{"id":16116,"date":"2013-01-17T13:59:31","date_gmt":"2013-01-17T18:59:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/?p=16116"},"modified":"2013-01-17T13:59:34","modified_gmt":"2013-01-17T18:59:34","slug":"board-of-governors-chairman-good-is-not-good-enough-for-florida-universities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/2013\/01\/17\/board-of-governors-chairman-good-is-not-good-enough-for-florida-universities\/","title":{"rendered":"Board Of Governors Chairman: &#8216;Good&#8217; Is Not Good Enough For Florida Universities"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_16118\"  class=\"wp-caption module image right\" style=\"max-width: 250px;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/2013\/01\/17\/board-of-governors-chairman-good-is-not-good-enough-for-florida-universities\/deancolson1\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-16118\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-16118\" title=\"deancolson1\" src=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/files\/2013\/01\/deancolson1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"250\" height=\"270\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-media-credit\">University of Miami School of Law\/flickr<\/p><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">BOG Chairman Dean Colson says the State University System is doing more with less, but the decline in state funding is not sustainable.<\/p><\/div>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Florida Board of Governors Chairman Dean Colson had much to brag about in his <a href=\"http:\/\/www.flbog.edu\/about\/\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">State of the System <\/span><\/a>address this morning.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">He told the people who govern the State University System that Florida\u2019s universities are affordable, a good value, and excelling in graduation rates.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">But Colson said, \u201cIf you want our system truly to serve as an economic engine for the state, we must have the resources to recruit the best and the brightest.\u00a0 Simply being \u2018good\u2019 is not good enough.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">He talked about <a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/2012\/12\/05\/why-florida-universities-wont-ask-for-tuition-hikes-this-year\/\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">cuts in funding as more students seek higher education.<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">As state funding for universities has dropped by more than a billion dollars over the last six years, \u201cSystem enrollment grew by 9% &#8212; an increase of over 35,000 students.\u201d Colson said. \u201cIn essence, our System has grown by the equivalent of a sizable university while losing enough state funding to support an entire university.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Colson said the universities are more efficient than ever, but the decline in funding is not sustainable.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><!--more--><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Colson offered ways that System is providing a good return on investment for the state:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Ranked in the top ten nationally for six-year graduation rates.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Ranked in the top five states for public university Research and Development with $1.76 billion in research expenditures.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Ranked 3<sup>rd<\/sup> among all university systems in the US for undergraduate STEM degree production, and STEM degree production increased almost 30% in the past four years.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">An annual statewide economic impact of $80 billion \u2013 contributing more than 7% to the state\u2019s gross domestic product and helping fuel more than 770,000 jobs.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">The State University System remains very affordable, with the 9<sup>th<\/sup> lowest tuition in the country.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">For the second year in a row, <a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/2013\/01\/02\/half-of-floridas-public-universities-make-kiplingers-best-value-list\/\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">half of our universities are ranked among the top values by Kiplinger\u2019s Personal Finance magazine<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">And here are the not so great statistics:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/2012\/10\/08\/five-florida-schools-among-private-colleges-with-lowest-graduation-rates\/\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Half of our institutions have six-year graduation rates below 50%<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Our System continues to lag behind on the number of national academy members.\u00a0 \u00a0As a state, we rank 17<sup>th\u00a0 <\/sup>\u00a0&#8212; well below the top public institutions.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">In the last six years, state support per student has dropped from 70% to 44% for the System\u2014which translates to a loss of more than a billion dollars, including $300 million this year alone.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Other highlights from Colson\u2019s speech:<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Everyone in the state, including me, has been pushing our universities to produce more STEM graduates.\u00a0 From my viewpoint, that is not to suggest that the humanities are not important.\u00a0 I don\u2019t think anyone is interested in raising a generation that has no appreciation for literature, history or the arts.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">We need to strongly support the Humanities, but <a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/2011\/11\/14\/which-college-graduates-are-unemployed\/\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">we should also provide our students and parents the information they need on future job prospects<\/span><\/a> so that if they decide to travel that path they are doing so knowing what lies ahead.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">I also believe that all Humanities graduates should have a basic grounding in STEM, and all STEM graduates should have a basic grounding in Humanities.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">That\u2019s why the work that we\u2019re doing with the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.fldoe.org\/cc\/\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Florida College System<\/span><\/a> to implement a common, general education core of courses that all undergraduates in Florida\u2019s public colleges and universities must take is so important.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Florida Board of Governors Chairman Dean Colson had much to brag about in his State of the System address this morning. He told the people who govern the State University System that Florida\u2019s universities are affordable, a good value, and excelling in graduation rates. But Colson said, \u201cIf you want our system truly to serve [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":55,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[18],"tags":[518,1089,403],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16116"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/55"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16116"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16116\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16141,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16116\/revisions\/16141"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16116"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16116"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16116"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}