UF’s Board of Trustees discussed how UF’s mission relates to the university’s past, present and future at the first day of its Fall retreat Thursday.
UF President Bernie Machen acknowledged the Morrill Act’s role in establishing UF and addressed the university’s U.S. News and World Report rankings.
The university was recently ranked 54th among the best national universities and 17th among the public universities.
The rankings evaluate factors like the average freshman retention rate (for UF, 96 percent), the percent of classes with fewer than 20 students (45 for UF) and the student to faculty ratio (21 to 1).
“If you look at the student variables, we are right in the mix right now,” Machen said. “It is the resource variables where we fall out.”
Machen said the national tuition average is higher than UF’s, and if the university charged a higher rate, more money could be spent on faculty.
“I really think a number of about $30 million recurring would put us in a very competitive situation to be in the top tier,” he said.
Provost Joe Glover mentioned how skewed the rankings can be, especially because the numbers are self-reported by each university.
“There are lots of little factors that can goose this thing up or down,” Glover said.
Contact Julia Glum at jglum@alligator.org.
