Board of Governors
State University System of Florida
News Clips of the State University System of Florida
March 4, 2008
Board of Governors
University governors under assault | tallahassee.com |
Tallahassee Democrat
03/04/2008 © Tallahassee Democrat
TALLAHASSEE -- The Board of Governors is under pressure not only to survive
a bleak financial forecast by the state, but also to defeat a bill that proposes to
overhaul the group and strip it of its powers.
“It’s going to be a grim year, to say the least,” said Chancellor Mark Rosenberg,
in a conference call with the governing board of the State University System
Tuesday morning.
A resolution sponsored by Sen. Lisa Carlton, R-Osprey, (SJR2308) proposes a
constitutional amendment to do away with the BOG.
“This is not what the voters wanted,” said Chairwoman Carolyn Roberts.
Carlton's resolution would establish again the Cabinet level position of
commissioner of education and undo the changes approved by voters when the
BOG was created.
Board members discussed lobbying legislators on the resolution and wanted to
slow the process down. Roberts said the Senate will discuss the issue Wednesday
afternoon and the House as soon as Friday. Roberts said she wants leadership in
the House and Senate to let the BOG “have input into this discussion and slow
the process to have this in the best interest of the people of Florida.”
Senator's proposal could overhaul Florida's education
leadership
03/04/2008 © Palm Beach Post
TALLAHASSEE — A proposal filed last week by a senior Senator could overhaul
the leadership of Florida's education system, eliminating much of the power
currently held by the Board of Governors and individual university boards of
trustees.
The joint resolution, filed by Sen. Lisa Carlton, R-Osprey, is scheduled to be
heard Wednesday by the Senate Education PreK-12 committee. It would give
most oversight authority to a new State Board of Education consisting of the
governor, the Cabinet, and a new elected Commissioner of Education.
The Board of Governors, which was created by voters in 2002 through
constitutional amendment, would be reduced from its current 14 members to five
members and would "administer the state university system as provided by law"
according to the proposal.
The Board of Governors and the legislature are at odds over university
management, including the question of who is in charge of setting tuition.
The board believes the constitution gives it tuition authority, while the
legislature maintains it is the right of lawmakers to decide on the cost of higher
education in Florida.
A lawsuit aims to end the tuition standoff, but there's no telling when it will be
concluded.
Because Carlton's proposal would require a change to the state constitution, it
would need a majority vote in the House and Senate before reaching the voters,
who would make the ultimate decision at the polls.
Higher education to be hit hardest by cuts
03/04/2008 © Tallahassee Democrat
Nearly 20-percent of the overall Legislative budget cuts will come from public
colleges and universities if the state House and Senate approve a proposed bill of
the higher education appropriations committee.
The committee Monday approved for the 2007-2008 budget cut
recommendations to be made into a bill.
If approved by the Legislature, $92.2 million could be trimmed from state
universities and colleges. However, the news that so much could be taken away
from state colleges didn’t sit well with committee members.
“Certainly we do not want to take an inordinate amount of the cut at a time
when we are urging more and more students should be in higher education,”
said committee chairwoman Sen. Evelyn Lynn, R—Ormond Beach.
But the outlook continues to look bleak, Lynn said.
“Each day the incomes of the state are going down,” she said. “When you look at
next year’s dollars and reductions you’re going to find that it’s not going to be a
higher-ed hit, it’s going to be an across the board — very difficult year.”
She asked each of the three other committee members in attendance to fight to
save as much of the higher education dollars as possible.
“It’s far easier to look in everyone’s eye and say everyone’s holding to the
burden,” said state Sen. Jim King, R-Jacksonville.
“I don’t think we’re going to get out of this budget crisis by cutting,” said Sen.
Jeremy Ring, D-Margate
Bright Futures program needs adjustment to improve
effectiveness of state university system
03/04/2008 © Ft. Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel
ISSUE: Bright Futures needs adjustment.
The Bright Futures Scholarship program is a success. It has drawn top-notch
students to the state university system, and it helps many families afford the cost
of sending their children to college.
However, the price tag on the program has ballooned from $70 million in 1997 to
$340 million for the 2006-2007 academic year. That's not a huge part of the state
budget, but the hidden damage comes in the toll it's taking on state university
financing. Dollars going to Bright Futures ultimately mean fewer dollars going to
universities for professors, classrooms and equipment — and a lower standard of
quality.
A strapped state budget and overwhelmed state university system now require
the following, modest adjustments to Bright Futures:
First, the criteria for a 75 percent scholarship must be increased. The current 3.0
grade point average should be raised to 3.25, and the needed SAT score ought to
be raised to 1,000, up from 970.
In addition, the tuition coverage for both the 75 percent and 100 percent
scholarships need to be lowered. The 75 percent scholarship should be reduced
to 50 percent and the 100 percent award to 75 percent. Another potential change,
one formerly proposed by state Sen. Jeremy Ring, D-Parkland, would provide
scholarship money to people studying math and the sciences.
Currently, none of these reforms has a shot at getting through the Legislature. So
what needs to happen? The stakeholders involved — universities, lawmakers,
student organizations and others — need to build a consensus for reform.
That consensus needs to focus on the benefits, that savings would be steered to
the university system to improve the quality of education. Florida is a state in the
globalization crossroad. We need a top-notch, highly-skilled workforce to
energize our economy.
The goals set for Bright Futures a decade ago have been met. Today's Florida has
different needs that can be partly met by adjusting Bright Futures.
BOTTOM LINE: Today's Florida presents a different challenge that necessitates
adjustments.
Senate president charts safe course for session
03/04/2008 © Miami Herald
TALLAHASSEE -- No ''major'' insurance revisions or tax-cut plans. Big budget
cuts. Money for the wrongfully incarcerated. More legislative control of state
universities.
Don't expect a whole lot more out of the Florida Legislature during the 60-day
lawmaking session that begins Tuesday.
Technically, the modest agenda is just Senate President Ken Pruitt's and not that
of the full Legislature. But as Pruitt goes, so goes the Senate. And as the Senate
goes, so goes the Florida Legislature.
Even last year, when Florida House Speaker Marco Rubio of West Miami set the
agenda, the final decisions were ultimately made by the upper chamber, which
has longer-serving members who have more political acumen, an institutional
spirit of bipartisanship and is allied with Gov. Charlie Crist more closely than the
House.
This year, talk of Rubio -- and therefore the House's agenda-setting prowess -was conspicuous in its absence.
Last year, Pruitt couldn't praise Rubio enough as a ''star'' and chief ''architect'' of
ideas that the ''master builders'' in the Senate would refine. But this year in a presession chat with reporters, Pruitt skipped any mention of Rubio, whose hardball
politics in pushing for steep and politically unfeasible property-tax cuts
estranged senators from both parties last year and during three tense special
lawmaking sessions.
`NO APPETITE'
Pruitt now wants to see the effects of two tax-cut measures -- one approved by
voters, the other by the Legislature and Gov. Charlie Crist -- before doing
anything more significant.
''I'll be clear with you: There will be no concerted effort from the leadership of
the Florida Senate to do anything more,'' said Pruitt, a Port St. Lucie Republican.
``I'm not going to stop anybody from filing a bill. But if we shared with them that
there would be no leadership assistance, hopefully they'll know there's no
appetite over here.''
Pruitt's change of tone is marked from a year ago, when he repeatedly refused to
''pre-judge'' almost any issue, saying everything deserved a fair hearing without
the presiding officer weighing in. Pruitt did weigh in last year to block
compensation for Alan Crotzer, who spent 24 years in prison for two rapes he
didn't commit.
Now, Pruitt has made Crotzer's compensation a top concern. Rounding out his
agenda: proposals to protect senior citizens, spend billions more on roads,
reauthorize an environmental land-buying program and invest in alternativeenergy production.
Pruitt is hesitant to do much more because the state's finances are in such
shambles. Legislators will need to cut this year's and next year's budgets during
this session, and focusing on divisive issues could sidetrack them. Pruitt says the
budget cuts won't be ''slash and burn'' but said some public employees should
brace for furloughs.
''I'd rather have them do that and keep their job and know that next year it's
going to get better,'' he said. ``But there's also public service. People that work for
government better have a public-service mentality.''
Because it's an election year, partisanship will color what relatively few policies
get passed this year. That's especially true in the bipartisan Senate now that
Republican Sen. Jeff Atwater of North Palm Beach, selected as next year's Senate
president, faces a potentially tough election in November against former
Democratic Tamarac Sen. Skip Campbell. Polls from both parties suggest the race
is a toss-up.
STORM INSURANCE
Atwater is leading a Senate committee that's investigating whether hurricane
insurers complied with the intent of a reform law passed last year that undid big
portions of an insurance-friendly bill he sponsored in 2006.
Pruitt said he expects Atwater's committee will ''refine'' and improve the
insurance reform of last year, ``but I don't see us doing anything major.''
Atwater's likely successor for Senate president, Sen. Mike Haridopolos, also faces
some political trouble over his $75,000-a-year lecturing job at the University of
Florida. Some UF staffers have questioned the motives of the hire -- especially as
the university's spending is reduced.
BIG FIGHT
But Haridopolos' UF job will be a sideshow to the real higher-education policy
battle: Pruitt's proposed constitutional amendment asking voters to clearly give
the Legislature the authority over university tuition rates.
