<p>A tuition spike of $500 per semester could show up soon at Florida State University.</p>
<p>It's a proposed pilot program at the University of Florida that UF President Bernie Machen will present Thursday to the Florida Board of Governors for approval. The board is expected to say yes; then a legislative OK would be required.</p>
<p>For several years, FSU has made no secret of its desire for higher tuition. The money would help FSU keep pace with the competitive demands of being a flagship institution of higher education and research. </p>
<p>"It's going to happen, sooner or later," FSU President T.K. Wetherell said Monday of a major tuition or fee hike to bolster academic improvements at FSU. "We're hurting for money."</p>
<p>The UF "academic enhancement program" would be used to hire 200 faculty members to improve professor-student ratios, add 100 academic advisers to keep students on track for graduation and increase course offerings and support research.</p>
<p>"If everyone is on the same page about this world-class competitive higher education, then let's do this together. I think the state needs to take the first step forward," said Matthew Tuchman, an FSU senior who is student government's director of legislative affairs.</p>
<p>Tuchman called for a major commitment from the state Legislature to enhance higher education before tossing a new financial burden onto FSU students.</p>
<p>This academic year, an FSU in-state undergraduate is paying $3,307 in tuition and fees for 30 credit hours, compared with the national average at four-year public colleges of $5,491 in 2005-06.</p>
<p>At UF, the suggested $500 per semester would apply only to newly enrolled students. The university wants to begin phasing it in as soon as next fall. And the $500 would not be covered by the state's Bright Futures scholarship or college prepaid tuition.</p>
<p>At FSU, Wetherell is interested in raising a similar amount, but he said it would be fairer to do it based on credit hours taken, rather than a flat fee. With 31,000 undergraduates among FSU's 40,000 students, a tuition increase of $500 per semester eventually would generate $31 million a year.</p>
<p>"We're so low now, do whatever you want, we can't get up to the national average," said Wetherell of FSU tuition. Raise it by $500 a semester? "Why wouldn't we? Why open up shop if you give the goods away?"</p>
<p>"Outright opposition is unwarranted," Tuchman said of charging students to raise FSU's academic caliber. Yet when it comes to the overall world-class ambitions of FSU, "On whose wallet? That's an issue." </p>
<p>See: Tallahassee</a> Democrat Article</p>