Friday was a busy day for the Florida Legislature. But at least it threw UF a bone - a ,4.8 million bone. UF expected to see its budget cut by ,26.9 million, but the Legislature only cut ,22.1 million.
We're happy to see that.
A technology fee was also approved. Students will have to pay it - Bright Futures won't cover it - so students should have input on how it is spent. Students shouldn't have to shell out for computers on public university campuses, but someone has to. The universities can't afford it, and apparently the Legislature can't either, so that leaves us, the students. Technology isn't cheap, and we've accepted.
The Legislature also approved a 5 percent tuition increase that would go into effect in the spring. It also approved a plan that would increase tuition based on rises in inflation.
We said last week that we're wary of this.
If this had been implemented back in 1987, tuition would have risen by 77 percent. But over that 20-year span, tuition has risen by 214 percent. Pretty substantial difference, isn't it?
Unless you don't have Bright Futures, this increase probably won't mean much to you. Hell, if you don't have Bright Futures, it probably still won't mean much to you because inflation usually rises a couple of percentage points per year - last year, it rose by 2.6 percent, which would have added less than ,2 per credit.
But the point is, increasing tuition based on inflation will not bring in much money. If the Legislature sits on its laurels and won't increase tuition otherwise, we'll have a problem. Sure, UF's budget wasn't cut as much as predicted, but it was still cut by ,22.1 million.
It would take about a 58 percent increase in inflation to make up for that.
