Despite the doom and gloom a 30 percent tuition hike might evoke from students, UF President Bernie Machen sees it as a solution for weathering budget cuts in a troubled economy preparing for an upswing.
The president said he has observed other states beginning to bounce back from the down economy, which gives him hope for Florida as well.
“The only logic for this is that I think we’re almost at the end of [the economic downturn],” Machen said in an exclusive interview with the Alligator.
“If I’m wrong, we shouldn’t do this,” he said. “But if I’m wrong and we’re going to drop for another three to five years, we should be closing things down. Big cuts. So maybe it’s a hopeful projection.”
If the state legislature accepts Gov. Rick Scott’s proposal not to cut from higher education’s bottom line in the 2011 budget, then there would be no need for such a drastic increase, Machen said.
However, that’s where he becomes a little less optimistic, or, at the very least, wants to be ready in case universities get some bad news.
Machen wants to use the tuition increase to help prop up undergraduate education as legislative budget cuts threaten to pull the rug out from under the university.
“The majors [students] want, the professors they want and the quality of education they’re going to get when they get out of here is at risk,” he said. “If the reason you come here is to get an education that’s really good, and I can’t [provide] that anymore, then it’s in your interest for me to do whatever I have to do to make this place good or keep it good.
“If students are looking at their pocketbooks only,” Machen added, “they might not get it. But I’ve talked to enough students who are willing to be philosophical about this.”
Despite Machen’s wish to increase tuition, any such measure would have to be approved by the Florida Legislature, said UF spokeswoman Janine Sikes.
News of a tuition increase will come as disappointing news to opponents of block tuition, who already fear that students taking 12 credits while paying for 15 would be paying too much.
UF administrators have continually supported the measure, and block tuition is proposed to go into effect in fall 2012.
During the spring Student Government elections in February, 90 percent of students voted against block tuition.
However, Machen said, that won’t be enough to sway his opinion.
“That referendum says we can’t do it because we don’t want it,” he said. “That in and of itself is not enough.”
“I don’t think the students have thoughtfully engaged block tuition,” he said. “I’m waiting for arguments against it, but we haven’t gotten any yet. The argument that you can’t join clubs as a full-time student — 93 percent of our students are full time students. They haven’t matched arguments with reality.”
Though Machen and the Student Body are singing different tunes regarding block tuition, the two certainly are more united when it comes to the issue of guns on campus.
The Florida Legislature is considering a bill that would allow students to openly carry guns on campus. The Student Senate passed a resolution to oppose the lift on the campus gun ban, and all university police chiefs across the state are also opposed.
“The college campus is not safer with people carrying guns on it,” he said. “It’s a position that some take that the place would be safer if everyone had a gun. I don’t believe that.”