The amendment would largely undo a 2002 constitutional amendment, pushed
by former U.S. Sen. Bob Graham, that created the Board of Governors over the 11
state universities. Graham and the board have sued the Legislature to stay out of
the university tuition business. The board's just-aborted decision to tinker with
the Bright Futures scholarship program further inflamed the bad relations with
the Legislature.
The amendment also would make the board smaller and make the education
commissioner a statewide elected position, which it was before 2002.
LEGACY
Despite -- or perhaps because of -- the fact that he never went to college, Pruitt
has made affordable higher education a legacy issue. And he has helped steer
hundreds of millions to top-notch research firms in an effort to help ''transform''
Florida's ''service-based economy'' to a ''knowledge-based'' one.
In that regard, Pruitt said the troubles with the economy are really growing
pains.
''The days of coming to Florida with $500 in your pocket and living in a mobile
home and living a life in paradise are over,'' he said. ``And that's probably not a
bad thing for Florida.''
Office of the Chancellor
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Florida A&M University
FAMU puts 14 projects on its wishlist for Legislature
03/04/2008 © Tallahassee Democrat
Florida A&M University has requested $23,740,945 from the state to pay for 14
projects. They include
• renovate University Commons ($2,960,430),
• construct Multi-Purpose Center teaching gym ($ 2,950,000),
• improve Utilities/Infrastructure/ Capital Renewal/Roofs ($7 million),
• construct Pharmacy building phase III ($2 million),
• hire faculty and staff and enhance student support in the College of Pharmacy
and Pharmaceutical Sciences ($998,269),
• match federal grant funding for food and agricultural sciences ($500,000),
• recruit and retain public safety officers ($433,246),
• upgrade Fiscal Affairs technology ($2,336,400),
• fund high school programs in Allied Health ($758,000),
• develop an online master’s in teaching degree ($200,000),
• hire more professors to teach underclassmen ($300,000),
• match federal funding for mentoring and tutoring at FAMU DRS ($94,500),
• expand pre-Engineering outreach programs ($500,000), and
• pay for faculty and technology in the School of Business & Industry
($1,146,500).
The Florida Legislature will convene March 4 for its 60-day Regular Session to
create the state’s 2008-2009 budget.
“It is hard to tell whether FAMU will get all requested monies for 2008-2009,”
said David Ash, legislative assistant to Sen. Al Lawson, D-Quincy. “Ideally, the
senators would like to see all of their projects funded. It’s just a matter of
whether (the state) has enough money to fund them.”
That’s not good news for FAMU because “everybody’s looking at a way to save
money and make cuts,” Ash said.
FAMU’s Director of Government Relations Tola Thompson, said he has high
hopes for the approval of the requests. “We understand fully the economic
challenges the state is currently faced with. However, we’re optimistic that
legislators will come to understand and value higher education as an economic
development tool,” Thompson said. “Points like these helps the state leaders
further understand the importance that FAMU adds to the state.”
Annette Jackson, legislative assistant to Lawson, said that no county or
institution is looked at on an individual basis when allocating funds. “The
budget is looked at as a whole. There is no standard, just a matter of priority and
funds available,” Jackson said.
Local legislators will try to protect state employees in lean
times
03/04/2008 © Tallahassee Democrat
Facing a lean revenue situation this year, Tallahassee-area legislators say they’ll
try this session to protect proposed raises for state workers and state funding for
rural counties.
Gov. Charlie Crist has proposed a 2 percent raise for state employees based on
performance. But the current budget faces a $2 billion shortfall and some
legislators say Crist’s revenue outlook for next year is too rosy.
State employees received a one-time bonus last year but no raise.
“There is a breaking point,” Rep. Loranne Ausley, D-Tallahassee, said. “I think
our state employees are way past that.”
The state university system also is facing tough times, and local college
presidents don’t want it to get worse this session.
Florida State University President T. K. Wetherell and Florida A&M University
President James Ammons told a local legislative delegation hearing that cuts are
affecting their schools Wetherell said FSU’s budget was cut by $30 million since
it was approved last year and the state university system lost about $200 million.
“I cannot tell you how devastating that is to the higher education system,”
Wetherell said.
The upcoming session, some legislators said, won’t be fun.
“It is a day-and-night situation when things are tight,” said Sen. Al Lawson, DTallahassee. “You have to be there all the time.”
Rep. Curtis Richardson, D-Tallahassee, said he’s concerned that rising tuition,
without increasing financial aid, is making higher education unaffordable for
students from middle- and lower-class families.
“If we don’t have a well-educated, well-trained workforce we’re not going to be
able to attract businesses to our state or train for those that are here,” Richardson
said. “We have to invest more in our system of higher education.”
Rep. Marti Coley, R-Marianna and chair of the House Committee on
Postsecondary Education, said legislators are working on innovative solutions
for all of higher education including universities, community colleges and
training centers.
“We are figuring it out right now,” she said. “We are having to try to look at new
ways of providing that training.”
Her district includes portions of Leon County.
Richardson and Rep. Will Kendrick, R-Carrabelle, said they’re also concerned
about ensuring that rural counties are not hurt by the Amendment 1 property tax
cut approved by voters on Jan. 29. Kendrick and Richardson said legislative
leaders promised that rural counties harmless.
“Otherwise I can foresee us putting 'closed’ signs on a lot of county offices,”
Kendrick said. “They are not going to have the manpower or ability to run
them.”
“I don’t know how they (leaders) are going to do it, but they made the promise,”
Richardson said.
Despite what Ausley calls a “very bleak” budget picture, local governments still
are asking for millions of dollars from the state on local projects, including roads,
parks and hospitals.
Lawson, whose district stretches from Madison County to Panama City, said he
has submitted $260 million in budget requests for the 11 counties he represents.
“I’m not optimistic about very many of the requests,” he said.
Sen. Charles Dean, R-Inverness, said he is introducing a bill to require zero-based
budgeting for all local and state governments that can impose a property tax.
“That way you know what the basic costs are and where the funding is coming
from,” Dean said. His district includes a portion of eastern Leon County.
Contact reporter Bruce Ritchie at (850) 599-2253 or britchietallahassee.com.
Florida Atlantic University
Boca Raton: Financial issues delay plans for replacement
hospital
03/04/2008 © Ft. Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel
Plans to build a medical center to replace Boca Raton Community Hospital have
become less definite as the hospital struggles with its finances.
Boca Raton Community recorded a $42 million operating loss last fiscal year,
though administrators pared it down to $28 million using investment income
from its foundation.
Hospital officials say they are committed to building a new medical center on 35
acres of nearby land at Florida Atlantic University. Medical students enrolled at
the University of Miami were to train at the new medical center.
Construction, though, has been postponed indefinitely. Administrators instead
are focusing on making the hospital profitable again.
South Florida legislative budget victories
03/04/2008 © Ft. Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel
Tight budgets dampened the impact of South Florida's prominent place in the
Legislature during the past two years. However, with leaders in both chambers
and on both sides of the aisle, Broward, Palm Beach and Miami-Dade counties
did reap some rewards, including:
$200 million for Everglades restoration
$49 million to clean up Lake Okeechobee
$90 million to lure the Max Planck international science institute to Palm Beach
County
$80 million for the Institute of Human Genomics at the University of Miami
$4.7 million to start a medical school at Florida Atlantic University
$6.8 million to restore the Lake Worth Lagoon and the Loxahatchee River, two
crucial parts of Palm Beach County's ecosystem
$1.5 million for a new water treatment plant to improve drinking water quality
in the impoverished Glades communities
Other projects intended to benefit South Florida were funded by the Legislature,
but vetoed by Gov. Charlie Crist. They included:
$17 million for new programs at Palm Beach Community College, which would
have included a new campus and a public safety training center
$5.9 million for a nursing lab at Broward Community College
$1.3 million for landscaping and improvements on Las Olas Boulevard
$1 million for storm water system improvements in Tamarac and Lauderdale
Lakes
$1.6 million for a new emergency operations center in Palm Beach Gardens
Florida Gulf Coast University
College classrooms sprout up
03/04/2008 © Ft. Myers News-Press
Area professors are edging closer to making house calls, setting up shop in
community centers, strip malls, neighborhood schools and even clubhouses in
gated communities.
Off-campus classes and outreach centers are becoming the norm for local
institutions, nearly bringing a college education to the doorsteps of students with
busy work schedules and families.
"It's so convenient getting to your classes," said 34-year-old Lizandra Perrone,
who resumed her college education after a decade-long break once Hodges
University opened its Immokalee center in January. "Literally, there is no excuse
anymore to not go to college."
U.S. colleges historically have focused recruitment efforts on 18-year-olds, but to
lure working adults like Perrone, professors must pack their briefcases and head
into the community. It's part of a new philosophy sweeping across academia,
whereby students - not administration - dictates when, where and what classes
are offered.
"We're past the point of elitism in higher education," said Rita Lampus, vice
president of student enrollment management at Hodges University. "We are
going to the students. The students don't have to come to us anymore."
Hodges has full-service campuses in Fort Myers and Naples, but also holds
classes in rented or leased space in New Port Richey, Brooksville, Sarasota, Punta
Gorda, Cape Coral, Immokalee and Key West. Because Hodges caters to working
adults and career-changers, Lampus said students gladly trade hour-long
commutes for the smaller setting.
