From Central Fla. lawmakers: A tuition hike for UCF?

You knew this was coming.

Sen. Lee Constantine, UCF graduate, and Winter Garden Rep. Steve Precourt, have proposed a change to last year's "differential tuition" bill that would immediately benefit UCF, the mammoth university located in the lawmakers' Central Florida region.

The differential tuition bill as it stands allows UF, USF and FSU to charge between 30 and 40 percent above the base undergraduate, in-state tuition. It gives those institutions the privilege based on their state lead in the areas of research dollars, doctoral degrees awarded, graduation rates and other success factors.

Constantine and Precourt propose a tweak that extends the differential to any university that brings in $100-million or more a year in research dollars. Precourt just filed the companion to Constantine's Senate bill.

UCF, no coincidence, received a record $121.4 million in outside research funding in the 2006-07 budget year -- an 18 percent hike from the year before. The number will only grow as UCF's fledgling medical school gets going.

Comments

Well, the two of them can pat each other on the back over a beer celebrating there...wait, constantine can't afford a third DUI!

Cut taxes, don't raise them

I'm a Republican and I do not trust the Florida legislature with higher education spending.
-80 million dollars to U. of Miami, a private institution
-60 million dollars to Oregon Health & Science University.
-Meanwhile, state universities are having to cut their budgets which will likely result in layoffs. The justification for giving money to Oregon: more jobs (in Senate President Pruitt's district, but that is just coincidence of course)
-Florida is now paying for 3 new medical schools: FSU, UCF, FIU (an unprecedented occurrence for any state in the country). The justification for these new medical schools: "we need more doctors in Florida". Good point, but the glaring FACT is that studies show doctors typically don't practice in the state they went to medical school. Instead, they practice where they received their residency experience. Therefore, if you want more doctors in Florida, you should invest more in residency programs!

[Joseph]

UCF has a tiny endowment. Their Graduate Programs are horrible, and it would set a dangerous precident if we allow a Tier 4 (the lowest ranking) University to change the qualifications for Differential.

This an extremely brazen move, and it's being done because UCF can't play fair, so they feel the need to lower the qualifications.

--Truly Pathetic!

[Go UCF!]

Joseph - You truly have no clue. The qualifications are not lowered. The language already is at $100,000,000. The difference is that this legislation would remove the language requiring that an institution be a Carnegie Research Institution as of 2005. That means if you were not on that list then you are not eligible. That gives no incentive to Universities to improve and obtain the differential tuition ability. And 4th Tier??? UCF has an avg SAT of 1207 and GPA of 3.7. for incoming freshman, 2nd among Florida Universities for Bright Futures Scholarship recipients and 50th in the Nation for National Merit Scholars. That's not 4th tier my friend. I know this is a blog, but geez let's have intelligent discussions once and a while. Check these stats for the the current eligible schools and you will be surprised my friend!!!

Why can't the federal tax rebate just go straight to the universities?

[terminator]

I wonder how many cocktails the UCF lobbyists had to buy Senator Constantine to get this bill going?

"Is them blue lights in my rear-view mirror? Damn, I knew I should have taken a taxi"!

Senator Constantine has no power in the legislative process. The leaders there do not seem to have much confidence in him as evidenced by his lack of moving up the power ladder. Many with far less experience are the future leaders and they show no respect for him. I do not htink he can get much done.

that is a very old picture of Constantine.