Florida Board of Governors

02/17/2011

ACTIONS TAKEN: Florida Board of Governors Meeting, via conf call

FIXED CAPITAL NEEDS LIST - PUBLIC EDUCATION CAPITAL OUTLAY (PECO) FUNDS
The Facilities Committee (Chair Charlie Edwards) presented an updated PECO System-wide projects list that now adds a long-anticipated UNF facility project and increases funding for the building of the USF Polytechnic campus. The Board voted and approved the updated list. The total of the list remains at about $110 million, utilizing the standard formula for PECO funds amid several educational entities, including the State University System. The revised list is on the web site under agenda materials. Please note that, of course, this list is contingent on funds ultimately appropriated by the Legislature in the 2011 Session and when the budget is signed into law by the Governor. Further, another revenue estimating conference for PECO funds is scheduled to be held in the Legislature in early March, so the allocation formula results could increase or decrease the State University System's portion in the funding formula.

2010 STUDENT LIFE FACILITIES SURVEY REPORT
This report was first presented to the Budget and Finance Committee last week. Committee Chair Tico Perez presented this report to the full Board, with the recommendation from the committee to add one of the report's recommendations to the Board's 2011 legislative agenda. Voted and approved.

Based on proviso language in the 2010 Session (+ excerpted below), Board of Governors budget staff coordinated a detailed inventory report during the past several months regarding student life facilities in the System. The inventory as well as recommendations were coordinated with the assistance of university vice presidents for student affairs, university facility planners, student government representatives and others. The Legislature intended, in asking for this survey, to have additional information regarding the ability of the state's Capital Improvement Trust Fund (CITF) to meet System-wide facility demands in the future.

The fee that funds the CITF has not been increased for more than 20 years, and the universities have had backlogged demands with general overall enrollment growth System-wide, of 2-3 percent annually. If the fee had been increased with the cost of inflation, for instance, it would have increased about $8 in that interim time. The issue also has been on the Board's legislative agenda in the past.

Chair Perez noted that the CITF-funded projects require extensive student input at the university level, and at the universities' Boards of Trustees.

The full Board today voted and concurred with the committee's recommendation to add a $1.00 optional increase (and pursuing the necessary housekeeping statutory change) as an issue to the Board of Governors' 2011 legislative agenda. This would amend Section 1009.24 F.S. to provide financing for student life facilities, primarily through bonding mechanisms. If passed by the Legislature, each university Board of Trustees would then, should they choose, voluntarily take up the matter for their respective universities toward respective future campus projects and then submit the traditional, comprehensive financing proposal package to the Board of Governors for a proposed building project.

The survey by the Board of Governors found that significant needs exist for new student life facilities, as well as the renovation or replacement of many existing facilities. Parking and housing demand should be reasonably met by the existing financing framework and process. However, the demand for student facilities ' such as student unions, recreational fields, wellness centers and cafeterias, estimated at more than $650 million total ' will not be met within the existing financing framework and bonding availability.

(+ Proviso language: 'the Board of Governors shall conduct a needs assessment survey of the State University System of student life facilities and develop recommendations to address unmet renovation or new facility needs identified by the survey. The recommendations shall specifically consider the impact of existing policies, statutory provisions, and regulations in meeting these needs and the unique challenges of smaller institutions or branch campuses.')

MARKET-RATE TUITION FOR CERTAIN **GRADUATE-LEVEL** ON-LINE OR CONTINUING EDUCATION COURSES: A PILOT PROJECT OF THE BOARD OF GOVERNORS, AS TASKED BY THE LEGISLATURE AND AS AUTHORIZED BY STATUTE
See separate fact sheet (attached) regarding the recent amendment to the Board regulation, which is an issue the Legislature placed in statute in 2010 for the Board to offer to universities, in order to provide budgeting flexibility, student access to additional course offerings, national competitiveness for Florida's public universities and other reasons. See the proposals spreadsheet in the agenda materials at www.flbog.edu for a quick-reference sheet about each program's current tuition, proposed market-tuition rate, current enrollment numbers, and other data. Each full proposal also is posted on the web site www.flbog.edu in the package of meeting materials.

Amid the highlights in the fact sheet (attached), the Board of Governors instituted a pilot program whereby each university could voluntary propose up to five eligible graduate programs per academic year for three years. Market-rate tuition degree offerings cannot supplant current on-campus offerings, which provide a different level of student access. There will be annual reports to the Board of Governors for tracking purposes, and the entire pilot project will be reviewed by the Board of Governors in three years. Four universities are seeking approval to have market-rate tuition for a total of 18 17 graduate-level on-line academic degree programs.

The Board today voted and approved all of the following market-rate tuition offerings:

FIU Master of International Business
Master in Global Governance
Master of Accounting Program
Master of Public Health withdrawn
Master of Business Administration

FSU Master of Social Work*
Master in Library & Information Studies*
Master in Management with major in Risk Management and Insurance
Master in Management Information Systems
Master in Business Administration
*Market-rate tuition would apply to non-resident students only.

UF Master in Outreach Engineering Program
Master of Business Administration
Pharmaceutical Sciences Clinical Doctorate
Doctor of Audiology
Master in Pharmaceutical Sciences

UCF Professional Master of Science in Management Degree Program
Master in Business Administration (Executive & Professional)
Professional Master of Science in Real Estate Degree Program

FACT SHEET: Market Tuition Rate Graduate Courses

UNIVERSITY ACADEMIC PROGRAM REQUEST
The Board approved on second and final hearing the recommendation of the Academic & Student Affairs Committee (Chair Ann Duncan) to approve a “limited access status” proposal for the USF-St. Petersburg’s Bachelor of Science in Entrepreneurship.

Limited access status is authority for a university to increase a particular degree program’s admission standards when it does not have capacity to accept all applicants interested in admission to the program. Limited access proposals come before the Board of Governors because of its constitutional and statutory responsibilities to maintain statewide articulation for incoming Associate of Arts graduates; a university’s proposal can be submitted at any time during the year and must include how articulation for A.A. students will be sustained, what criteria will be utilized to screen applicants, and why a program needs to be on limited access status. The university determines when to lift the limited access based on a variety of factors and does so in consultation with the Board. Board staff regularly track and monitor program admissions.

NEXT MEETING
The next set of meetings for the committees and the full Board of Governors is scheduled for March 23-24 in Tallahassee. The final agenda will be released in mid-March and will include hearings on the nine proposals from seven universities for new or increased student fees, as well as a workshop dedicated to distance learning, or e-learning, sponsored by the Academic & Student Affairs Committee.


The full list of all Board of Governors meetings across Florida is set through 2011 and 2012. See http://www.flbog.edu/pressroom/news.php?id=361.