Hodges isn't the only institution with offspring.
Edison College has main campuses in Punta Gorda, Fort Myers and Naples,
along with a small learning center in LaBelle, but dozens of laboratory classes
convene at hospitals and medical offices for hands-on, real-life instruction.
Edison instructors also have been invited into gated communities, and
Sony and Chico's corporate offices, to teach courses.
Bob Jones, Edison's Lee County campus president, said the college will teach a
class anywhere, provided it attracts 12 to 15 tuition-paying students to make it
financially feasible.
Students pay the same per-credit-hour tuition if a class is held on campus, at a
community site or online. That revenue helps pay rent or leases at off-campus
sites just as it would finance the upkeep of classrooms on campus. Colleges
actually could emerge ahead financially because leasing space alleviates the need
to construct costly facilities on campus while still allowing enrollment growth.
Edison is developing plans to create full academic programs at High Tech
Center-North in Cape Coral, a city pushing for a college to call its own.
"We've really been thinking about residents in the city of Cape Coral and their
needs," Jones said about Edison's quest to cover Lee County. "That leaves us with
what we might be able to do in Bonita.
"A lot happens on this 142-acre campus, but a lot happens elsewhere."
Florida Gulf Coast University has offered classes in elementary and high schools,
the Lee County Sheriff's Office and even a retirement home and hospice.
FGCU's executive master's in business administration program is held offcampus, in the college's Center for Leadership and Innovation near Gateway.
Executive MBA candidates must have at least five years of management
experience, and most work 40-plus hours a week in addition to their studies.
"If they want to see someone, they don't want to hunt for a parking space," David
Kakkuri, director of the Center for Leadership and Innovation, said about the
convenience of off-campus learning.
Joining the trend next fall will be Southwest Florida College, which is negotiating
a lease for classroom space in south Lee to host its interior design major, not far
from the International Design Center on Corkscrew Road. The college could add
additional programs based on the facility's size and south Lee's particular
academic needs.
"Students don't want to travel very far for class," said Steve Calabro, executive
vice president at Southwest Florida College. "To survive, colleges must do what
the market dictates."
Part of that market is online classes. Southwest Florida College, Hodges and
FGCU allow students to complete a degree without ever setting foot on campus,
and Edison will launch its first online degree in August.
Despite the growth of online classes and neighborhood outreach centers, few
educators believe traditional campuses will transform into ghost towns.
"There is definitely a need for brick and mortar campuses," Lampus said. "It
brings a feeling of tangibility and ownership to the local students."
Florida International University
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Florida State University
Florida grants to pay for teacher math, science training
03/04/2008 © Bradenton Herald
The international math and science scores that show how students in the U.S. are
lagging behind some of their peers in other countries are not falling on deaf ears.
As a Standford University study published recently detailed how the trailing
scores may affect the county's future economy, the U.S. Department of
Education's Mathematics and Science Partnership program awarded Florida
grants totalling $22 million over the next three years to pay for teacher training
on the state's newly adopted math and science standards.
Concern over money came up after the state board of education approved the
new, and some say more rigorous, science standards last month.
With the state anticipating a tough budget year, many questioned how the state
will find money to train eligible teachers to incorporate the latest knowledge,
concepts and techniques in classrooms, according to the Florida Department of
Education news release.
The grant was issued to The Partnership to Rejuvenate & Optimize Mathematics
and Science Education, a partnership between the University of South Florida,
the University of Florida and Florida State University.
Florida PROMiSE will be funded over a three-year period with $5.9 million
expected to be awarded this year, $8 million in the second year and another $8
million in the third, according to the release. The grant will also help revise
college and university-based teacher education programs.
State education officials hope the grant will boost the growth of biotechnical,
aerospace and alternative energy industries in Florida.
"These funds give our teachers the training they need to prepare our students to
pursue education and careers in these areas," said Florida Education
Commissioner Eric J. Smith.
National experts say schooling that boosts cognitive skills, that can be measured
by student performances on math and science tests, crucial to the future of the
country.
New College of Florida
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University of Central Florida
Police: UCF Voyeur Videos Not Illegal
03/04/2008 © Orlando-WESH (NBC)
Police cannot arrest or reprimand the person who has been posting videos of
women on the University of Central Florida campus without their knowledge.
The videos, discovered last week, are not illegal, police said.
More than 100 videos were posted on the Internet showing the backsides of
women around campus. The UCF Police Department said there is nothing they
can do about it.
It is not illegal to videotape someone without their consent, and none of the
videos shot up the skirts of the women, police said.
All of the videos have been removed from the Internet.
University of Florida
Juicy gossip site hits campus
03/04/2008 © Gainesville Sun
Most times, gossip can be traced back to the person who started the rumor.
Continue to 2nd paragraph This isn't the case on Juicycampus.com, a Web site
that boasts the slogan: "Always anonymous... Always juicy."
The site offers the ability to anonymously post messages pertaining to
universities across the nation.
Sixty campuses have pages on the Web site, which was created seven months
ago. Students can also request their university be added.
As of Monday night, the UF page had 105 posts, with topics including top
fraternities, girls who gained the "freshman 15" and even nasty gossip about
specific people.
Ankita Rao, a 20-year-old journalism major at UF, appreciates that the Web site
offers an open dialogue and free speech to everyone who is a university student.
But at the same time, she expresses concern about the discussion topics.
"I don't think all the subjects covered are what students should be spending their
time on," she said. "I don't support what most of the people are saying, and I
think that a lot of it is an invasion of privacy."
The Web site allows users to search posts under the latest post, the latest reply,
the most discussed, the most viewed and the "juiciest," which is decided by
readers' votes.
Posts talk about the sexuality of named persons, the hottest freshmen and
salacious tips on how to receive a passing grade from certain professors (and it
isn't by studying).
"I definitely think that some of the things that are said on there are enough to
ruin someone's entire morale and obliterate their self-esteem," Rao said.
The Web site's privacy policy states that it does not collect information from
users and that it's impossible for anyone to find out who you are or your
location.
Nathaniel Brown, a 20-year-old public relations student at UF, posted gossip on
the Web site once and said it can be fun if you don't take it too seriously.
"In the end, I think you just have to look at how credible the site is," he said. "If I
read something on PerezHilton.com, I don't immediately think it's true because a
lot of it is completely ridiculous."
One step closer to the top
03/04/2008 © St. Petersburg Times
PALM HARBOR - When Kevin Reilly was still a toddler, neighbors and family
friends called him "the Little Mayor."
"At 2, he would walk into a room and say, 'Hi, I'm Kevin,' and shake their
hands," said his mom, Felicia Reilly of Palm Harbor. "And he didn't even know
who they were."
Kevin is 21 now, but he remains on the path he set so early.
Early Thursday, the college senior was elected student body president at the
University of Florida.
That's noteworthy, but consider this: Kevin is the second member of Palm
Harbor University High School's Class of 2004 to become student body president
at one of Florida's best-known universities.
His former classmate, Joe O'Shea of Dunedin, is currently the student body
president at rival Florida State University. While at Palm Harbor University
High School, Joe was president of the senior class and Kevin was vice president.
"He's always been extremely outgoing, very confident in himself, very positive,"
Felicia Reilly said of her son, the oldest of three children.
And along the way, she said, Kevin had some great influences - namely his
father, also named Kevin Reilly.
"He always says, 'It's not what happens to you, it's how you react to what
happens to you,'" she said.
Kevin was unusual, his mother said, because he knew what he wanted so young.
"He went after it and he got it," she said.
And what does he want?
"Politics," she said. "He loves politics."
***
Another of Kevin's influences was Susan Englert of Clearwater, his teacher in the
eighth grade gifted class at Palm Harbor Middle School.
Kevin was a new student and Englert was in the school library when he strolled
in, she said Monday.
"He had such confidence about him," she said. "You don't see that in a new kid in
class - ever."
Kevin has kept in touch, and Englert brought the university's newspaper, the
Independent Florida Alligator, in to show her students the story about his
victory.
"This is one of your role models," she told them. "I want you to have a
remarkable life, too."
***
With his son's election, "he's got a bigger office than me, and I've been in the
corporate world 25 years," the elder Kevin Reilly said Monday.
Reilly, who went to Gainesville with his wife for election night, recalled hearing
hundreds chant, "Reilly! Reilly! Reilly!"
"It's not easy raising children," he said. "It's moments like that that make it all
worth it."
Pinellas County and its public schools gave Kevin lots of opportunities, he said,
and now two of the county's graduates have been elected to prominent
leadership positions at their universities.
"That's a great accomplishment for Pinellas County schools," said Reilly, who
works as an operations manager for the JP Morgan Chase financial services firm.
He said Kevin had internships with County Commissioner Calvin Harris and
with U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla.
"He's his father's son," the elder Reilly said, "a lot of positive energy."
When things go wrong, learn from it and move on, he always advised his son.
And other lesson: "When you win, be humble."
***
So it must be exciting to be elected student body president of 50,000-plus
students, presiding over an annual student government budget of $13.3-million?
"It's a very humbling experience to know that your peers selected you to be their
voice and to work for them," Kevin said.
And what does he plan to do?
