Departing University of Florida professors say higher education isn’t what it used to be. Complaints about salary freezes and layoffs are rising in Gainesville, even as tuition is increasing 15 percent and President Bernie Machen remains in line for $500,000 in personal pay hikes on top of $285,000 in bonuses.</p>
<p>This sad scenario validates a new national report that finds higher tuition revenues are not trickling into classrooms. While students pay more and professors seek greener pastures, the fastest-growing operating expenses at U.S. colleges are related to research, “public outreach” (i.e., marketing) and, not surprisingly, financial aid.</p>
<p>In the face of $47 million in budget cuts, UF professor Stephen Mulkey told the Gainesville Sun last month that Florida’s flagship is sinking amid “a culture of negativity and numbers.” Mulkey, a biology professor and expert on climate change, is bailing out for the University of Idaho.</p>
<p>In an effort to hold onto academic talent, Machen says the university may offer expanded sabbaticals, allowing faculty more time off to work on books and research. But this threatens to exacerbate the biggest problem a lack of classes due to a shortage of instructors.</p>
<p>After more than doubling the initially sought 6 percent tuition hike to 15 percent, UF is considering another money-generating option: “block tuition.” Under the plan, full-time students would pay for 15 hours a semester, regardless of how many hours they actually took. This would likely be a net gain for the university, since most students take fewer than 15 hours a semester (often because they can’t get the courses they need).</p>
<p>What’s happening in Gainesville reflects Ivory Tower inefficiencies across the land. New research by the Delta Cost Project, a Washington-based non-profit, found that the percentage of U.S. university students who complete a degree hasn’t kept pace with increases in enrollment, revenues or total spending. The United States spends more per student than any other industrialized nation, yet ranks last in degree completion (54 percent).</p>
<p>Florida’s budget blues aren’t helping, and top-heavy spending by UF has turned the fiscal screws even tighter in the classroom.</p>
<p>By contrast, Florida State University has been quietly conserving its resources. Thanks to a two-year austerity plan, FSU President T.K. Wetherell announced last month that the school had amassed a rainy day fund of $90 million.</p>
<p>The St. Petersburg Times reported that the university will use that money to retain faculty while recruiting more nationally renowned professors. Other assistance will be directed to easing the squeeze on lower-paid staffers. In a pleasant development, FSU actually extended its library hours.</p>
<p>But it’s not all good news. Under new “differential tuition” rules that enable Florida’s top research universities to exceed the legislatively set 6 percent cap, FSU also is raising tuition by 15 percent. </p>
<p>Good and bad spending priorities by universities could provide rich fodder for an incisive doctoral thesis.</p>
<p>“We absolutely must talk about (college) productivity the linkage between resources and results if our country is serious about competing globally and maintaining our quality of life,” Travis Reindl of Boston-based Jobs for the Future told USA Today.</p>
<p>That conversation should be under way in Dr. Machen’s well-appointed office.