universities A-Z Florida State University
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<p>A new version of the academic enhancement fee now includes FSU as well as UF and USF...</p>

<p>TALLAHASSEE - A proposal that would let the University of Florida raise its tuition may be revived.</p>

<p>Sen. Steve Oelrich, R-Cross Creek, said Friday that he is working on a new measure that would let Florida, Florida State and South Florida raise their tuition over a period of time, in lieu of trying to seek approval for a $1,000-a-year academic enhancement fee for UF.</p>

<p>Oelrich's proposal (SB 1710) will be heard Tuesday by the Senate Higher Education Appropriations Committee.</p>

<p>By changing the proposal from a UF-only academic fee to a broader, more flexible plan, Oelrich secured a hearing for his bill from Sen. Evelyn Lynn, R-Ormond Beach, chair of the higher education budget panel. Lynn had previously said she didn't want to hear his bill since it was not likely to pass her committee.</p>

<p>Lynn said the details of Oelrich's new proposal haven't been finalized, but she said: "We are trying to take a different approach.''</p>

<p>But Lynn said she couldn't say whether the new plan has any better chance of passage than Oelrich's original academic fee measure.</p>

<p>Oelrich said he is still negotiating the details of his new plan. But he said the goal would be to allow research-oriented universities like UF and FSU to gradually raise their tuitions over a number of years, with an ultimate cap in the range of 40 percent. The tuition decisions would be made by the universities' boards of trustees rather than the Legislature.</p>

<p>He also said he was working to make sure the new proposal could be accommodated by the Bright Futures scholarship program and pre-paid tuition plan.</p>

<p>For the complete article, see: <a href="http://www.gainesville.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070421/LOCAL/704210368/-1/news%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.gainesville.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070421/LOCAL/704210368/-1/news&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

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<p>as long as prepaid and bright futures pays for it I'll be happy with it.</p>

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<p>Once tuition starts going up it will continue to go up. It's kind of like the pigs at the trough the first one oinks and then they all oink and they are never happy after that.</p>

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<p>Well ray since I see that you're posting here, I'm surprised that UCF wasn't included in that plan to raise tuition since its suppose to be used for hiring new teachers and UCF has a high students per teacher ratio.</p>

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<p>In New York where my son went to school for many years the tuition was held constant, then they decided to raise it which resulted in a 28% hike in one year. Since then it has gone up 3-5% per year. Now in the face of backlash they are trying to adopt a different plan that perhaps keeps a class at the same level of tuition for their 4 years but levy's the increase against each new class as they enter. I guess Illinois does this also.</p>

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<p>UCF and other state universities wern't included to date as they do not qualify for "Level 1 Funding" per state statute. To qualify, a university has to have a certain number of Ph.D. graduates every year, a certain number of patents, licenses of developed technology and so on.</p>

<p>Only FSU and UF qualify to date.</p>

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<p>The qualifications for "Level 1 Funding" are spelled out in the Florida Statutes.</p>