UF has to cut $16 million come July 1, when officials project the total drop in recurring state support will be $47.2 million.Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University expects to lose another $4.6 million this year, and Florida State University anticipates a reduction of programs and a hiring freeze because of new cuts in the $16 million to $18 million range. The Board of Governors, facing $147 million in cuts to the state university system this year alone, gave university presidents the go-ahead last month to lay off faculty members, slash enrollment and take other actions to salvage their budgets.
And somewhere, lost in the shuffle, between 40,000 and 60,000 students could be denied an education in one of Florida's public universities because of years of this inadequate funding.
So what's a cash-strapped Legislature to do when confronted with these harsh realities? Well, give away $80 million to a private university, of course.
The substantial multimillion-dollar research grant awarded to the University of Miami Friday will go toward the school's Institute for Human Genomics. Because education is one of the major elements of Gov. Crist's economic development agenda, we don't see how a huge gift to UM is justified when other state schools are shutting their doors to qualified students.
Senate President Ken Pruitt explained at a summit last month that the future of Florida's economic viability rests on industries like aerospace and biotechnology.
We couldn't agree more. But how about providing funding for the schools within your state system rather than those that just happen to be in your state?
Maybe the grant would be easier to take if UF - Florida's flagship university, in case some have forgotten - had not received just $20 million in state funding for the Genetics Institute.
Richard Bookman, executive dean for research and research training at the Leonard M. Miller School of Medicine at the University of Miami, said Florida's universities play an important role in developing the state's economy, and UF would be wise to follow in Miami's example and recruit more scientists.
Just one problem - how are we going to pay for that now?
