Florida legislators are making significant changes to tuition for state universities and colleges. While USF St. Petersburg Student Government members support bills to extend in-state tuition to deserving students, their views on a tuition increase are mixed.
Voting proceedings in Tallahassee ruled 81-33 in the Florida House of Representatives to allow undocumented students to pay in-state tuition for college enrollment and veterans who study in Florida may have out-of-state fees waived, as well.
The USF System backed both bills, along with other tuition legislation, during the annual USF Day at the Capitol lobbying day in February.
“We basically presented that we’ve created resolutions, we’ve passed them and we agreed upon taking these initiatives for the state for undocumented students,” said Christa Hegedus, vice president of Student Government. The students also showed legislators they were in support of in-state tuition for veterans.
Gov. Rick Scott proposed a number of changes to college costs in Florida, including degrees under $10,000 and a drop in tuition increase from year to year. The Florida House bill for tuition suggests a 6 percent tuition hike, well below the up to 15 percent allowed.
However, student leadership at USFSP sees changes to tuition’s overall increase as problematic.
This year, Florida’s Board of Governors cut the Capital Improvement Trust Fund, which set aside money for campus improvement projects, such as new buildings and expansions statewide. This fund would have been used for new building for the College of Business, renovation of the Campus Recreation Center and more renovations to the Student Life Center.
“SG wants more of a budget to present activities and services on campus. What that means is an increase in student tuition,” Hegedus said. “With the way they [legislators] market it, that means that yes, Gov. Scott does not want the tuition to increase for students, which is good, but consequently, they get a reduction in the services we can provide for them.”
Tuition increases coincide with decisions made by the Board of Trustees for the USF System. This year, the Board of Trustees chose not to raise the athletic and service fees for the university.
“In every budget cycle, entities ask for the same thing consistently, growth (i.e. more funding),” said Jozef Gherman, chief financial officer for SG. “When fees increase, it allows for that growth to occur. When fees stay static, there is very little room for growth.”
USFSP, according to Hegedus, anticipates another increase in campus enrollment. The result could increase collected fees, but in turn must answer for the number of students involved in campus organizations like club sports.
“When you have increase in students, increase in clubs and orgs, club ideas throughout the campus, the clubs and orgs are going to prosper. We have to be more creative in our funding,” Hegedus said.
USF placed second in the 11 universities statewide for performance-based funding. In front was the University of Florida, with Florida State University and the University of Central Florida tied at third. But the reward will not necessarily be enough to fund gaps in the budget.
Members of SG saw the trip as an opportunity to share system-wide ideas with legislators as a university system.
“We were in small groups of about seven or eight, including students from all three campuses, so we could cover more ground,” said Lazar Anderson, SG’s chief of executive operations. “It wasn’t competitive at all. Everybody’s points were heard, regardless of which campus we were from.”
