Could it all stem from this?
Backers of a little school in Lakeland hope the state’s future, one that includes lots of jobs in science, technology, engineering and math, could have reached an important milestone last week.
Some people hope that a vote taken last week at a state university system board of governors meeting in Boca Raton laid the groundwork for Florida to have a major university focused mainly on science, one that would eventually be in the league of the big schools that have “Tech” on the end of their names – the Virginia Techs, Georgia Techs, Cal Techs and MITs of the world.
Others argue that Florida has some pretty big scientific superstars in its university arsenal already, particularly the University of South Florida, Florida State University and the University of Florida.
They would argue there’s an awful lot of cutting-edge research there and would also argue that cutting away a new university from USF doesn’t guarantee success, anyway.
The University of South Florida Polytechnic may have been born last week with the vote to allow officials to push forward with developing what is now a branch campus of USF in Tampa into a stand-alone university along the growing Interstate 4 corridor in Central Florida.
It has to be said “may have been” because the decision wasn’t fully final. There were several conditions put on the effort, and the idea will have to return to the board for further approval.
The board vote Wednesday night, after a day of tense discussion, came after a relatively short push for the school to break away from the USF system, which backers had argued was holding back USF-Poly.
It also probably pointed out the influence of one of its biggest backers, hometown Sen. JD Alexander (R-Lake Wales), who also holds legislative purse strings as chairman of the Senate Budget Committee.
Many faculty and students at the Lakeland branch campus were opposed to the move. USF was against it as well.
Right after the vote, the board voted to put a moratorium on other branch campuses splitting off in the next five years, or until after USF Polytechnic is fully independent.
Meanwhile on Thursday, state university system officials were putting forward their own ideas for how to tie funding to the performance of the various state universities.
The writing is on the wall. The governor and the Republican Legislature want more than science degrees and they want accountability from the university system if the state is going to pay for it.
University presidents last week also were asking for greater flexibility if they’re going to be held to a higher standard. Setting tuition based on market rates and other measures of flexibility are likely to be debated over the next year.