<p>Governor Scott and UF President Machen plan on making UF a Top Ten University within the next 5 years. Looks like class of 2017 came just in time to reap all the benefits :) </p>
<p>Gov</a>. Scott proposes major investment in UF?s top 10 quest | University of Florida News
Gov</a>. Scott plans to give UF $15 million annually | WUFT News</p>
<p>Congrats to all of those accepted! Gator Nation FTW. Feel free to discuss.</p>
<p>On national level, I think UF is improving in the ranks. However…top 10 in only 5 years!? That would truly be an incredible feat, but even as a UF student, I don’t think it will happen that quickly. It’s currently at #54 in the USNews rankings (tied with Pepperdine). I think UF has the potential, but first, more than anything, UF has to stay of these “Top 10 Part Schools” lists for a long time, and for that, Gainesville has to reach a point where most people don’t call it a college town. But, this is just my opinion. I’m kind of interested in what others think though.</p>
<p>Regardless, I offer a belated congrats to the UF class of 2017!</p>
<p>rs0525, I just wanted to add that UF is #54 in terms of all public AND private schools in America. In other words, this is the ranking on the list that Harvard is #1 on. I believe that UF is about rank #17 in terms of only public schools in America, so when Governor Scott said he wanted to make UF a top 10 school, he was referring to the list that UF is #17 on. :)</p>
<p>Thanks rs0525! I guess we will just have to wait and see! And Devons724 UF is #17 on the list for public universities, but what has me confused is that the governor stated that it would be a top ten on a national level of all universities (the list including Harvard) That would be quite impressive, but we all have our doubts. The good news is that UF is matching the $15 million a year so they will have $30 million a year to go towards hiring more faculty and reducing their teacher to student ratio of 21.5 : 1.</p>
<p>Honestly, it will never happen. UF could never compete with top 20’s schools when it comes to money. Heck Cornell just had a Alumni donate $350 million, public schools like UF don’t have the money or Prestige to bring in the big name professors.</p>
<p>@Zx6rider</p>
<p>The state is talking about making UF one of the top 10 Public (State) Universities, which makes sense as a goal for the university over the next several years. It very well may not happen(in the next 5 years), but it is what they should be working towards.</p>
<p>There has been analysis presented these forums in the past that shows UF has all the metrics already to be a top-10 public (per US News criteria)…except for one: S-F ratio. If revenue can be obtained that will permit the addition of quality faculty, then top-10 public status could be achieved within the 5-year time frame.</p>
<p>Let the cash flow in! Go gators!!</p>
<p>Most of the ‘preeminence’ money will probably end up being used to help retain existing faculty. It costs about $1 million to recruit a new professor…the $15 million/year will help some, but it’s not the solution to drastically improving student:faculty ratio and bumping UF to top 10. Hopefully the state’s economy will pick up enough in coming years so the state can better fund all of Florida’s public colleges and universities.</p>
<p>I’m not sure where you see it costs 1 million dollars to recruit a single faculty member, but that is not the case. The provost has come out and said they plan to hire 100 additional faculty with this money.</p>
<p>Provost Glover isn’t the final say in how the ‘preeminence’ money will be spent…he’s been ‘envisioning’ hiring 100-125 new faculty for years. All the UF dept. heads, the faculty senate, students, trustees, alumni, president Machen, the legislature, etc, will all be suggesting about how the money should be best spent. Maybe 100 lower level nontenure track instructors and adjunct faculty can be hired on the cheap, but UF will have to fork over big bucks to hire distinguised research scientists and professors like top 10 public research universites have. It’s tough hiring, and retaining, the best with the least.</p>
<p>In STE (not M generally), it is not uncommon to spend $1M+ to recruit a good faculty. Over the last five years, I have committed ~$10M (space, facility, experiments, travel, students, postdocs, salary for first a few summers, etc) to bring 6 faculty to my department.</p>
<p>If UF truly wants to be a top 10 university, I suggest the following:</p>
