More cuts possible, but UF hopes to avoid it, Herald Tribune

By Nathan Crabbe
August 31, 2008

The University of Florida has lost 115 faculty members since this time last year, but not because of a feared brain drain, UF President Bernie Machen told the Faculty Senate last week.

Machen said a nearly 3 percent drop in the size of the faculty is due to retirements and a freeze on hiring with limited exceptions. But he said more cuts could hasten the departure of faculty and harm the university in other ways.

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Editorial: Local higher education institutions' success fueling region's economy, Naples News

August 30, 2008

Let’s see now.
Enrollment is up at Ave Maria University. The university has welcomed more than 330 new students and seven new professors. Undergraduate enrollment at Ave Maria now stands at more than 600 compared to 426 last fall.

Enrollment for the fall term at Florida Gulf Coast University is up. Despite a freshmen enrollment freeze due to budget restraints, FGCU reports a startup student body for the fall term of 10,366 compared to 9,496 on the first day last fall. Plus, FGCU President Wilson Bradshaw looks forward with confidence to growing the student body at the same rate since 1997, to 15,000 within five years. (We trust the Florida Legislature is listening. That is going to mean living up to its funding commitment.)

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Florida law banning Cuba travel, research struck down, WFTV, Channel 9

August 29, 2008

MIAMI -- A federal judge has struck down the heart of a law that would have banned state universities from organizing academic research trips to Cuba, calling it unconstitutional.

The law officially targeted any terrorist state but mostly affected travel to the communist island, located just 90 miles from the tip of Florida. In a ruling Thursday, U.S. District Court Judge Patricia Seitz upheld one aspect of the law: state money can't be used for the travel. Yet nearly all trips relied on private grants and only used nominal state funding to administer the grants, which the judge ruled was allowed.

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Editorial: Florida officials playing Russian roulette with state's reserve, energy funds, Treasure Coast Palm

August 29, 2008

A revenue shortfall in the state budget — even as high as $1.8 billion — doesn’t constitute a true emergency in the Sunshine State.

Not to Floridians who’ve weathered vicious, costly hurricanes in recent years.

So why are Gov. Charlie Crist and state lawmakers preparing to invoke a new emergency funding law to cover the projected shortfall?

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Machen says UF needs more revenue in State of University address, Independent Florida Alligator

By Ileana Morales
August 29, 2008

UF President Bernie Machen said in his State of the University address Thursday that UF needs to focus on ways to build new revenue and preserve its resources — even after budget cuts.

At the first Faculty Senate meeting of the year, he told senators that UF’s Florida Tomorrow capital campaign and the Differential Tuition Program are generating millions of dollars for the university, but UF needs to also work on getting students to graduate faster as it receives more applications.

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Preparation pays, Fiscal foresight helps FSU, Tallahassee Democrat

August 29, 2008

Public universities and other state agencies are facing difficult financial struggles, and Florida State University is no exception.

But FSU, to its great credit, has cushioned the impact of budget cuts and actually managed to give raises to professors and staff by anticipating Florida's financial crisis and doing something about its impact on campus before the roof began to buckle.

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State economist says Florida facing more budget troubles, Daytona Beach News-Journal

By Jim Saunders
August 28, 2008


TALLAHASSEE -- Think Florida's budget is bad now?
You haven't seen anything yet.

A top state economist said Wednesday that Gov. Charlie Crist and lawmakers could have to plug a $3.5 billion budget hole next year as Florida's housing-driven economy continues to sputter.

That budget, which would take effect in July 2009, comes after lawmakers passed a spending plan this year that slashed $332 million from public schools and chopped funding for dozens of other programs.

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