2nd USF Poly campus board member resigns

Posted Feb 21, 2012 by Lindsay Peterson

Updated Feb 21, 2012 at 05:32 PM

A second USF Polytechnic board member has resigned, reports the Lakeland Ledger.

“Over the last few months I have become increasingly concerned and confused at the role campus board members have when everything is not running smoothly,” said Ron Morrow wrote.

“The position of a board member should be one in which he is given information in such a way as to help solve problems. Unfortunately this is not the case in the USF branch campus system.”

This leaves three members.

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2nd USF Poly campus board member resigns

Posted Feb 21, 2012 by Lindsay Peterson

Updated Feb 21, 2012 at 05:33 PM

A second USF Polytechnic board member has resigned, reports the Lakeland Ledger.

“Over the last few months I have become increasingly concerned and confused at the role campus board members have when everything is not running smoothly,” said Ron Morrow wrote.

“The position of a board member should be one in which he is given information in such a way as to help solve problems. Unfortunately this is not the case in the USF branch campus system.”

This leaves three members.

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Students set 1,500 goal in letter campaign to fight proposed cuts to USF

Posted Feb 21, 2012 by Lindsay Peterson

Updated Feb 21, 2012 at 04:52 PM

USF students were treated pretty shabbily by some members of the Senate Budget Committee last week, but they haven’t been scared away.

USF Polytechnic students plan to return to Tallahassee on Thursday for the Senate debate on a state budget that includes severe cuts to USF and a plan to shut down Poly.

On the Tampa campus, student government reps are collecting letters from students to deliver to lawmakers.

They already have about 200, and they’ll be out again at the Bull Market on campus from 10 a.m to 3 p.m.

Their goal: at least 1,500.

The Hillsborough County Supervisor of Elections Office is piggybacking on the enthusiasm, planning to set up a booth to register students to vote.

The letter-writing effort will conclude on Thursday at 7 p.m. with a Rally to Save USF at the Martin Luther King Plaza.

There may, however, be some resolution to the problem by then. State Sen. Jim Norman has introduced amendments to moderate the proposed cuts and they may be heard on Thursday afternoon.

If they don’t pass, however, the fight goes into the budget negotiation process, where House and Senate members have to resolve their differences.

But Norman will have allies there among House leaders who have already spoken out against the cuts.

Not that all is well. USF’s state support goes down by about 9 percent under the House plan. But that looks good next to the 40 percent USF stands to loose under the Senate plan.

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USF’s budget crisis unites Democrats and Republican in the House

Posted Feb 15, 2012 by Lindsay Peterson

Updated Feb 15, 2012 at 02:54 PM

It seems one harmonious thing has come out of the Senate budget proposal to slash USF’s funding.

It’s united Democrats and Republicans in the House.

State Rep. Shawn Harrison, a Republican representing Temple Terrace, and Janet Cruz, a Tampa Democrat have both pledged to fight the proposed cuts.

“These cuts are greater and deeper for the University of South Florida than any other institution of higher education. Importantly, the House budget contains no such devastating cuts to USF and I am working with my fellow legislators to address and solve this potential crisis for the University of South Florida and the Tampa Bay area,” said Harrison, a USF graduate, in a statement.

Wrote Cruz: “Senator J.D. Alexander, the Senate budget chairman, has clearly targeted USF. It is disappointing that some of his colleagues in the Senate approved his vindictive budget proposal.

“Today, I call on members of the Florida House of Representatives to stand up in bipartisan fashion and defend the University of South Florida.’’

The Senate Budget Committee is discussing the entire budget today, including cuts to USF and the other universities.

USF stands to lose $79 million from its base budget. An additional $49 million is on the chopping block if another proposal goes through creating a new university in Polk County.

Altogether it amounts to about 60 percent of USF’s state funding. It has the option of raising tuition by 15 percent but that wouldn’t come close to plugging the gap.

USF has mobilized students, faculty, alumni and supporters across the state to flood lawmakers with pleas for moderation.

The USF Alumni Association has created a petition. You can find it here.

All the universities would lose in the senate proposal but USF’s share expands with the additional costs related to the new university proposal.

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Is USF a political bargaining chip?

Posted Feb 14, 2012 by Lindsay Peterson

Updated Feb 14, 2012 at 02:36 PM

USF is using every tool it has to fight its latest political battle.

It’s created a website specifically on the Senate Budget Committee’s plan to slash USF’s budget.

Find it here.

It includes a frank plea from President Judy Genshaft.

“Everyone who cares about the future of USF and the future economic development of the Tampa Bay region should be concerned,” she writes in a letter to USF community, alumni and friends.

And, she reminds, please use your personal computer for any messages to lawmakers.

USF faces a $128 million cut, which amounts to about 60 percent of its academic appropriation from the Legislature. That appropriation doesn’t include tuition, which would moderate the cut but not much.

Several of the universities are facing big cuts but not as big as USF’s. That detail is here.

It should be noted that people who follow university budgeting can’t remember a time when the Senate divided up its appropriation by university. Usually the money is appropriated to the system as a whole and distributed to the universities evenly based on enrollment.

Few doubt this is being driven by politics. USF’s COO John Long came right out and said it at Monday’s emergency meeting on the cuts.

The Senate budget chairman, JD Alexander, has several motivations. He seems determined to shut down USF Polytechic to create a new university in his backyard, in Polk County.

But he also needs bargaining chips in the upcoming budget battle with the House.

So it seems USF has become one of those chips.

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