The biggest issue in his Gator party platform is transportation, not only for the
school but for the city of Gainesville. He wants to make sure that alternate
transportation is readily available, particularly at night when some might be
drinking.
"Making sure students have safe alternatives," he said.
Kevin plans to go on to graduate school at UF next year to pursue a master's of
science in management in the school of business. That's after he graduates with a
political science degree this term.
Political science is about helping people, he said.
"It's all about making the world a better place," he said. "The work you do really
does affect the lives of people, and that's what's always interested me about it."
Graham Center opens its doors
03/04/2008 © Gainesville Sun
The University of Florida will look a bit like Capitol Hill this week, and leaders
of the new Graham Center for Public Service would like to keep it that way for
years to come.
Continue to 2nd paragraph The official opening of the Graham Center, which
began Monday and will carry through Thursday, features appearances by
senators, governors and policy makers. It's the sort of elite company that Sen.
Bob Graham, for whom the center is named, would like to see coming to UF for
lectures, seminars and the occasional teaching gig.
"I think we can really provide the university community a very important group
of people and the chance for them to become aware of the University of Florida,"
Graham said. "And the audience (can) learn something from people who've had
a lot of experience and smarts."
Years in the making, the Graham Center has the opportunity to thrust UF into a
new league among heavy-hitting universities known for churning out
tomorrow's leaders, according to organizers. The center aims to educate UF
students about public service, while also giving them an insider's view of
hardball politics through the eyes of battle-tested political leaders visiting
campus.
This week, the center will welcome Sens. Chuck Hagel, R-Nebraska, and Jay
Rockefeller, D-W.Va., to discuss the challenges that await the nation's next
president. In the months to come, Howard Dean, the Democratic National
Committee chairman, and Madeleine Albright, the first female secretary of state,
will visit the campus as well.
Graham says he hopes the center will prove a stimulus for civics education in the
state, sparking the interests of young people to get off the sidelines and enter
public life.
"What little civics is being taught is teaching people to be spectators - to watch
democracy - but not giving them the skills to participate in democracy," he said.
UF is increasingly regarded as one of the nation's best public universities, but the
Graham Center will have the power to raise the university's profile to a different
level nationally and internationally, according to Walter Rosenbaum, the center's
interim director. The center is modeled in many ways after the John F. Kennedy
School of Government at Harvard University, whose faculty consists of known
political figures like David Gergen. Gergen, who served as White House adviser
to four different presidents, is frequently interviewed on national television in
front of the Kennedy School logo. That's the kind of invaluable media attention
that sets a university apart from its peers, and it's what's coming to UF once the
Graham Center gets in full swing, Rosenbaum said.
"It simply puts us in a national league of leading universities that we did not
belong to before," he said.
While the center celebrates the opportunity to bring politicians to campus, its
first experiment in doing so got off to a bumpy start. Some faculty have balked
about Sen. Mike Haridopolos, the Republican majority whip, being hired as a
lecturer with appointments both at the center and the department of political
science.
Some faculty members were uneasy about the hire because the faculty wasn't
consulted. And Stephen Craig, chairman of the department of political science,
said he didn't have any say about whether Haridopolos should be hired and that
his dean presented the move as a "fait accompli."
Hirings made purely by the center, and not spread across academic departments,
won't likely have the same potential for controversy as the Haridopolos hire has
had, Rosenbaum said. That will particularly be the case once the center raises
enough money to hire without state dollars, which is one of the center's stated
goals, he added.
"Whereas Sen. Haridopolos is a public figure of importance who deals with
issues we're concerned about, his participation in our program do not raise the
same questions or problems that might surface in a regular political science
department," Rosenbaum said. "We're very comfortable with it."
In addition to bringing speakers and new faculty, the Graham Center is offering
a certificate of public service to students in any major who take several courses
under the "public service" umbrella. A political science course in ethics, for
instance, is one of the possible courses students can take toward the certificate.
Eventually, UF aims to offer bachelor's and master's degrees in public service.
Students who attained those degrees might go on to careers in politics or public
policy, Rosenbaum said.
"We hope to have students who never thought they were going to be interested
in public service who will sort of catch the contagion as a result of being exposed
to those courses," he said.
UF crew works to raise money
03/04/2008 © Gainesville Sun
They wear University of Florida jerseys, practice for more than 10 hours a week
and compete against other universities across the nation, but there are no booster
clubs, alumni seating or championship rings.
The UF crew team is one of the 40 sport clubs that are underfunded and
underpublicized.
Florida crew is an intercollegiate sport under UF's recreational sports program.
The team competes against other NCAA sanctioned schools across the nation.
Recreational sports receive about $3 million in funding from Student
Government annually. The sports council divvies up the funding among sport
clubs, facilities and sports programs, leaving the crew team with about $15,000.
Adam Kallin, a senior finance major, is the president of the crew team. He has
been an active member of the team for four years and has seen firsthand the
struggles of participating in a sport that receives little funding.
Kallin said crew is a very expensive sport, with one boat costing more than
$35,000.
Although the university covers most of the administration and startup fees, the
team pays for all uniforms, equipment and travel expenses.
"All of our equipment is inferior to other schools'," Kallin said. "We used to do
car washes, but we had to stop due to the legislation on panhandling."
Kallin said the team received more money from wearing its jerseys on the street
than from actually washing cars.
"We started an alumni letter-writing campaign as an attempt to raise funds," he
said.
Last year, the team organized a family and alumni weekend, which became the
team's biggest and most profitable fundraiser. Kallin said the team received
about $8,000 over the weekend.
The team hosted its second family and alumni weekend Feb. 15 to Feb. 17. Events
included a silent auction, rowing tutorials, kickball games, barbecues and
banquets, and it raised about $7,500 in donations.
Emily Congdon, a sophomore political science major, has been a member of the
team for two years and coordinated this year's family and alumni weekend. She
began rowing as a freshman when she was introduced to the sport by a friend.
Congdon said all of her friends are on the team.
"It's kind of like our own sorority or fraternity," she said. "You get a sense of
becoming like one person."
Congdon said the team's ultimate goal is to raise enough funds to build a
boathouse. The current boathouse, which students built 15 to 20 years ago, is
located near Newnan's Lake on property owned by Tacachale, a community
dedicated to the development of the disabled in Florida.
Congdon said Tacachale submitted a notice to the crew team about two years
ago stating that if it did not bring the boathouse up to Alachua County codes, it
would be evicted from the property.
"The boathouse is the equivalent of a tin shack," she said. "Arguably, some of our
team members put more time and have more dedication than some of the
football players. At the least we should have our travel expenses covered."
They wear University of Florida jerseys, practice for more than 10 hours a week
and compete against other universities across the nation, but there are no booster
clubs, alumni seating or championship rings.
The UF crew team is one of the 40 sport clubs that are underfunded and
underpublicized.
Florida crew is an intercollegiate sport under UF's recreational sports program.
The team competes against other NCAA sanctioned schools across the nation.
Recreational sports receive about $3 million in funding from Student
Government annually. The sports council divvies up the funding among sport
clubs, facilities and sports programs, leaving the crew team with about $15,000.
Adam Kallin, a senior finance major, is the president of the crew team. He has
been an active member of the team for four years and has seen firsthand the
struggles of participating in a sport that receives little funding.
Kallin said crew is a very expensive sport, with one boat costing more than
$35,000.
Although the university covers most of the administration and startup fees, the
team pays for all uniforms, equipment and travel expenses.
"All of our equipment is inferior to other schools'," Kallin said. "We used to do
car washes, but we had to stop due to the legislation on panhandling."
Kallin said the team received more money from wearing its jerseys on the street
than from actually washing cars.
"We started an alumni letter-writing campaign as an attempt to raise funds," he
said.
Last year, the team organized a family and alumni weekend, which became the
team's biggest and most profitable fundraiser. Kallin said the team received
about $8,000 over the weekend.
The team hosted its second family and alumni weekend Feb. 15 to Feb. 17. Events
included a silent auction, rowing tutorials, kickball games, barbecues and
banquets, and it raised about $7,500 in donations.
Emily Congdon, a sophomore political science major, has been a member of the
team for two years and coordinated this year's family and alumni weekend. She
began rowing as a freshman when she was introduced to the sport by a friend.
Congdon said all of her friends are on the team.
"It's kind of like our own sorority or fraternity," she said. "You get a sense of
becoming like one person."
Congdon said the team's ultimate goal is to raise enough funds to build a
boathouse. The current boathouse, which students built 15 to 20 years ago, is
located near Newnan's Lake on property owned by Tacachale, a community
dedicated to the development of the disabled in Florida.
Congdon said Tacachale submitted a notice to the crew team about two years
ago stating that if it did not bring the boathouse up to Alachua County codes, it
would be evicted from the property.
"The boathouse is the equivalent of a tin shack," she said. "Arguably, some of our
team members put more time and have more dedication than some of the
football players. At the least we should have our travel expenses covered."
University of North Florida
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University of South Florida
USF budget panel falls short of goal
03/04/2008 © St. Petersburg Times
TAMPA - In August, a committee of faculty members, staffers and students at
the University of South Florida was asked to recommend $12-million in budget
cuts in anticipation of a massive money crunch expected to befall the state's
universities.
