Despite Florida Gov. Rick Scott’s efforts to the contrary, tuition will increase this Fall.
UF Board of Trustees passed a regulation amendment last week that will raise undergraduate resident students’ tuition by about $4.01 per credit hour, which totals about $120 each year. Of that, most UF students will pay about $30 — Bright Futures, which recently went up, covers most of the extra charge.
The board was obligated to comply with state statutes mandating a 1.7 percent annual adjustment for inflation. The trustees were reticent to pass the higher tuition rate — trustee Christopher Corr even asked what would happen if they broke the law.
“I’m really required to follow the law. The law may not be what everybody wants the law to be,” chairman David Brown said. “But it is, in fact, the law.”
Trustee Carolyn Roberts said the decision put the board in “a very uncomfortable position” because she agreed with the governor’s consideration of Florida families.
To lessen the blow of the tuition hike, the board agreed to put half of the resulting revenue toward need-based financial aid and half toward campus maintenance.
“The administration tried every means possible to minimize the financial impact of attending the University of Florida,” said UF President Bernie Machen.
Machen was the center of a different financial discussion when the board voted to raise his annual compensation to $725,492 — a possible $750,500 if employee raises come through. His former total compensation had been $565,492.
His base salary was increased by $60,000 retroactive to Jan. 1, but that money is not from taxpayers. The Florida Legislature caps the public contributions to a public university president’s pay at $225,000. Machen’s new base salary will be $500,158, so non-public funds will pay for his raise. His term was also extended through the end of 2014.
That means Machen will be at UF for its state-designated creation of the eCampus, an institute for online learning. UF Provost Joe Glover said by January 2014, eCampus hopes to offer five bachelor’s degree programs: business, sports management, health education, criminology and law, and environmental management.
“We can only have 6,500 students every year,” he said. “We’ve got 29- or 30,000 applications, so there’s clearly much more demand for access to University of Florida degrees. This is a way by which we can actually increase access.”
Contact Julia Glum at jglum@alligator.org.
