Florida universities suffer from devastating budget cuts in current House plan
April 26, 2009 at 9:40 am by Ben LuongoBy Ben Luongo
PoHo contributor
Ben Luongo is a USF political science graduate student. He will be graduating this spring.
Florida universities face serious budget cuts if the proposed House of Representatives budget (here’s a .pdf of its appropriations) for higher education goes through. The budget would cut $500 million in basic budget support and an additional $100 million in salaries.
What does this mean for our Florida Universities?
Here is the video, after the jump
Modesto Maidique, President of Florida International University, called these budget cuts “Armageddon.” He and nine other Presidents of Florida’s 11 state universities held a press conference Thursday outside the capital. He says that universities may have to lay off some 30 percent of employees, which is about 15,000 people. This would mean larger classes, merging and cutting programs, less or lower quality services, etc. Universities would have to raise required GPA and SAT scores, which would obviously make it harder for students to get into college.
Does this sound like a good idea? I understand that we are suffering from a recession and we need make some cuts from the budget. However, Florida’s future economy depends on our university system and an educated citizenry. Bernie Machen, president of University of Florida, said it best at the press conference:
We are not only the provider of the four-year degree in the state, we are also the link to economic development in the state. However, if we are crippled to the extent that we are unable to be responsive, everybody suffers.
We need to encourage people to go to college, not deprive them of the opportunity. Higher education in the state is an engine for our economy – it promises a large and effective work force. Unfortunately, it looks like the universities are going to suffer some cuts. However, if the House passes its budget for higher education, which wants to cut twice as much as the senate’s budget, then they would be depriving both Florida and its potential students a brighter future.
April 26th, 2009 at 2:18 pm
The Florida University System will look quite different a year from now. When I heard that the University of Washington will need to lay off 1,000 employees by the end of May, I could not fathom it. Now it could very well be happening here in Florida. Hopefully we will get the lesser of the two budget cuts. Florida universities have already begun to lose some of its valuable talent and how is a workplace supposed to recruit and retain top talent with these cuts? It will definitely be interesting.
April 27th, 2009 at 1:02 pm
Will be interested to see how T.K. Wetherell’s political play to close the FSU Panama City campus will stir panhandle legislators to lessen the higher ed cuts.