Florida Universities Face $300 Million Budget Cut

By Denise-Marie Balona

Florida - Florida's public universities would lose $300 million under a budget proposal agreed upon by House and Senate negotiators — a plan that likely will spur further tuition increases.

The University of Central Florida, the state's largest university, would lose $52.6 million — the second-largest cut after Florida State University's.

he budget compromise also approves funding for a Polk County branch of the University of South Florida to become a stand-alone university.

Officials at UCF and some other universities already had planned to hike their tuition. But budget cuts next school year likely mean that most schools will pursue the 15 percent maximum increase to help make up the loss.

FSU would lose $65.8 million, an amount determined by a formula that legislators devised this year based partly on the size of each school's budget reserve.

The theory was that schools could use their reserves to help absorb financial losses in a year when the Legislature needed to carve out more than $1 billion to balance a $70 billion state budget. UCF expects to have $125 million in its reserve fund by July 1, UCF spokesman Grant Heston said.

Some university officials argued that the method penalizes institutions that have been more frugal in previous years. Still, universities prefer that option because it avoids permanent cuts to their base funding.

Heston said raising tuition will help but will not cover the loss entirely, partly because a chunk of the money must go toward financial aid for needy students.

Heston also stressed that the proposed cut comes on top of about $100 million that UCF has lost in state funding during the past several years.

UCF would not say how it might deal with cuts next school year, although Heston said that a cut "of this magnitude will, of course, impact our mission."

"There are many factors involved, and we are committed to a thoughtful and thorough review," he said. "Once that is complete, we will have recommendations about how to move forward."

Meanwhile, the presidents of USF and Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton expressed relief that the cuts were not greater. FAU President Mary Jane Saunders warned last month that an earlier budget proposal could have led to layoffs and the closing of academic programs and campuses at FAU.

Under the legislative proposal, FAU would lose $24.8 million — about half of what Saunders had feared losing.

USF President Judy Genshaft said the latest proposed cuts are more fairly distributed. She had argued that her school was disproportionately hurt under an earlier spending plan.

The newest plan is expected to go before the full House and Senate for a vote by Friday. Gov. Rick Scott also needs to sign off on it.

"We pushed for equitable funding, and while there will be significant cuts to all of Florida's universities, those cuts will be made equitably," Genshaft said in a letter she sent to faculty and staff Monday night, after legislators reached the last-minute budget deal.

Included in the budget is money that would help a USF branch campus break away and become an independent university — a contentious issue that had pitted Genshaft against the Senate's budget chairman, JD Alexander, a Republican from Polk County.

Under the proposal, USF Polytechnic, located in Polk, would become Florida Polytechnic University. Polk community leaders had pushed for the change, for which officials with the State University System had already voiced support, provided the campus meet certain goals in coming years.

Scott is not yet saying whether he would support the new university.

"Governor Scott has said he will keep an open mind about creating a 12th university but he will have to look at the details before making any decision," said Lane Wright, a Scott spokesman.

Although Scott has spoken out against tuition increases, Wright said he also has not yet taken a position on bills that would give FSU and the University of Florida in Gainesville the authority to raise their tuition higher than those of the other public universities.

The House version of the bill was approved last week and the Senate is expected to take up the issue this week.

Though an FSU faculty leader said employees hope the measure is approved so the school has more money to deal with funding cuts, state Rep. Bill Proctor, one of the bills' sponsors, said the new tuition would be earmarked specifically for program improvements.

"It's not a bill that is trying to replace reduced funding," said Proctor, a Republican who is chancellor at the private Flagler College in St. Augustine. "What it's trying to do is … give the universities an opportunity to propose certain types of programs and then propose whatever tuition might be necessary to carry out those programs."
 

Scientist Admits Taking, Leaking Think-Tank Papers

By Seth Borstein

Washington D.C. - In the field of climate science, when someone — especially skeptics — did something ethically questionable or misrepresented facts, scientist Peter Gleick was usually among the first and loudest to cry foul. He chaired a prominent scientific society's ethics committee. He created an award for what he considered lies about global warming.

Now Gleick admits that he posed as a board member to get and then distribute to the media sensitive documents from a conservative think tank that is a leader in denying mainstream climate change science.

And ethicists are criticizing the man who took others to task for what they say was stepping way over the ethical line. The think tank, the Chicago-based Heartland Institute, is considering legal action against him.

Gleick, who won a MacArthur genius award and is co-founder of the Pacific Institute for Studies in Development, Environment and Security, was chairman of the American Geophysical Union's ethics committee. He also had a column at Forbes.com where he criticized climate skeptics and trumpeted the resignation of a scientific journal editor who published a disputed study. He admitted taking Heartland documents Monday night in a blog on The Huffington Post.

Gleick resigned chairmanship of the ethics panel last week.

"What a mess," said Mark Frankel, head of scientific responsibility for the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the world's leading scientific society, which also had Gleick as a panel member on some committees. "It's compounded by the fact that he was chairman of the ethics committee of a professional society. ... It's an ethical morass that he finds himself in."

And Gleick's actions cast unwarranted doubt on the work of other scientists, Frankel said.

Last week, someone identifying himself as "Heartland insider" sent 15 media members and others six documents, purportedly from Heartland. They included a fundraising document, a budget and a two-page "climate strategy." They showed the think tank receiving millions of dollars — more than $14 million over six years from one anonymous man — in big contributions with plans to teach school children to question mainstream climate science. It also showed funding of scientists who are climate-change skeptics.

Heartland said the two-page strategy document was a fake and the others were stolen. The Associated Press, which received the documents, was able to verify the accuracy of several of the most sensational parts with the individuals named. The documents caused a stir, mirroring the hacking of climate scientists' emails two years earlier from a British research center.

"My judgment was blinded by my frustration with the ongoing efforts — often anonymous well-funded and coordinated — to attack climate science and scientists," Gleick wrote. "Nevertheless, I deeply regret my own actions in this case."

Not good enough, Heartland president Joseph Bast said in a press release: "It has caused major and permanent damage to the reputations of The Heartland Institute and many of the scientists, policy experts and organizations we work with."

The issue is about deception and there are only a few things that could possibly warrant that — and embarrassing Heartland isn't one of them, said Dani Elliott, who teaches ethics at the University of South Florida.

The geophysical union, a scientific society, said in a statement that Gleick's actions are "inconsistent with our organization's values."