The Budget Priorities Advisory Task Force released its report Monday. It was
only able to shave off about half that amount.
The committee suggested restructuring some departments, eliminating others
and urging centers and institutes to move toward self-sufficiency.
The process, they said, was neither perfect nor easy.
"We underestimated the difficulty of coming up with $12-million in budget cuts,"
said Dale Johnson, a committee co-chairman.
The committee based recommendations on narratives by the chairmen of each
department, budget office information and office of decision support data.
Members ranked each department in centrality, quality, demand and viability.
They also determined the budgetary impact of the recommendations.
It is difficult to put a price on every aspect of academia, said John Ward, also a
committee co-chairman. "We attempted to do as good a job as we could," he said.
The report is being considered as the university readies for a $34-million
reduction to the academic affairs budget, said senior vice provost Dwayne Smith.
USF Faculty Group Picks Science As Budget Priority
03/04/2008 © Tampa Bay Online
TAMPA - A University of South Florida faculty group charged with weighing
how to cut millions from the school's budget opened wounds among its
colleagues Monday by sharing what it thinks is, and isn't, important.
With the university poised to cut $55 million from its budget, the group
suggested redirecting the money USF has left to support its ambitious goals:
shore up schools in engineering, education and business, and cut from programs
in the humanities and liberal arts, such as dance, women's studies and
geography.
Ultimately, the university provost decides what money to cut, and his decision
will lead to faculty layoffs and larger classes.
Never before has a USF executive relied so much on the view of the university's
teachers and researchers before considering cuts.
The faculty's suggestions don't come close to closing the anticipated budget
shortfall, which may require USF to cut $34 million from its academic affairs
operations alone. USF Senior Vice Provost Dwayne Smith says its report serves
more as a guide, offering up examples of which programs are productive, and
which are not.
"Those who don't fare well are, and will be, unhappy," Smith said.
Kim Vaz, chairwoman of USF's women's studies program, is not happy. The
faculty's report singles out women's studies and African studies as departments
that "appear reasonable places to absorb some of these cuts."
The group suggested eliminating the majors in both departments, although
Smith said the provost will not cut majors in any subject.
Next year, the number of women's studies faculty will drop to four, down from
eight about four years ago.
"We don't have a level playing field," she said.
Sociology Program Questioned
Other liberal arts programs didn't fare much better, according to the faculty
committee's report.
Some recommended cutting the number of faculty in geography, noting that
those with tenure spent little time teaching.
Other committee members noted that a "larger than average cut" was in order for
the dance program.
Faculty members questioned the need for a proposed Ph.D. program in
sociology.
Some suggested that campus institutes and research centers consolidate and rely
more on grants and private money, giving up their state appropriation.
The group set out on its mission last fall to find ways to cut $12 million from
USF's budget, which was the anticipated shortfall then. State tax revenue was
down, and economists projected that it would drop further.
It did. Lawmakers now are weighing how to close a budget shortfall expected to
top $2.5 billion this year and next. Universities have said they will admit fewer
students as they prepare to eliminate faculty jobs.
Although the budget picture will be clearer in April, USF now is making plans to
cut $55 million.
The faculty committee's recommendations would save only about $6 million,
Smith said.
The group's leaders, professors Dale Johnson and John Ward, wrote that "we
entered into this project with the understanding that it was not a perfect process,
and the results of our work would not provide all the answers necessary to make
the difficult decisions required."
Where The Money Can Go
The committee not only recommended cuts, but suggested enhancing programs
more in line with the university's strategic goals.
Last year, the university unveiled its five-year plan, which highlighted USF's
goal in joining the nation's academic elite. To help meet that goal, the university
sought to recruit more faculty able to nab millions in research dollars in the
sciences and engineering.
In accord with those goals, the faculty committee recommended boosting the
brain power and funding in civil and mechanical engineering, childhood and
special education, accounting and mass communications, among other fields.
The suggestions go on to the college deans and university vice presidents to
consider. Provost Ralph Wilcox then will make the decision on what to cut.
Smith said there is an "absolute commitment" to protect the jobs of tenured
faculty members, and those on track for tenure. That leaves adjunct and visiting
faculty open to job cuts.
That also means larger classes. In Florida, public university student-to-faculty
ratios are the highest of any state.
Dance minor Kathryn Rieker, 19, not only is worried that her class sizes will
increase, but also that budget cuts to her program will only limit the number of
courses.
"If they cut, there would be very few courses you can take," Rieker said
University of West Florida
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State Higher Education Issues
H
SFCC touts emergency system test
03/04/2008 © Gainesville Sun
Santa Fe Community College conducted its first test of an emergency system to
directly notify the entire student body of events on campus.
Continue to 2nd paragraph About 15,000 e-mails were sent out Wednesday to
the e-mail addresses distributed to students at no charge when they enrolled at
SFCC. Presidential assistant Larry Keen said the test was successful because only
a few e-mails bounced back - indicating a specific e-mail had been taken out of
service - and the anecdotal feedback was positive.
"This is something we will be testing again in the near future, and we expect
similar results," Keen said.
SFCC has been working to improve its ability to communicate directly with
students since a February incident when a student allegedly carried a gun onto
campus. At the time, there was no system in place for officials to directly
communicate with students.
Back on the job
A Shands doctor who had been suspended from seeing patients following his
arrest last year has been allowed to resume his clinical duties, according to a
university official.
Dr. Bruce Goldfeder, 48, was arrested in November on charges including felony
battery, kidnapping and possession of drugs following an incident involving a
former girlfriend.
The criminal case against Goldfeder is still pending in the court system, but Kyle
Cavanaugh, senior vice president for administration at the University of Florida,
said UF finished its internal and external investigations recently.
"Those have been brought to a close and we felt comfortable with reinstating all
his responsibilities," Cavanaugh said Monday.
Price check
Dave Denslow has been doing some snooping on his students.
Speaking to the University of Florida's board of trustees last week, Denslow
revealed that he recently looked up the home values of some 700 students
enrolled in his economics class. Denslow, an economics professor and avid
supporter of tuition increases at UF, said he wanted to get a sense of how well off
his students' families really are.
"In the course I have right now, the most expensive (home) is $15 million,"
Denslow said.
About 8 percent of the students' parents homes were worth $1 million or more,
and the median was around $380,000, Denslow said.
Denslow looked up the students by their identification number - not their names
- because he said he did not want to know which students had the most or least
expensive homes.
"As I keep pushing for increases in tuition, that just set me to wondering," said
Denslow, who didn't tell his students he was looking them up. "There are some
students for whom an increase would be painful, and others that it clearly would
not be."
Our view: Budget battle ahead
03/04/2008 © Florida Today
Call him the gambler-in-chief.
In his State of the State address tonight, Gov. Charlie Crist will try to rally public
support for a $70 billion spending plan that's propped up by expanded gambling
revenues, and that would dig deeply into reserves and raid trust funds to cover
shortfalls.
That's a risky strategy, and there's wide disagreement between Crist and many
legislators on how the state should navigate a treacherous budget climate forcing
reductions of at least $2 billion for the next fiscal year.
Here's what shouldn't get lost in the showdown:
Lawmakers must find responsible ways to speed the end of the economic slump,
while protecting priorities such as education, health care, courts and public
safety from crippling cuts.
That means rooting out waste and inefficiencies in state agencies, expanding the
tax base by closing loopholes for special interests, and investing in Florida's
universities to help build the competitive workforce Florida needs to compete for
jobs and industries.
It doesn't mean more hasty tax cut schemes that drain dollars from schools,
localities and law enforcement agencies.
Or dumping all the pain of the slowdown on the backs of Florida's poor, disabled
or low-income elderly -- too often Tallahassee's default mode answer when
tough budget calls must be made.
Committees OK $358 million in education spending cuts
03/04/2008 © Palm Beach Post
TALLAHASSEE — Lawmakers set the stage Monday for a possible showdown
with Gov. Charlie Crist over education spending as House and Senate
committees approved $358 million in budget cuts for public schools and
universities.
The latest cuts, which must take effect before July 1, promise to be just a preview
of what could be a punishing year for public education.
House Schools Council Chairman Joe Pickens said if not for a state constitutional
amendment that requires smaller class sizes, most districts would face teacher
layoffs next year because of the continuing revenue shortfall.
Some school advocates believe those layoffs will happen despite the class-size
amendment.
Local school districts aren't saying anything about layoffs, but they say they have
ideas to save money.
The education cuts were included in a total reduction package of $542 million
that was approved by House and Senate committees on Monday. The reductions,
which would be on top of about $1'billion in cuts this fall, will be considered next
by the entire chambers.
The education cuts mean public schools will spend about 4.5 percent more on
students than they did in 2006. Lawmakers approved an increase of 6.7 percent
last year, but have reduced it twice because of the slumping economy.
Gov. Charlie Crist has asked lawmakers to reconsider hits to schools.
Last week, he said the cuts were "unfortunate" and told lawmakers they should
"go back to the drawing board" and "try harder."
Lawmakers did not seem fazed Monday as they approved the education cuts
with little debate. A partisan vote in the House was due mostly to Democrats'
objections to criminal justice cuts.
House and Senate budget writers have kept a tight lid on reserves, saying the
state's $6 billion "rainy day fund" could be needed for the hurricane season.
