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Tom Auxter: Contact your legislators now

[The following is from statewide United Faculty of Florida President Tom Auxter:]

UFF Members

It is critical that we contact legislators now — by email or by phoning their local district offices — to make sure they understand that their constituents do not want more damage done to Florida higher education through the process of budget cuts. (You may have heard that the Governor is recommending a 6.2% cut for universities and a 4.5% cut for community colleges.) Emphasize that these cuts hurt students and deprive them of the education they expected when they enrolled.

Talking Points for Legislators

  1. The student-faculty ratio is already at the bottom (49th) in national rankings. (Only Louisiana is worse.) More cuts require a hiring freeze on faculty this year and make things even worse for students. Students cannot get the courses they need to graduate, and they cannot get the attention they deserve from professors who are teaching overcrowded classes. Students’ access to higher education is threatened by these proposed cuts. Enrollment at the state universities has been frozen—Budget cuts limit access, increase graduation time, and decrease rates of graduation.
  2. Faculty are leaving Florida higher education at an alarming rate. In the universities, the turnover rate last year was 14%. It is impossible to staff departments with the qualified faculty they need to cover all the subjects necessary because they leave as soon as they find employment elsewhere — at higher salaries and with better teaching conditions. Recruiting new faculty is especially difficult when they hear that there is a freeze on salaries or that classes are crowded (if students can even get the classes they need). In many of the community colleges, the starting salaries are lower than the starting salaries for teachers in the local school district while the costs of housing are beyond reach. This makes recruitment and retention an on-going problem that directly affects students.
  3. The quality of the education students receive is threatened by these severe budget problems. The quality deteriorates when students cannot get the attention they deserve from faculty teaching crowded classes and when classes are not available. The quality also deteriorates when faculty specialists are leaving at a rate that makes it impossible to cover all the specialized topics that need to be covered in a department.

The only lasting solution for a viable higher education system is to change the tax structure so that there is enough revenue to support the needs of students and so that funds available do not change dramatically with every fluctuation in sales tax collection or real estate market values. We need reform now in creating a sustainable relationship between budget and taxation. It is shortsighted to think that the State can save money by reducing its commitment to higher education.

Higher education is the engine that drives the State’s economy. A developed economy requires a developed higher education system to supply the kinds of employees necessary to run it. Moreover, large business operations will not open their doors in a state that cannot attract talented employees with educational benefits. The State also saves money from an educated population that has less crime and fewer health problems.

IMPORTANT:

  • Short, polite messages are most effective with legislators. One or two sentences is enough to make the point.
  • Use an off-campus computer or private phone for messages.

Here are the links to find your Senator and Representative

Tom Auxter
President
United Faculty of Florida

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This entry was posted on Thursday, September 20th, 2007 at 9:53 pm and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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