UFF-USF

If the governor approves a 5% undergraduate-tuition hike as part of the state’s budget reconciliation process, that will help the state’s higher-education picture in some small measure. For a variety of reasons, this cannot be the primary base of funding support at USF:

1. Currently, tuition is a fraction of the total costs of undergraduate education. A 10% tuition hike gives USF less than a 3% increase in related revenues. (The differential tuition bill signed by the governor in the spring will matter more, simply because of the significant differential approved.)
2. USF’s enrollment profile has been shifting away from undergraduate enrollment and towards graduate enrollment. Raising undergraduate tuition matters the least for institutions with a high proportion of graduate students.

The reality is that higher education funding must be diversified. Higher tuition is part of the picture (with considerable attention to financial aid and addressing student debt), but tuition cannot be the entire picture.

The faculty senate has postponed a discussion of a working paper on the role of community engagement in tenure and promotion. The Collective Bargaining Agreement has provisions for addressing changes in tenure and promotion guidelines, especially sensitivity towards changes in the middle of tenure-track years.

The FEA government relations staff are estimating that the mid-year cuts approved by the legislature amount to approximately 2.5% of general revenues. The cut to the base was 3.6%, but nonrecurring funds were added back.

These cuts are not good, but they are better than the governor’s early-September proposal of 6.2% cuts to higher-education  general revenues.