November 12, 2010. “Every penny put into higher education is like feeding a piggy bank for the future.”
Read original article at Tallahassee.com
It was a fine win for the faculty union at Florida State University last week when an arbitrator ruled that layoffs planned for 12 tenured faculty members must be rescinded. The university’s new faculty-oriented president, Eric Barron, immediately extended the ruling to all faculty, whether or not they were involved in the grievance of United Faculty of Florida.
Dr. Barron’s welcome embrace extended to 21 professors with tenure (only 12 of whom are members of UFF) who had been given notice they’d be terminated at the end of the current school year.
But the university’s financial worries are not in any way solved by resolving this conflict and setting this priority of faculty importance. Indeed, Dr. Barron is looking for a way to provide raises for faculty who last received raises three years ago.
“People are looking to us to become an economic engine,” he told his Board of Trustees, “but if there’s no money for faculty, how are you achieving that?” The proposed layoffs hurt the university’s reputation and meant other states and institutions were headhunting on the FSU campus.
The entire dismal picture is born out of FSU’s $85 million reduction in state funding over a three-year period, starting in 2009, a situation so dire that it also included merging some departments to save money.
Across town, that’s the approach being considered this week at Florida A&M University, which has seen appropriations reduced by $30 million over the last three years. It is planning to go forward with closing the School of General Studies, which is home to some 2,000 students who have not declared a major, plus two other nonteaching programs, the School of Graduate Studies and a laboratory in Panama City.
The goal is to protect the academic units, said FAMU Provost Cindy Hughes Harris. But now general studies students will be required to declare a major and may miss some of the academic support and advising that general studies afforded them.
At the same time, President James Ammons is hard at work, championing creation of a new school of dentistry, which is needed for the state, and especially for underserved rural, urban and minority communities.
When the new Florida Legislature convenes next week for its organizational session, we trust new and old member alike will be tuned into the gravity of starving the State University System. Every penny put into higher education is like feeding a piggy bank for the future.
Dr. Barron is intent on raising private funds and grants, and may he succeed beyond all expectations. But the reliability of recurring funds is essential, and lawmakers must find a way.
The Florida Board of Governors can play a significant role. The BOG and Legislature determine how much the 11 public universities are allowed to raise tuition each year, but the current cap of 15 percent may need to be reconsidered. Tuition in Florida remains among the lowest in the nation, almost half the national average, and the BOG may need to free the universities of some of the limitations now in place regarding tuition and fees.
Graduating an educated work force is quite simply the sine qua non of a progressive, economically sturdy state. Florida must do better, and that means all hands on deck to make it so.