Crist, who promised the property tax cuts in Amendment 1 would not jeopardize
education spending, could address the topic in his State of the State speech
tonight. Crist's tough stance last week could have been a warning shot for the
fight over next year's budget, when per-student funding could drop for the first
time since 1991.
The revenue shortfall next year is expected to climb to $2.5 billion, which could
cost Palm Beach County schools $50 million. The county lost $10 million to
budget cuts in October.
If current budget cuts are approved, with a final vote expected next week, the
Palm Beach County School District is expected to chop $14.9 million from its
current $1.24 billion budget.
St. Lucie needs to cut $3.3'million and Martin County $1.6 million.
Districts are expected to make up for the cuts this year by freezing non-teaching
positions and limiting travel.
Palm Beach County Schools Superintendent Art Johnson has refused to discuss
specific cuts. He said he didn't want to upset staff so close to administration of
the next round of FCAT.
Jim Warford, executive director of the Florida Association of School
Administrators, said many districts won't be able to escape layoffs.
School districts tie up most of their budget with salaries and benefits, making
cuts particularly difficult. About 80 percent of Palm Beach County's budget is in
people.
The district has a $39.4'million contingency reserve the school board could dip
into instead of cutting jobs or taking other painful measures.
St. Lucie County school officials began cost-cutting measures last week in
anticipation of the midyear cuts. They froze all vacant positions, about 150 total,
stopped washing school buses and delayed some construction projects, including
a new K-8 school and a bus compound, said Tim Bargeron, the district's chief
financial officer.
They may also limit travel, raise temperatures in the schools and change start
times to reduce the number of buses needed, he said.
St. Lucie officials estimate their cut will be about $2.6'million.
In Martin County, school officials plan to stop "nonessential" travel and not fill
vacant non-instructional positions. They also are seeking ways to reduce energy
costs.
But education lobbyists in the Capitol kept their complaints to a minimum on
Monday, saving their breath for the next budget.
Warford sent a bulletin to 7,000 school administrators across the state, warning
them of the ugly direction revenues were going. He says he expects to see fewer
sports programs and electives.
Warford joked that he has been watching reruns of the HBO's Six Feet Under, a
show about a family-owned funeral parlor, to cheer himself up.
"We're talking now about moving backward in funding," he said. "We're talking
about going in the wrong direction."
Tampa Has Right Stuff For Globalization
03/04/2008 © Tampa Tribune
Tampa is better positioned than most U.S. cities to take advantage of the
substantial opportunities that globalization affords savvy businesses. But in
order to compete on the world stage in the future, local companies must evolve
the way they approach their operations at home and overseas.
The city is already a key player in international trade, with a seaport that handles
50 million tons of cargo annually, an international airport, a solid economic base
and a diverse, well-educated workforce (many of them - like myself - transplants
from chillier climates).
But the way that corporations conduct worldwide business is changing
fundamentally. Like companies everywhere, local firms that embrace the change
will find the path to prosperity much easier.
The most forward-thinking businesses are moving away from the old model that
defined corporations for decades - when expanding into a foreign market meant,
in effect, building an entire company there, with its own headquarters
operations, production capabilities, back office functions, and so on.
In recent years, the reduction in trade barriers combined with an explosion in
global connectedness has given rise to a more fully-integrated business model.
This "globally integrated enterprise" doesn't replicate copies of itself around the
world, it performs work where it makes sense. Product design might occur in
one nation, production in another, accounting and human resources in a third.
This new way of doing things is more cost effective because it eliminates
redundancies, allowing more capital to be invested in things like research and
development. It also magnifies opportunities locally for those who have the right
skills.
What does Tampa have to offer a globally-integrated world? A whole lot, it turns
out. The city is a hub of financial and technology services - which is exactly the
kind of expertise that thrives in a globalized environment. Customers in other
nations are willing to pay a premium for these services.
Just as important is Tampa's admirable culture of entrepreneurship. In years
past, startups eager to move into foreign markets had to compete with
established players by creating big overseas entities that mirrored headquarters.
It represented a tremendous barrier to entry if you had to, say, piece together
separate back office operations in every country you wanted to do business in.
Now, smaller companies can quickly and easily move across borders,
challenging entrenched competitors. It really is a new world. Companies are
ready to make the change. I used to hear businesspeople around town ask
questions like, "How do I do business in China?" No more. Even smaller firms
have figured that out. Now they want to know things like what's the best way to
develop a global information technology strategy.
Students I talk to from local universities and other educational institutions seem
intuitively to grasp the concept of the globally integrated enterprise. Having
grown up in the connected world of the Internet, instant messaging and social
networks, they have a solid grasp of how large global networks create
efficiencies and operate at warp speed.
I fully expect some of these young men and women will one day lead successful
globally integrated businesses that help increase the city's economic standing in a
highly competitive world.
But we shouldn't wait for them. We must begin the transformation now.
Stuart C. Bean is IBM's senior executive in Tampa.
National Higher Education Issues
Gun fears lock down 2 Southeast colleges
03/04/2008 © Bradenton Herald
BOONE, N.C. --Appalachian State University locked down the campus Monday
after a man was reported carrying a gun nearby, but authorities soon determined
there was no longer a threat to the school and called it off.
An alert on the university's Web site said a man wearing a ski mask was seen
with a small black handgun.
Police in Boone said a man returning to an off-campus apartment apparently
interrupted an attempted break-in, the Winston-Salem Journal reported. The
witness told police the man had a gun and was running toward campus.
Students were alerted over public address systems and by e-mail, said Forrest
Gilliam, president of the student government association.
The lockdown came hours after school officials sent an e-mail to students
updating them about plans for an emergency messaging service. Many
universities are deploying such systems after last year's shootings at Virginia
Tech, where a student gunman killed 32 people and himself last April.
Earlier Monday, police questioned a man who carried a gun into Middle Georgia
College in Cochran, about 120 miles south of Atlanta. The college was placed on
lockdown as authorities searched the campus. It was lifted around noon, and
classes resumed, said college President Mary Ellen Wilson.
Student Loans Latest to Feel Credit Crisis Pinch
03/04/2008 © Lakeland Ledger
WASHINGTON | Many college students across the nation will begin to see
higher costs for loans this spring, while others will be turned away by banks
altogether as the credit crisis roiling the U.S. economy spreads into yet another
sector, student lenders and Wall Street firms say.
Students seeking federally guaranteed loans, which are popular because they
offer fixed, below-market rates, could be required to pay higher fees to borrow
money,according to university finance directors and lenders.
An even greater burden may fall on those taking out private loans, which have
become increasingly common as students look for new sources to finance the
soaring costs of college. These loans often have variable rates, and they are
projected to jump this year.
And at community andfor-profit colleges, some students may be denied private
loans entirely because the financial industry considers them riskier investments
than their peers at other educational institutions.
"It's a little bit of a crunch. The money will be there; it's just going to be more
expensive," said Yvonne Hubbard, director of student financial services at the
University of Virginia. "The federally guaranteed loan program is always going
to be available ... but the good deals are harder to find. On the private side, loans
are getting more and more expensive."
Many lenders are scaling back their activities because of turmoil in the credit
markets, initially caused by the subprime mortgage meltdown last year, and cuts
in federal subsidies, firms said. Others have moved out of the business.
Last week, the Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency, one of the
nation's largest student loan organizations, announced that it will temporarily
stop making federally guaranteed loans this month. The College Loan Corp., the
nation's eighth-largest student lender, also is leaving the federal loan program.
At least a dozen firms have stopped issuing private loans, citing problems in the
debt markets. Sallie Mae, the largest student loan provider in the country, said it
is tightening credit requirements for borrowers and pulling out of offering loans
to students attending some for-profit career schools and community colleges.
The growing exodus has some college administrators worried. Georgetown
University, for one, has devised an emergency plan to become a direct lender,
like hundreds of other colleges and universities, in case more firms close shop.
Other colleges are calling lenders to see whether they'll be in business next
school year.
PREPARING SAFETY NET
Members of Congress last week asked for assurances from the Bush
administration that the federal program providing loan money directly to
colleges will be able to handle increased demand. They also asked the
Department of Education to gear up its "lender of last resort" program, which
provides a safety net should many student loan firms fail.
If firms decide to stop lending late in the summer, "there will be a lot of
peoplescrambling to find another lender in the fall," said Guy Gibbs, interim
director of financial aid at Northern Virginia Community College.
The student loan troubles are being felt unevenly. Those attending institutions
with high graduation rates and low default rates among their alumni may still be
able to get low-cost private loans. Students at lower-ranked schools with higher
defaults among graduates are likely to get hit with stiffer fees and rates.
Even at a highly ranked school such as Georgetown, some students are anxious
about rising rates.
Andrew Helms, 24, a master's student in Arab studies at Georgetown, said he
had to take out $50,000 in loans to cover the first of his two years of graduate
studies. He still has undergraduate debt to pay off. His federal loan is fixed at a
6.3 percent interest rate, while his private loan rate has reached 7.8 percent. Any
rise in the latter would be "a substantial concern," he said.
School debt "determines what you'll do after graduation," he said. "People who
want to go into humanitarian work will have to wait until 10 to 15 years down
the road until after you have paid off your loans. ... I might have to sell my soul
to an oil company."
