USF cuts would deal blow to region, opponents say

One after another, supporters of the University of South Florida stood up on Monday night to declare their intention to fight a state Senate proposal that would rip a hole in USF's budget.

An alumni leader pledged to mobilize the tens of thousands of USF graduates to call and write state lawmakers.

Athletic Director Doug Woolard said he'd send an email blast to USF Bulls fans and season ticket holders asking for their help.

And when USF trustees chairman John Ramil said it was time for USF to put its foot down after months of political assault, the 250 people who filled a USF auditorium gave him a standing ovation.

Under a plan released Friday by the Senate Budget Committee, USF Tampa's state funding would be cut by at least $79 million. That's one fifth of a proposed $400 million cut to the entire university system, even though USF is one of 11 state universities.

USF would lose an additional $49 million in cuts related to the creation of a new university in the place of its Lakeland branch campus, USF Polytechnic, said USF lobbyist Mark Walsh.

The combined $128 million hit represents nearly 40 percent of this year's education budget for the USF Tampa campus.

"If we have to take a full $128 million cut by July 1st of this year, everything is on the chopping block," said USF spokesman Michael Hoad.

Classes will be discontinued and students won't be able to get the courses they need to graduate on time, Vice Provost Graham Tobin said at Monday's meeting. Class sizes will get bigger and USF's already high student-to-teacher ratio will grow.

The cut would wipe out USF's financial reserves and leave it more than $52 million in the hole.

"We would have no dollars left for the future," said USF Chief Financial Officer John Long.

The entire region would suffer, said USF President Judy Genshaft, noting that USF Tampa is the third largest employer in Hillsborough County, behind the Hillsborough school district and MacDill Air Force Base.

The $49 million in losses related to the new university include a $25 million cut to be held by Gov. Rick Scott's office until USF has relinquished all of USF Poly's funds and property.

It also includes $6 million that had been appropriated to USF Poly for the USF College of Pharmacy, which was shifted to the Tampa campus.

Without that money, the new program would likely shut down, Long said.

USF officials spent the weekend studying the Senate Budget Committee proposal and trying to figure out why, for the first time, the Senate divided up revenue by university and cut USF by nearly 60 percent, more than any other in the system.

Usually the money is allocated to the system as a whole, then sorted out based on each university's enrollment.

State University System officials couldn't explain it, Long said. "In their words, there was no formula. It's political."

"We're dancing around the name JD Alexander. Is he the cause of all this pain here tonight?" asked Ramil. "The senator is chair of the senate finance committee. And that's where this came from."

Alexander, a Lake Wales Republican, has been warring with USF since the summer, when he declared that he wanted to split USF Polytechnic from USF to become its own university.

The state university Board of Governors voted to slowly transform USF Poly into an independent university, ensuring that when it opened it would be accredited and prepared to offer a range of science and technology programs.

Last week, however, the Senate Higher Education Committee released a proposal, written partly by Alexander, that would circumvent the Board of Governors plan. It would shut down USF Polytechnic and replace it with an autonomous "Florida Polytechnic University."

The Senate Budge Committee meets on Wednesday to talk about the new university proposal and the university budgets. Whatever passes will probably go to the Senate floor next week, Walsh said.

The Senate proposal, however, is far different from the House budget proposal, which would cut the universities evenly by about 7 percent.

The differences will be hashed out in special committees in the final days of the legislative session, which runs through the end of this month.

In keeping with the pep-rally feeling of Monday night's meeting, Genshaft urged USF supporters to remember the Bulls motto, "Unstoppable," and start making calls to their state legislators.

"This is not an institution that stands with a cloud over their head, saying I can't do anything," she said. "We really can make a difference. And now is the time."