Crist, with national media watching: No tuition hike

Gov. Charlie Crist had the Board of Governors and university presidents over to the mansion Wednesday night for a reception, and the mood was cordial on the surface but a bit tense underneath.

After all, they're facing $147-million in budget cuts -- and today will consider unprecedented enrollment cuts and other measures like widespread faculty layoffs.

So Crist, ever the host, mingled as university officials and BOG members sipped wine and soda and snacked on hors d'ouvres and brownies. Reporters from Time magazine and the Washington Post hung back, watching and taking notes.

Board chairwoman Carolyn Roberts gave Crist a BOG lapel pin and thanked him for his support. He stressed that the universities are crucial to the state of Florida's success, and he joked that somehow these people at his party changed his mind last go-around and got him to raise tuition.

But the laughter faded when he said that he doesn't want to see another hike this year. Bills are already mounting for families, he said, and he'd hate to make their lives even more difficult.

Comments

carolyn roberts is a joke. Thankfully, the governor is putting her in his place.

Of course people who work for the universities (faculty and staff) don't have bills to pay that's why they can be paid so poorly by the university!!!!

Obviously, people who work for the state don't have to pay for food, clothing, shelter, gas, health insurance, etc. - so that's why it is ok that they are the lowest paid in the nation.

But Charlie doesn't worry about the little people - he's never owned a house, he's never had a job where he had to pay health or dental insurance, and he lives in state housing where his food, entertainment, exercise equipment, transporation, security, are all paid for by the State or the Republican Party.

And, of course, the members in the Legislature got a 3% raise last year, a state paid vacation in Boston for a week (for they and their families), an extra $4,000 to come to Tallahassee to work????? for sixty days and almost twice the per diem at other times to come up to pretend to work during committee weeks so they can go to fund raisers???

Just how many bills have actually been heard this week in the committees? The real question is "how much money have they raised at the fund raisings?"

If Amendment 1 passes they won't do anything more because they think 66 cents a day is all we are worth.

If Amendment 1 doesn't pass, they don't plan on doing anything else because they think the voters don't care.

Kick these lazy bums out because they are too busy being greedy to actually work and too self-centered to care about the people they are supposed to work for!!!!!

Florida's public universities aren't the only Florida colleges upset with Crist.

Crist has Florida's private non-profit colleges and their students' families upset after proposing last week to stop Florida Resident Access Grants for next fall's incoming freshmen.

Crist's recommendation applies for 25 of 28 Florida private non-profit colleges. The grants would continue only for Florida's 3 black private colleges, Edward Waters, Bethune-Cookman, and Florida Memorial.

Good for the governor, but I still think he needs to boot KS from the BOG.

[A Blue Voter]

Please Republicans - enough is enough! Unless you are the CEO of a Fortune 500 company, your kids are going to have to grow up in the cesspool you are making of our state and our country. What's really worth more - the short lived power you may get from pandering to the corporations for campaign funds, or your family's future?

I heart 9:41pm

Read my lips: "No New Graduates!"

Hey, can we send all these Republicans to China and India so they can extend the benefits of their conservative outlook to their young people? I'm tired of hearing that their students are getting all the new jobs, and we need to level the playing field to make them just as ignorant as our own.

why were the times and washington post reporters there?

[UF Student]

Raise enrollment standards even more, that will cut out the bottom feeders that have no business going to a university, let them go to a JC or CC, because they will probably end up going there anyways.

glad to see UF student feels the "bottom feeders" deserve the same great education (particularly grammar) he is receiving at UF.

To relieve overcrowding in Florida universities, maybe Bright Futures merit scholarships should only be given to Florida students who enroll in colleges OUTSIDE Florida?

[Edmund Burke]

Let me understand this better. If a Florida resident student chooses to go to a private college, and by doing so saves the state a lot of money by eliminating most of the real cost of attending a public institution, then this student should get a $3000 tuition increase. But a student who goes to an already underfunded public institution and pays very little, if anything, for their education should not get any tuition increase. So for some families he doesn't mind increasing their bills exponentially while for others he worries about making their lives more difficult. Am I missing something here or is he missing something here? He vetoed a tuition increase last year that was one ninth of the one he proposes for students attending the private colleges, half being first generation in college and many of them from lower income families. None of this makes any sense. A "conservative" Governor proposing a continued free ride and crippling higher education in all sectors. Interesting.

Edmund...You bring up good points. The private colleges could even be thought of as a "twelth" state university, or even as "outsourced" education facilities that are tremendous assets for Florida higher education and communities throughout Florida. The private colleges save the state a lot of money.

The kicker in this proposal is that some of the private colleges with the worst graduation rates are exempted.

If graduation rates were a main criteria many state institutions would be in trouble. The focus should be on who is served, how it is done and how to identify best practices so that all improve. Low funding adds to fewer course sections which extends tiem to graduation. Reducing FRAG increases financial burdens and forces students to step out or go part time. It takes a long view to get things right but right now Florida is stuck in a very short term vision.

Yea, these "we'll run government like a business" members are running it like the businesses they BANKRUPT!!!!!!!!