In addition, Robert Shireman, president of the California-based Institute for
College Access and Success, said too many students already take out expensive
private loans for technical training programs that often don't lead to high-paying
jobs. "Some of those loans are predatory loans that should not have been made,"
Shireman said.
The cost of college is a significant concern from living rooms to Capitol Hill as
declining housing values and the economic slowdown force families to tighten
their budgets. Debt levels of college graduates more than doubled to $19,200 over
the past decade, according to the Institute for College Access and Success.
More students are turning to private loans, which are more costly because they
lack a federal guarantee. With college costs rising faster than the maximum loan
amount students are allowed under the federal program, the share of education
loans that are private has quadrupled over the last decade, to 24 percent last
year, according to the nonprofit College Board.
MOVING HOME
Most first-year college students can borrow a maximum of $3,500 through a
federal Stafford loan, and the cap rises to $5,500 for the third year and beyond.
Maximum loan amounts are higher for students who are not dependents and for
graduate students. Other federal grants and loans also may be available.
Jevita de Freitas, director of student financial aid at George Mason University,
said Virginia's budget has put some state higher-education funding in jeopardy,
which could force more students to seek private loans. She added that the school
has gone so far as to advise some students to lower their loan amounts by living
with their parents.
The cost of making loans to students has gone up largely because lenders have
struggled to find investors to buy this debt. Without the ability to securitize loans
in this fashion, firms don't have the money to lend to students.
Fears and Administrative Hassles Deter Community-College
Students in Their First Term, They Say - Chronicle.com
03/04/2008 © The Chronicle of Higher Education
Several students told a crowd here on Monday that complications with financial
aid, doubts about whether they were college material, and concerns that they
wouldn't fit in on a campus almost kept them from attending community college.
But once the students made it through the door, they said, their experiences were
largely positive.
"It was just so hard for me to get into college," Izeal Hill said at a packed session
at the annual conference of the League for Innovation in the Community College.
When Mr. Hill, 26, first tried to enroll at the Community College of Denver, he
thought a community group was going to be paying his way. But when he
showed up for class, he found out he still owed all his tuition. Mr. Hill
immediately filed for financial aid and was told his application would take two
months to process. So he had to sit out a semester and see his roommate go off to
college day after day.
Mr. Hill's fiancée, Teresa Joseph, had a similar experience. The first time she
applied for financial aid at the Community College of Denver, the paperwork
didn't make it through in time for her to enroll. So she applied again for the next
semester.
"Well," she said, "there are three Teresa Josephs on campus," and her application
got mixed up with one of the other Teresas.
Ms. Joseph, 27, almost gave up, but Mr. Hill insisted that she go to college. And
she got the paperwork snafu resolved just in time to enroll that semester.
Mr. Hill and Ms. Joseph, along with two other Community College of Denver
students, shared their stories as part of a session on the struggles that students go
through in their first semester—and, in many cases, before they even attend a
class. The session also previewed a few findings from the new Survey of Entering
Student Engagement, or Sense, which was administered for the first time this fall
at 22 colleges across the country.
New Survey of Entering Students
The survey, which is an offshoot of the Community College Survey of Student
Engagement (The Chronicle, November 16, 2007), found that first-semester
students were less engaged than returning students on several key measures.
They were less likely to ask questions in class or contribute to discussions, to
work with other students on a project or assignment, or to discuss an assignment
or grade with an instructor.
One reason for that pattern, the Denver students indicated, is an initial concern
that they don't fit in on the campus or in the classroom. Adam Aberle, 46, was
particularly worried that he would be singled out because he has a disability—so
he didn't tell the college about it.
"I was nervous anyway because I was an older student," Mr. Aberle said. "And I
thought that if I told them about my disability, it would make it even worse."
Instead, he simply struggled. "The first semester was horrible," he said.
Mr. Aberle, who works part time and has seven children, said he finally felt at
home on the campus in his second semester, after he told the college about his
disability and met other students—namely Mr. Hill—who made him feel
comfortable. All four students agreed that forging relationships with other
students and administrators, particularly in student life, helped keep them in
college.
That consensus is backed up by survey data and focus groups run as part of the
Sense project, said Arleen Arnsparger, a Sense researcher and project manager of
the MetLife Foundation Initiative on Student Success. The survey also found that
41 percent of entering students said they didn't use academic planning or
advising at all in their first semester.
That finding makes a good case for requiring students to see an adviser before
they register, said Angela Oriano-Darnall, project coordinator for Sense. But
short of doing that, the Denver students said, having experienced students
spread the word about the benefits of advising, rather than using fliers or e-mail,
was key to getting their peers to actually show up.
"If that fails," Mr. Hill said, "use pizza."
The Digital Limits of 'In Loco Parentis' - Chronicle.com
03/04/2008 © The Chronicle of Higher Education
Being rowdy and impulsive is a time-honored tradition among college students.
Documenting that behavior online is a recent phenomenon that still vexes
administrators.
They know what to do with a drunken student. But what about a Facebook
photo of a seemingly drunken student?
Some colleges have reacted with strict discipline. Two years ago, officials at
Millersville University of Pennsylvania discovered a picture on MySpace of Stacy
Snyder, in a pirate hat, drinking from a yellow plastic cup. With no judicial
hearing, the alumna says, they deemed her unfit to be a schoolteacher, denied
her an education degree, and awarded her one in English instead.
Ms. Snyder sued Millersville, saying it had violated her free-speech and dueprocess rights. The lawsuit is still pending, but it has attracted the attention of
college administrators and lawyers across the country. And along with similar
cases, it has already influenced the way they think about student discipline and
the Internet.
When social-networking sites first became popular, many colleges and
universities watched them closely. Since then, a consensus has emerged that
institutions should not actively monitor the sites or react hastily to information
they discover. Such practices run counter to sound educational philosophies,
officials say, and make colleges vulnerable to lawsuits.
But institutions also cannot ignore sites like Facebook and MySpace.
Administrators have a responsibility to investigate if they learn of online
evidence that a student may have violated their college's conduct code, or of
postings that may be offenses themselves. Social-networking sites have become a
mainstay of campus social life, and colleges are trying to treat what happens
online no differently from what may occur in the dining hall or on the quad.
It's not as if the popular Web sites offer new information about student behavior,
Thomas A. Workman, an assistant professor of communication studies at the
University of Houston-Downtown, told a roomful of administrators at a recent
conference on law and higher education.
Numerous studies have found, for example, that students engage in high-risk
drinking, Mr. Workman said. "You didn't need Facebook to tell you that."
Calling Off Patrols
But Facebook does more than tell. It shows an array of offenses — drinking and
drugs, hazing, harassment, racism — in a colorful medley of photos and posts.
Early discoveries of such material panicked some administrators. Anyone might
see it, they reasoned, and feel threatened — or associate the behavior with their
colleges.
Campus judicial officers across the country hashed out the issue on their e-mail
list, says Gary Dickstein, president of the national Association for Student
Judicial Affairs.
"The overriding question was: Do you actively search social networking sites for
violations of your code?" says Mr. Dickstein, who is also assistant vice president
for student affairs and director of student judicial services at Wright State
University, in Dayton, Ohio.
The short answer: No.
As the novelty of social-networking sites wore off, some of the panic about them
subsided. So many students were posting so much material online that
administrators realized they could not possibly scour all of it — nor should they.
"We don't do random, unannounced sweeps of dorm rooms," says Beth E. Cate,
associate university counsel at Indiana University at Bloomington. "From a
principled standpoint," she says, "we don't try to intrude on what people are
doing in their private lives."
Also, if colleges actively monitored Web sites like Facebook and MySpace, they
would set an expectation — and a legal duty — to do so effectively and
consistently, Ms. Cate and other lawyers say. Disciplining one student and not
another, or missing a post that upset someone, would expose colleges to
litigation.
Facebook Evidence
Many institutions, however, have no qualms about using Facebook and MySpace
in open investigations — judicial or criminal. Campus police from Pennsylvania
State University to the University of California at Davis treat the socialnetworking sites as repositories of information that can assist them in gathering
evidence.
And administrators realize they cannot ignore reports of misconduct online.
Even if they do not actively monitor social-networking sites, a disturbing post
brought to their attention puts them on notice to respond. If they don't, they may
be found negligent in court.
Reports of online misconduct are common in the judicial-affairs office at Ohio
State University. "A student will come in and say, Hey, so-and-so is threatening
me on Facebook," says Michael C. Chapman, a hearing officer there.
He typically contacts the possible offender and asks to meet with him or her. "We
follow the same process we would with any other alleged violation of the code of
conduct," says Mr. Chapman, a master's student who is researching the use of
online social networks in student disciplinary cases.
Alleged violations offline usually come with more than raw material. A judicialaffairs office may get, for example, a police report or a resident adviser's incident
report. But with photos of potential misconduct, a judicial officer must carefully
establish the same facts that initial report would.
Shawn McGuirk has been presented with several photos of students drinking or
wielding guns. But a photo is not always what it seems, says Mr. McGuirk,
director of student conduct, mediation, and education at Fitchburg State College,
in Massachusetts. Students may exaggerate their behavior online to impress or
entertain their peers.
