University building repairs may have to wait

Posted Sep 14, 2011 by Lindsay Peterson

Updated Sep 14, 2011 at 05:32 PM

If the paint is peeling in your classroom or the tiles are coming off the floor, you might have to get used to it.

Florida universities received a small fraction of the money they requested for building construction and repairs this year - and it’s not likely to be much better next year.

The state university Board of Governors heard such a dour assessment at its meeting today that one of them, John Temple, remarked, “I wish we would have known it would be this bad when we approved all that money for USF Polytechnic.”

The Legislature allocated $35 million to USF Polytechnic this year to begin construction of its new campus. That was more than the total allocated to all the other state universities together, including USF’s three other campuses.

For next year, the board voted to request about $145 million, with maintenance, repair and renovation projects at the 11 state universities dominating the list. USF’s share would be $21 million. (The Tampa campus finished its new, $80 million science building, mostly, just in time.)

“It’s triage,” said State University System Chancellor Frank Brogan, referring to the emergency medicine practice of taking care of the most critical patients first.

“Repairs and maintenance…that’s our bleeder.”

The problem is not so much that the Legislature doesn’t want to pay for buildings and repairs, he said. It’s that these projects are funded solely through a capital fund that relies on unsteady tax revenue.

They need to find a solution or the university system will crumble, literally.

“If you can’t keep up with your facilities,” he said, “your entire operation is in peril.”