<p>The credentials of the top 1/3 of UF students are quite impressive. The credentials of the bottom third, however, are really not even close to being top 10 credentials. So I would eliminate, over time, 1/3 of the academic slots. That would also leave more money, per student, to concentrate on the truly talented students. And create a more “elite” class.</p>
<p>It is unlikely UF would ever do something like that, however, because they are not truly serious about being a top 10 university. The reason I say this is that UF has all sort of other social/diversity/geographic considerations that seem to trump just plain old excellance. We can plainly see this every year, when kids with 2100 SAT scores are rejected, but kids with 1600 SAT scores are admitted.</p>
<p>UF could get closer to being a Berkeley or a UCLA or a Michigan if they were willing to make hard decisions, but they are not.</p>
<p>My son, with a 2300 SAT, took a pass on UF, because of the over emphasis on football, and because it is really not viewed in America as being like a Berkeley or a UCLA. It could be if hard decisions were made.</p>
<p>Even then, I think it is a ludicrous stretch to think UF could ever be top 10 in the US News Rankings. Even Berkeley and UCLA are not in that category.</p>
<p>The Ohio State University - $1 billion in 5 years</p>
<p>“Since returning to OSU in 2007, Gee has helped raise $1.6 billion and is striving to raise $2.5 billion in gifts by June 2016”</p>
<p>The University of Maryland - $1 billion in 6 years</p>
<p>“The University of Maryland successfully raised $1 billion in its recently concluded Great Expectations fundraising campaign.”</p>
<p>The University of Miami - $1 billion in 4 years</p>
<p>"The University of Miami has raised more than $1 billion in its fundraising campaign as President Donna Shalala seeks to bolster medical research and increase financial aid and faculty at Florida’s top-rated college. </p>
<p>The University of Florida - $15M x 5 yrs = $75 million</p>
<p>Back in October(2012) UF completed it’s “Florida Tomorrow” campaign:</p>
<p>1.7 Billion, Seven years, 251,000 donors.</p>
<p>“Money raised during the campaign has supported building construction, faculty endowments, scholarships and other initiatives. In fact, campaign statistics revealed tonight included”:
15 new teaching and learning centers
126 new faculty positions endowed
250 new scholarships
28 buildings constructed or planned</p>
<p>I think we can agree UF will have the $ needed to become a top 10 public university, it’s a question of time, economic trends and execution. The 6 to 8 Public Universities ahead of UF are working hard to stay ahead and keep UF out of the top 10 (but several are running into issues, like California’s financial challenges, that work toward UF’s advantage).</p>
<p>Using USN’s list of top public universities, as an example, UF would need to pass the following schools…</p>
<p>#8 University of California–Davis
#8 University of California–San Diego </p>
<h1>10 University of California–Santa Barbara</h1>
<h1>10 University of Wisconsin–Madison</h1>
<h1>12 University of California–Irvine</h1>
<h1>13 Pennsylvania State University–University Park</h1>
<h1>13 University of Illinois–Urbana-Champaign</h1>
<h1>13 University of Texas–Austin</h1>
<h1>13 University of Washington</h1>
<p>That’s an impressive list…If we can pass 1 or 2 in the next several years, I would call it a win!</p>
<p>As stated above, UF JUST concluded it’s most recent capital campaign of 1.7 billion dollars.</p>
<p>That’s why I don’t understand why the FL Gov thinks $75 mil is gonna be a game changer.</p>
<p>It may not be a game changer, but UF has bounced around from 13 to 19 over the last several years and currently sits at 17. If this pushes that range down in the future, great. I think the actual money doesn’t mean as much as the commitment from the state, which will likely continue in the future.</p>
<p>The 1.7 billion, and all those other capital campaigns, are not really used for faculty salaries, as those are one-time monies. Each donation has very specific requirements, for very specific donor causes. Be it construction of a building, naming of a professorship, or wanting to put a series of park benches by Lake Alice, the uses of the funds are restricted. The amount of money helps more than a 15 million dollar donation because it’s unrestricted educational funds.</p>
<p>UF’s president, Bernie Machen, does whatever he can to boost UF’s ranking.</p>
<p>[Machen’s</a> rankings ploy is just rank | Tampa Bay Times](<a href=“http://www.tampabay.com/opinion/editorials/machens-rankings-ploy-is-just-rank/1011155]Machen’s”>http://www.tampabay.com/opinion/editorials/machens-rankings-ploy-is-just-rank/1011155)</p>
<p>Yeah, that article was discredited as sensationalistic trash several years ago.</p>