When Mr. McGuirk gets a photo, he tries to determine when and where it was
taken, if it was staged or digitally altered, and if the subject or someone else
posted it online. A discussion with the subject helps him decide if an actual
violation of the conduct code occurred.
Online threats are more clear cut. Recently Mr. McGuirk looked into harassing
Facebook posts a student printed out and turned over to him. He discussed the
inappropriate behavior with the guilty party, but it continued, so he disciplined
the student. He handled that case, he says, much as he did another in which a
different student had reported a classmate following her around the campus.
"It's important to try to be as consistent as possible," says Mr. McGuirk. Whether
online or in person, serious threats to someone's safety merit immediate action,
he says. "There are times that you just can't wait."
But those threats must be severe and pervasive for a college to discipline a
student for online conduct, says Saundra K. Schuster, general counsel of Sinclair
Community College and an assistant attorney general of Ohio. For example, if a
student posts racial slurs against a certain group, she says, "It's ugly and it's
egregious … but it is protected speech."
Colleges can denounce it, but they should not discipline students for it, she says.
"They lose in court every time."
Under FIRE
The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education lambastes many of the
colleges it believes too readily punish their students. The watchdog group is
supporting Ms. Snyder against Millersville, as it did Justin Park against Johns
Hopkins University.
Johns Hopkins suspended Mr. Park for one year in connection with a racially
themed "Halloween in the Hood" party he had advertised on Facebook. The
student did not sue the university, but amid a fierce publicity campaign by FIRE,
he appealed his suspension, which was reduced (to a penalty neither he nor
Johns Hopkins disclosed).
The group has called attention to many institutions — including Cowley College,
in Kansas; Syracuse University; and the University of Central Florida — for
disciplining students for online conduct it argues is legally protected.
"What I hope will happen is universities are going to be a little bit more sensible
about how and when they try to punish students," says Greg Lukianoff,
president of FIRE.
Whether its campaigns were a factor or not, colleges are approaching Facebook
with more discretion now than they were a few years ago, administrators say.
"There were examples of things not to do," says Mr. Dickstein, of the judicialaffairs association.
But some student groups still warrant extra scrutiny, student-affairs officers and
lawyers agree. Resident advisers, for example, are employees of a college and
may be held to stricter standards of behavior. The same applies to athletes and to
students with discretionary appointments, such as to honor councils. Their
coaches or supervisors may reserve the right to examine their online profiles and
ask them to remove offensive material, or revoke their special privileges.
At religious colleges and military academies, policies often prohibit what is
known as "conduct unbecoming." By that standard, a questionable photo itself,
with no corroborating evidence, could be grounds for discipline.
Old Rules
Whatever standards colleges adopt, they should be made clear to students,
administrators say. Several colleges have borrowed an engaging primer,
"Thoughts on Facebook," from Tracy Mitrano, director of information-technology
policy at Cornell University. She tells students that their online activity will not
be monitored but that they may be held accountable for it. Mainly she
encourages them to apply good judgment: "What you wouldn't put on a poster
on your dorm-room door you might want to think two or three times about
posting online."
Many students have gotten the message, college officials say. They have become
savvier about the photos and messages they post and about how they adjust
their privacy settings. For some students, though, that lesson has been harder
learned.
In all cases, colleges should worry less about the medium and more about
students' behavior, says Steven J. McDonald, general counsel for the Rhode
Island School of Design.
"Forget about the Internet," he says. "The rules that we've had in place, in some
cases for hundreds of years, still work pretty darn well."
American Students Abroad Can't Be 'Global Citizens' Chronicle.com
03/04/2008 © The Chronicle of Higher Education
In September 2005 I boarded a plane to Delhi with 23 other American students
for a semester-long Tibetan-studies program in India, Nepal, and Tibet. I set off
wide-eyed, hopeful, and full of expectations for what was sure to be a lifechanging experience.
The program had promised "exotic" excursions through "traditional and
contemporary Tibetan and Himalayan culture," and I was eager to develop a
greater awareness of the world beyond American borders. Both my home
university and my program provider had informed me that by going abroad and
immersing myself in a foreign culture, I would become a "global citizen."
"Total cultural immersion," I was advised, is what makes study abroad such a
tremendous opportunity for developing a better understanding of a new culture.
I was encouraged to "act like the locals," "be a resident," and "become a member"
of my host community. I was expected to assimilate into my new environment
by speaking the local language, bargaining for prices, and participating in
everyday life as if I myself were Tibetan.
But once I arrived overseas, I quickly realized that studying abroad as an
American student is far more complicated than simply learning how others
speak and eat. International education entails navigating the social, historical,
and political realities of what it means to be American in a world of undeniable
difference and inequality.
My home-stay parents, Jangchup and Sonam, were Tibetans living in exile in
Dharmsala, India — a town flooded with tourists eager to see the Dalai Lama,
buy goods made by refugees, snap photographs of themselves with beggars, and
trek the foothills of the Himalayas. While Jangchup made peanut butter in the
bedroom (the kitchen was too small) and Sonam knitted gloves to sell to tourists
in the marketplace, my American classmates and I studied their culture,
language, and religion.
Although they called me "daughter," and I called them Amala and Pala, Jangchup
and Sonam didn't treat me like family but as a guest of honor. Despite my
protests, I always received five times more food than they served themselves,
and I was never allowed to make my bed, step into the kitchen, or even turn on
the bathroom light myself.
During the last week of my stay, my academic directors handed me a sealed
envelope containing a cash payment for Jangchup and Sonam's hospitality,
which I was expected to give to them. As a first-world student, I had literally
purchased a third-world family for my own self-improvement as a global citizen.
While I was more than willing to give Jangchup and Sonam the well-deserved
payment, I began to question the relationship of global citizenship to power and
privilege.
A few days after we left Dharmsala, my class flew from Katmandu, Nepal, to
Lhasa, Tibet, and landed at a brand-new Chinese airport. My classmates and I
were aware that our newfound "families," having fled Chinese persecution in
Tibet, could not see their beloved home again without risking their lives. As
Americans, our national citizenship, passports, skin color, and currency
exchange rate all worked in our favor, and — complain as we might have done
about having only two shirts to wear, as recommended per our packing lists —
there was no pretending that ours was a trip about sacrifice. Unlike our host
families, we could go wherever we wanted, from family homes to fancy tourist
clubs, from private burial ceremonies and temple ruins to Chinese-owned stores
selling imitation North Face jackets. We had bought a product, and we expected
to consume our experience.
The cumulative privilege of my race, nationality, education, mobility, and class
shone brighter than all of the candles in the Dalai Lama's temple. I was a
foreigner in all respects. It was impossible for me to "act like the locals" when
everywhere I went I was viewed and treated as exactly what I am: a white,
advantaged American. In many places, I could not walk down the street without
being asked by locals for money or assistance of some kind. In no way did I feel
like a universal or apolitical citizen of the world.
Yet cultural immersion and global citizenship remained curriculum ideals, even
when they were far from what my classmates and I were actually experiencing.
Caught between a study-abroad education that demanded I "fit in," and an
experiential reality that forced me to think critically about what it means to be an
American abroad, I found that I had not been prepared with the necessary tools
to fully engage with, and learn from, my experiences. Because the curriculum did
not include critical discussions about the ways in which my classmates and I
were interacting with our surroundings, I had little ability to make sense of the
days and months as they flew by.
I came home confused and unable to respond to the flood of questions such as
"How was your time abroad?" Or assumptions like "It must have been amazing.
I'm sure you have gained and grown so much." Like many other students who
study abroad, I found that the program's curriculum focused on cultural and
language studies while avoiding the very issues that were in many ways most
compelling and relevant to our experiences. Why had we not analyzed race,
identity, and privilege when those factors were informing every one of our
interactions? Why was there never a discussion about commodification when our
relationships with host families were built on a commodified relationship?
Wasn't a history of colonialism and contemporary imperialism affecting the
majority of our experiences and influencing how host nationals viewed us? Was
there nothing to be said about the power dynamics of claiming global
citizenship?
My semester abroad taught me that there is a vast discrepancy between the
rhetoric of international education and the reality of what many students like
myself experience while abroad. Although the world may be increasingly
interconnected, global systems of inequality, power, privilege, and difference are
always present. That is the reality that many students face during their semesters
abroad and continue to think about upon their return.
The U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee recently passed a bill that seeks to
create a $80-million annual foundation for study abroad, in order to increase
almost fivefold the number of American students who study overseas, and to
make such study more accessible to lower-income students.
This affirmation of the values of international education is a positive step, but it
is important that we examine the quality and content of study-abroad curricula.
American students who travel abroad cannot be expected to transcend historical,
political, social, and global systems of power in order to become cross-culturally
immersed "global citizens." We can, however, be asked to become internationally
conscious and self-aware American citizens who are responsible for thinking
about those critical issues.
An international education that focuses on American-based discursive ideals
rather than experiential realities can hardly be said to position students in this
country for successful lives of global understanding. Rather, such an education
may inadvertently be a recipe for the perpetuation of global ignorance,
misunderstanding, and prejudice. It is not possible for me to be a citizen of the
world, but I am an American citizen. Higher-education institutions would be
wise to integrate that same truth about American students who study abroad
into the international education they provide.
Talya Zemach-Bersin is a 2007 graduate of Wesleyan University.