UNF and state budget cuts

[Tacachale]

Despite what the title implies, UNF didn't escape the state's budget cuts, but we will be able to make up most of the difference.

UNF escapes state budget cuts
Posted: March 6, 2012 - 3:03am  |  Updated: March 6, 2012 - 9:37am
By Matt Dixon

TALLAHASSEE - Using tuition increases to bridge a $5 million gap, the University North Florida is set to emerge unscathed from a tough budget year for higher education.

With just one day to spare, Senate and House negotiators reached a deal Monday night on their roughly $70 billion spending plan.

It includes a $300 million hit to the university system. The level of cuts had been planned, but where they would come from was one of the last budget sticking points.

UNF will see a $7.1 million cut under the plan. In another portion of the budget, though, the Jacksonville school gets $2.2 million of that back for “operational support.”

“There is a requirement that all state entities maintain a 5 percent [reserve]. That money was to make sure we could meet that requirement,” UNF President John Delaney said.

Florida Gulf Coast University is the only other school to receive the operations money. UNF plans to make up the remaining $5 million gap with a 15 percent tuition increase, Delaney said.

That will allow them to maintain a level $127 million budget, which is down roughly $13 million from five years ago.

...

http://jacksonville.com/news/florida/2012-03-06/story/unf-escapes-state-budget-cuts

This is very serious, but UNF has pulled it out for another year.

For some background, Florida's state universities aren't really state universities anymore, but "state supported" institutions, as the bulk of their budgets come from other avenues. At this point just treading water means placing more and more of the cost on the backs of our students.

[mtraininjax]

Tuition increases really hurt students and they hurt the Bright Futures program. Every time the tuition rises in Florida, it means there are fewer and fewer students who can afford to go to a state college. Bright Futures is a great program, but the price increases are bankrupting our futures!

[CityLife]

Our representatives in Tallahassee are failing us. Disgusting.

They are cutting $300 million from our universities.....yet are creating a 12th University. That makes a lot of sense....

You know what is really messed up? They are punishing the fiscally responsible universities. FSU is suffering the biggest cut because it has the most money in reserves. FSU deliberately held back that money thinking it would be nice to have when the budget was slashed. However, they could have just spent it and then gotten reimbursed by the state like the other schools.

Thanks to buffoons like JD Alexander...