Ed Fischer, May’s
Programming Chair and Past President, Past Adjunct FIU Professor and current Budget Director of the FIU Theater
Dept., introduced today’s speaker
Dr. Mitch Maidique,
President,
Florida
International
University
The Impact of Budget Cuts
All part time (adjunct) instructors were recently fired.
The full timers have been asked to add one more section to the agenda despite
their bargaining agreement – creating more havoc down the road.
How do you attract business to
Florida
when you reduce an education budget and the workforce is ill equipped to get
hired?
Balancing a budget is an arduous requirement. The task of budgeting for
a multimillion-dollar entity is formidable. Called Mitch by his
friends, our speaker received his undergraduate degree in Solid State
Electronics. He went on to earn a Ph.D. from
Harvard.
FIU has a student body of 40,000. The average student
incoming FIU fall freshman has a 3.6 GPA, 1175 SAT. A medical school is
soon launching after the opening, three years ago, of FIU’s
Law
School.
For 21 years, FIU enrollment has increased. Last year it was flat and this year it
has decreased. Students who take
a semester out – may not be accepted back in the institute.
The
FIU
Law
School
is in it’s third year and recently graduated
its first class. It is funded separately based on standards of the
other state law school is the only dept. funded correctly. This year, 2,800 candidates applied to
attend this school.
The FIU Hospitality Program is 36 years old. Impressive, it now has a
satellite program in
China
! Next year there will be 1,00 students in their
China
program. It will then be larger than the
U.S.
program. The goal is to teach both the students and the professors to
compete in this industry. Their first task: preparing for the Olympic games. FIU’s program was chosen by the
Chinese over other
US
universities (
Univ.
of
Las Vegas, Cornell,
UCLA)
Japan
’s
transformation is an example of a conversion from rice fields to skyscrapers.
They have a population of 120 million on an island versus the
US
300 million and we are a transcontinental power.
COMPARISONS
WITH OTHER CULTURES:
~The U.S. has the largest amount of land per person
~ The
USA
economy grows 2,3,or 4% per year
Japan
~ has little land for resources – they import
everything.
~ GNP is about 1/3 of the US GNP
China
~Economic growth is extraordinary with 30 years of 8% growth &
an income per capita of about $100.
~Current income per capita is about $1,000, accelerating in the
last 7-8 years with growth at 10-11% and the advent
of inflation.
~Growth is wrecking havoc with the extreme demand on raw
materials and resources. They are consuming 40% of steel and
cement in the world.
~Ecological pollution a growing problem
If the Chinese economy doubles in the next 12 years they will be ½ of
our economy. If they do this for a second 12 years period, they will match
us.
Chinese have 4X’s as many people as we have with the same amount of
land space. They have plenty of coal, oil, arable land. Similar
to the
U.S.
,
China
is a
continental power and an influence to its neighbors.
China
has a product saturation
of world markets – they have 60% of the
US
markets making doubling this
figure impossible.
Political stability – central paternalistic government – liberal
in the economy, still severe with the population and limiting protesters.
China
believes its greatest impediment to significant growth is the development of their
human resources in higher education. In one city, Tien Jin, they only have 67 universities. Scare resources aren’t just
oil, gas, aluminum mines, the real resource is
higher education.
To fix
Florida’s
education system, we need ¾ billion additional to be competitive.Instead there has been a $250 million cut.
LACK
OF PARITY
~Central FL is funded 50% better than
S.
FL
~N.
FL
universities are funded 50%
better than those in
Central FL.
~We are subsidizing the students in Central and Northern FL. 20% under
funded relative to the nation.
~We are funded ½ of
N. FL
+ add a 10% cut.
~Miami-Dade is a donor county, giving more money than we receive
from
Tallahassee.
~If we were equally funded we would still be shortchanged
because it costs more to live here for the housing market.
A state university professor with all benefits and salary costs $100,000 250 professors were cut in this recent budget cut.
California
funds $16,000 per student
Florida funds $11,000
at FIU for per student
When there is an under enrollment, the dept, the institutes is
eliminated. A professor’s tenure is contractually ended if their
department is cut.
Determination what will keep a professor’s job:
Asking every dept. if they have federal contracts, are there graduate
students helping faculty, have you been published in notable
publications? If not,
you’re terminated.
Colleges that show under enrollment: the
School of
Teaching.
Women who were going into teachers are in other professions in the labor
force.
Only 18% of S. Floridians have a Bachelor’s Degree. There needs
to be a Marshall Plan to save higher education. We need the political
will to make this state competitive nationally.
The vast majority of people in leadership positions have higher education credentials.
The medical school
~is budgeted outside of the University’s general fund,
~has increased funding 130% due to the political power of Marco
Rubin.
~
Jackson
Memorial
Hospital
has stepped forth to contribute $6 million per year to pay clinical faculty
to practice and teach.
~
Dade
County committed $10
million on a bond issue to build an outpatient center. $39,900 tuition
NOT ACCEPTED INTO A
FLORIDA INSTITUTION?
Fl Prepaid is refunded + 5%. This
year 1,400 applications were recently rejected.
PEEVES:
~Smaller classes don’t mean better education.
~The top 2% of students leave the state for other
institutions. We need to keep the best in
Florida and take care of those needing
financial aid.
~The Bright Futures Scholarship Program means that 1170 is the
SAT’s lowest accepted score along with a 3.75 GPA. With this scholarship or FL Prepaid
students get approximately a 75% discount on tuition.
~Since FL is the 49th lowest tuition in the country, there is already
not enough money in the system and with these programs, it is discounted, crimping
an already stretched budget.
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