Alexander gets answers, thousands of pages worth

Posted Jan 3, 2012 by Lindsay Peterson

Updated Jan 4, 2012 at 11:16 AM

State Sen. JD Alexander asked for it, and today he received an answer to his request for data from the state universities – 583 pages from the University of South Florida alone.

USF provided information on the number of degrees awarded (11,211 last year), budget cuts over the past five years ($120 million) and trips taken on planes owned or leased by USF (three).

And it took the opportunity to highlight how little Florida spends on higher education compared to other states with strong universities.

USF ranks last in per-student spending among the top public universities nationally and has an “egregiously bloated student-faculty ratio,” it said. Still, it remains competitive with these schools in several academic and research categories

It’s not clear what Alexander will do with the reports. This information could take weeks to analyze. But he delved into one potentially controversial area, asking for data on donors who also do business with the universities.

It appears to be quite a few. You can read more here.

Check out all the responses here.