Provost’s message mixed

Posted Aug 20, 2010 by Lindsay Peterson

Updated Aug 23, 2010 at 10:25 AM

The news to faculty from USF Provost Ralph Wilcox on Wednesday was both optimistic and ominous.

About 50,000 students are expected on the main and regional campuses when classes start on Monday. That’s the biggest ever. Among them are about 4,500 freshmen and international students from 30 countries.

He pointed out that USF has come through the worst economic times in the state’s history without shutting down programs and firing faculty, unlike other Florida universities.

But USF is competing with an expanding state college system that now offers 111 four-year degrees, 24 of which are being offered across the bay at St. Petersburg College. There’s also a for-profit university industry where the quest for private gain competes with “quality assurance and public good,” he said.

But the scariest news was that the governor has asked all state agencies, including the state universities to project how they would cut 5 percent to 15 percent of their budgets.

A double-digit cut would turn USF into “a very different place,” he said.

It’s just a drill, he emphasized. No one is asking for those kinds of cuts yet.

But they’re thinking about it.