Senate President comes out in support of university merger proposal

Senate President Bill Galvano Wednesday publicly threw his support behind a House proposal to merge a college housed in his district with Florida State University.

This was the first time the Bradenton Republican, whose district includes New College, has spoken strongly either way about the legislation (HB 7087) introduced last week by House Higher Education Subcommittee Chair Randy Fine. 

The legislation would consolidate New College into FSU and fold Florida Polytechnic University into the University of Florida. It would also make the Effective Access To Student Education grant program, or EASE, and Access to Better Learning and Education Grant program, or ABLE, means-tested. 

“The merger is one opportunity that could exist that needs to be discussed,” he said.

Galvano said he met with New College President Donal O’Shea who was in Tallahassee to lobby lawmakers against voting for the bill. The Senate President says O’Shea admitted to struggling to boost enrollment.

“I shared exactly what I thought were some concerns,” he said. “And he said ‘Look, it’s been hard for us. We’ve had the performance funding and we weren’t meeting the metrics. Our population was not hitting on some of these points that other universities do.’ So that … put them behind fiscally. Also enrollment has been a challenge for them.”

O’Shea says the school has a plan to boost enrollment from 800 students to 1,200 by 2023. He argues the school is thriving.

“Applications are up 30% over this time last year,” he said. “I’ve been hearing from incoming students and their parents. They’re worried about the impending takeover.”

Galvano casts himself as the school’s protector, but says he won’t be in the legislature forever. He says he has backfilled money to help with their enrollment issues. 

“What I don’t want to see happen is that we go forward and then there’s no decision maker who’s going to fill in that what now amounts to 37% of their base budget by one special payment form or another,” he said. “So if it means having them under an administrative umbrella that could more efficiently execute the admin side of it so you don’t have that disproportionate ratio, because let’s remember their degrees too if not the highest cost in the state, one or two.”

Galvano says the college could be consolidated into FSU without losing what makes it unique, something O’Shea disputes. But Galvano also stressed he has not made a final decision on the legislation.

Although our numbers are small, our impact is great,” he said. “Folding it into FSU would compromise its special value and leave Florida with nothing like it.”

O’Shea and his legislative champions also dispute arguments that consolidation of the New College and Florida Poly will save the state money.

“We’re under 1% of the entire University System budget,” he said. “You can imagine some administrative savings, but FSU is 300 miles away. We’d need to replicate the administrative structure currently in place.”

House Speaker Jose Oliva highlighted his desire to examine spending in higher education and making sure scholarship programs were being judiciously administered in his opening remarks last month.

“An expenditure for a university is seen as a measure of caring, regardless of the future implications of such expenditures,” he said. “Spending is not caring, solving is caring.”

Fine’s bill would help Oliva achieve his goal in that respect. It would cut scholarships for more than half of the 43,000 students who currently get EASE grants. The students could lose them starting in Fall 2021 under Fine’s plan. The Independent Colleges and Universities of Florida group estimates that number could be as high as 63%. The program currently gives students who attend Florida’s 30 or so not-for-profit private colleges or universities $2,841 a year.

The bill will be heard in House Appropriations next Tuesday.