Florida’s Funding Crisis and USF: Updated March 20, 2008

What’s the latest information on the state’s budget shortfall and its impact on USF?

What we’re planning for: USF expects at least a 15% cut over 18 months in funding from the state’s E&G (Education and General) funds. If the budget reduction for fiscal years 2007-08 and 2008-09 adds up to 15% for those fiscal years (total) it will mean around a $52 million loss for USF, but some projections estimate even more.

The total of 15% comes at different times over these two fiscal years. In the Fall of 2007 our E&G funds were reduced 3.6%. The additional reduction this spring is expected to be 1.8%, bringing the total for the fiscal year to 5.4%, approximately $19 million. Our 2007-2008 fiscal year ends June 30.

The next fiscal year, which begins July 1, could be worse. The budget projections are not improving at the state level. In fact, revenues are still trending downward. For this reason, we’re anticipating another budget reduction of at least 10% for the 2008-2009 fiscal year. By adding the cuts over both fiscal years, we arrive at the total over 18 months of 15%.

To put this in more perspective, last year our state E&G funding represented 23% of USF’s budget. After these budget cuts, state funding will only represent 18-19% of our budget.


How is USF addressing the budget cuts?

USF decided last fall that our cuts shouldn’t be “across-the-board.” They must be strategic. This reflected the thinking of our administration and also our faculty. From the beginning of this process, we’ve sought input from faculty. Recently, a Budget Priorities Advisory Taskforce issued a report after analyzing programs and departments. The taskforce, made up of faculty, rated programs and departments on four criteria: centrality, quality, demand, and viability (sustainability).

The very idea of reducing or eliminating programs and departments is difficult, and that’s why we’re asking faculty for their help in identifying the places where cuts can be made.

The report by the Budget Priorities Advisory Taskforce has just been reviewed by chairs and directors, and their responses are now available in pdf format on the Provost’s budget update page. There will be more reviews and more recommendations from other groups, including the Vice Presidents. For Academic Affairs, the final decision, after all input is received and analyzed, will be made by Provost Ralph Wilcox.

Provost Wilcox recently outlined some of the action we’re taking, including:

  • Faculty Hiring – A revised faculty hiring plan was approved for 33 faculty searches that are currently underway or in process, and approval is on hold for 21 additional faculty positions. These difficult strategic decisions were made by the Provost’s Senior Staff with input from the Co-Chairs of the Budget Priorities Advisory Task Force.

  • Non-Salary Spending Guidelines – We have distributed Non-Salary Spending Guidelines to help navigate the freeze on non-essential expenditures without paralyzing the University. These guidelines pertain to travel, equipment and computer purchases, office expenses, renovations, and service contracts. While it means we must “tighten our belts” in the short-term, such spending discipline will help preserve our core obligations to ensure quality of learning for currently enrolled students and support for faculty scholarship.

  • Consolidated Purchasing – We have been exploring cost-saving measures through modified business practices, including the consolidated purchasing of office supplies and computer hardware and software across the USF system. Our goal is to improve services and support while reducing costs.

  • Enrollment Reduction Plan – We are also developing an enrollment reduction plan for submission to the Board of Governors. It is clear that we can’t maintain the same quality of educational delivery to the same number of students with such a significant reduction in funding. While this plan will likely be implemented over a three year period, it will also provide us the opportunity to shape our student body through freezing freshmen enrollment at this year’s levels, reducing transfer student enrollment (through increasing admission standards to further enhance student success), and modestly increasing graduate enrollment. Moreover, we will likely see some redistribution of undergraduate enrollment to the regional campuses. However, it is important to point out that with enrollment reductions comes a reduction in tuition revenues, even though Florida’s undergraduate resident student tuition remains the lowest in the nation.

  • Differential Tuition – Beginning Fall 2008, we are planning to charge statutorily-approved differential tuition (+15%), on the Tampa campus, to all new undergraduate students enrolling from Fall 2007 forward, with the exception of students with Florida Prepaid contracts which were in effect on July 1, 2007. Furthermore, we expect to award need-based scholarships to offset this cost for eligible students. While the early revenues from differential tuition will be low, the Board of Governors has approved an 8% tuition increase that, if approved by the Legislature and Governor, will in time provide a healthy boost to backfill our budget losses. A Technology Fee is also planned for the 2009-10 academic year.

  • Research Facilities – Consistent with our valuing of interdisciplinary research, we are aggressively promoting investment in research core facilities at USF to reduce duplicative spending on faculty startups.


What impact will budget cuts have on students?

Student success is one of our top priorities. We want to provide access to a great college education and we want our students to graduate in a reasonable period of time. The budget cutbacks we’ve seen from the state of Florida for several years have put a tremendous strain on our ability to help students succeed.

For one thing, Florida has the highest student/faculty ration in the nation. That means larger classes, less personal feedback and instruction, less ability to interact directly with your instructor.

A budget shortfall like this means it’s difficult to retain talented faculty. Some faculty members may be tempted to leave for universities where the budget climate is more stable.

It’s more difficult to attract talented Deans when they have doubts that they’ll have the resources available to them to achieve greater quality in their colleges.

A budget shortfall means the inability to hire more academic advisors to help students and keep them on track to graduate. It means longer waits for appointments with advisers.

It also means fewer counselors to help students who are facing emotional stress, and a longer wait for appointments.

Budget cuts mean shorter library hours. It means fewer support staff throughout the university to help provide services in a smooth and convenient way.

Budget cutbacks can mean fewer classes available for students. This can have an impact on their ability to graduate in 4 or 5 years.

Our goal is to make all of our cuts strategic and protect the education that our students receive. We especially want to ensure that the courses that students need for graduation will be available to them.


Is the administration reducing its own budget as it looks to reduce other budgets?

Yes, the same cutbacks are being experienced throughout the administration. This is a University-wide situation. We have added two Vice Presidents to the cabinet in recent weeks, but both were promoted from within and accepted the expanded portfolio with no salary increases.


We still see construction going on around campus. Can’t we stop some construction and save money?

The budget for new construction comes from different sources than the E&G funding and can’t be used to cover other costs. It is likely that construction funding will decline as well.


Why is USF so concerned about making “strategic” cuts?

Last fall, the Board of Trustees approved a five-year Strategic Plan that serves as a roadmap to the future. We want to boost the quality of our undergraduate and research programs to position USF for membership in the Association of American Universities (AAU), an elite group of the top research universities in the nation.

This is not going to be an easy goal to achieve during the budget climate that exists in Florida.

If we are to achieve our goal, any cuts we make must be true to our strategic plan. If we succeed, USF will come through the budget crisis more focused and on target to reach our goals.

For a young university, USF has achieved tremendous success. We’re on the rise, and when we hit a roadblock, we should work to overcome that obstacle and not let it derail our optimism and our plans for an even better future for our students, our faculty and staff, and our community.


Some faculty members have already complained that their departments are being targeted for cuts.

No one wants cuts to come from their own departments. The reality, however, is that these are not easy decisions and we’re going to make them with as much input from faculty, staff, and students as possible.

USF is not going through this alone. All universities in the State University System are struggling with the same thing.

USF does not have a master plan for cuts. Everything is on the table at this point.


There still seems to be money being spent on other projects around campus, including repairs of sidewalks. Can’t some of this money be spent on faculty and programs?

The Legislature approves funds for renovation purposes, and these funds can’t be used for the same expenses that E&G funds cover.