Florida nursing schools cut budgets, Nurse.com

By Debra Anscome Wood
September 8, 2008

At the same time Florida faces a nursing shortage that could cripple the healthcare system in coming years, the flagging economy has resulted in decreased tax revenues, leading the state legislature to ask public universities to slash budgets. "It doesn't bode well," says Divina Grossman, RN, PhD, dean of the College of Nursing and Health Sciences at Florida International University in Miami. "This is a time when we should begin increasing our capacity."

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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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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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Florida's skinflint sheepskins, Palm Beach Post

August 10, 2008


Florida has taken pride in offering a college education at a bargain-basement price, but students are starting to get what their parents are paying for.

Consider this statistic:

If Florida's 11 public universities raised their lowest-in-the-nation tuition 1 percent statewide, it would bring in all of $4 million. This year and last year, the Legislature cut $200 million from the universities' budgets. So the colleges would have to raise tuition 50 percent just to make up what they lost.

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USF fundraising reaches record, Tampa Bay Business Journal

July 18, 2008

The University of South Florida's private fundraising totaled $81.3 million in gifts and commitments for the fiscal year ended June 30.

The amount represents a record for the university's annual charitable giving, a release said.

The USF Foundation credited the success to renewed efforts to share its accomplishments and opportunities for support, the impacts of scholarships and the outcomes of investments, according to the release.

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USF President Presides Over Growth Spurts, South Shore News and Tribune

By Joe O'Neill
July 15, 2008

Judy Genshaft, provost and vice president for academic affairs at the State University of New York at Albany, knew what she wanted when she applied for the presidency of the University of South Florida in 1999.

A major research university in an anti-ivory tower, urban environment. A place young enough — 40-something — to still be making its mark. A place where community synergy and economic partnership could be more than idealistic aspirations or trendy buzz words.

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Abandoning Eduation, Tampa Tribune

By Gregory McColm
July 13, 2008

With each announced departure of a high-profile Florida university professor for Texas, Wisconsin, Illinois, Louisiana, Virginia, Ohio, and so on, we can see the longstanding plans for a high-technology Interstate 4 corridor disintegrate at our feet.

Just a few years ago, we were going to enter the 21st century with a roar. We were going to attract top researchers while upgrading our higher educational system. We would train Florida kids to become the entrepreneurs in and employees for biotechnology, computers, modern materials, space, and other forward-looking industries lining up from St. Petersburg to Melbourne.

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USF St. Petersburg expects to retain accreditation, St. Petersburg Times

By Ron Matus
July 5, 2008

Imagine juggling eggs, on a unicycle, in the rain.

In the past few years, the University of South Florida St. Petersburg has been on that kind of impossibly wild ride.

Driven by political pressure and its own feisty ambition, the once-sleepy school that bridges downtown St. Petersburg and Tampa Bay has reinvented itself. Since 2001, when it set out to earn separate accreditation from the main campus in Tampa, USF St. Petersburg has hired scores of new faculty members, enrolled thousands of students and revamped its academic and administrative structures.

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Tuition break for grad students doesn't come at locals' expense, Tampa Tribune

July 1, 2008

It seemed a slight to Floridians when the University of South Florida trustees recently lowered tuition rates for out-of-state graduate students while increasing tuition for state students.

Moreover, the tuition increases came as USF tightened admissions on the undergraduate level in response to the state budget crisis.

But Florida residents should temper their anger.

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Florida A&M University's Probation Lifted, Black College Wire

By Josh King
June 27, 2008

Despite short notice, more than a 300 students, faculty and members of the community attended an afternoon press conference on the Florida A&M University campus June 26 to hear the much-anticipated good news.

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For a related story, see University of South Florida, St. Petersburg paced on accreditation probation

Search-and-rescue expert leaves USF, Tampa Tribune

By Adam Emerson
June 24, 2008

TAMPA - The University of South Florida is losing a high-profile faculty member to a Texas university that saw opportunity in Florida's economic misery.

Robin Murphy, whose search-and-rescue robots have scoured some of the nation's worst disaster sites including ground zero, is leaving USF in August for a job with Texas A&M University.

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As long as they don't cut football..., Tampa Times

By Howard Troxler
June 12, 2008

There was a little blip in the news the other day about the resignation of the dean of arts and sciences at the University of South Florida.

This news did not exactly set off shock waves across Tampa Bay. Maybe it would have been a bigger deal if Hulk Hogan's family were somehow involved.

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USF overhauls colleges to counter budget cuts, Tampa Tribune

By Adam Emerson
June 12, 2008

TAMPA - University of South Florida leaders have swept through their various colleges and reworked the way they will deliver a higher education to meet the grim budget realities they now face.

The biggest changes will hit the College of Arts and Sciences, USF's largest. Although the college gains some institutes that stood alone at the university, it will undergo an administrative overhaul and lose some disciplines to other colleges.

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USF Wait List Reaches Record Length, Tampa Tribune

By Adam Emerson
June 8, 2008

In its most competitive admissions season ever, the University of South Florida placed a record 1,300 prospective freshmen on a wait list for next fall.

Most don't have to wait anymore, however. The university recently denied admission to nearly two-thirds.

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For related articles, see FAU becomes a tougher college to get into

USF to cut 450 Jobs; Majors Safe in Budget, Tampa Tribune

By Adam Emerson
May 22, 2008

TAMPA - With a warning that class sizes will enlarge and course offerings will tighten, the University of South Florida announced plans Wednesday to cut $50.4 million by eliminating about 450 jobs.

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USF to trim 450 positions over budget cuts, St. Petersburg Times

By Shannon Colavecchio-Van Sickler
May 22, 2008

TAMPA — The University of South Florida will cope with a $35.6-million loss in state funding by eliminating 450 staff and nontenured faculty positions, scaling back campus maintenance and some student services, and shutting down many academic buildings at night, administrators announced Wednesday.

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USF Union Seeks Budget Cut Delay, Tampa Tribune

By Adam Emerson
May 20, 2008

TAMPA - As the University of South Florida prepares to announce its budget-cutting plan this week, its faculty union is saying, not so fast.

Over the weekend, union leaders sent an e-mail calling on the university administration to suspend any plans to reorganize USF's various academic departments so the faculty can discuss pending cuts further.

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