Revised Higher Education Act seeks to make costs for college more transparent, The Boston Globe

By John F. Wasik
August 26, 2008

Better tools to help you find the best college values are coming, but you will have to supply the mental muscle.

A revised version of the Higher Education Act became law Aug. 14. While it will make colleges more accountable for tuition and fee increases, it will do little to lower the cost.

Among an array of changes, the law will streamline financial-aid forms, attack corruption in the student-loan business, and make college costs more transparent.

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USF enrolls record number of students, St. Petersburg Times

By Donna Winchester
August 26, 2008

TAMPA — A record number of students arrived Monday for the first day of fall classes at the University of South Florida despite budget cuts that have forced universities statewide to tighten their belts.

Preliminary figures show that enrollment is up 1.5 percent across USF's four campuses compared with a year ago, topping out at 45,585.

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How is UF faring? Gainesville Sun

By Nathan Crabbe
August 25, 2008


Maya Stanfield-Mazzi taught at Tulane University after Hurricane Katrina, so she’s seen worse than the University of Florida’s recent budget cuts and layoffs.

“Everything seems to be wonderful here compared to the staff cuts and the turnover they had there,” she said.

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Florida's leadership dithers as state sinks, St Petersburg Times

August 25, 2008

The financial crisis that grips Florida government now knows no modern precedent, but nearly as alarming as the plunging forecasts are the numbingly casual reactions in the capital. As schools and universities and courts and hospitals fall into a deepening budgetary sinkhole, state officials are offering little more than shallow platitudes.

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University of South Florida to tap cash reserves to pay for raises, St. Petersburg Times

By Donna Winchester
August 23, 2008

University of South Florida administrators will begin dipping into the school's cash reserves to provide raises and cost-of-living increases for faculty and staff.

USF provost Ralph Wilcox announced the decision Friday at a faculty assembly, saying the move is the best approach to managing the "unprecedented magnitude of budget cuts" handed down to the state university system from Tallahassee.

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Small portions: State universities facing tough times, Tallahassee Democrat

August 23, 2008

A comic used to tell a joke about a woman at a restaurant whose dinner entree fell below acceptable standards.

"I wouldn't feed this to my dog!" she tells the waiter. "And the portion is so small!"

With the fall semester set to begin Monday at Florida's public universities, these institutions are increasingly in danger of becoming a version of that restaurant.

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US News: University of Florida, University of Miami, Florida State among nation's best schools, Miami Herald

By Nicole Bardo-Colon
August 22, 2008

Editors at U.S. News & World Report magazine announced its 2009 rankings for ''America's Best Colleges'' on Friday -- the University of Florida landed 49th on the list.

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