Friday, June 29, 2007

Getting Rich the Old Fashioned Way – Begging For It

Florida’s top three state universities (USF, FSU, and UF) cajoled Charlie Crist into allowing them to charge students more money for tuition. Hitt wanted UCF to be among these schools, but he didn’t object to Crist signing the bill. My guess is that by acquiescing to this bill Hitt thinks it will make it easier for UCF to successfully lobby for tuition increases in the future.

I’ve been involved with UCF as a student, teacher, and administrator for over a decade. As a student, most of my classes were terrible wastes of time. Most instructors were poor presenters, ill informed about the subject matter, and/or simply disinterested in making an effort to teach effectively. One of the worst instructors I ever witnessed was still given tenure because he brought in a decent amount of grant money. Have I mentioned that UCF loves money?

As a teacher, I quickly realized that UCF's executive administrators viewed students as consumers who should get passing grades for very little work (The average undergraduate grade at UCF is a B-). Many students are aware that complaining about instructors can be an effective method of improving their grade.

As an administrator, I’ve watched significant amounts of money wasted on full time employees who only have to perform five hours of work a week. I would estimate that UCF could eliminate as much as twenty percent of their work-force and still deliver the same level of service to students.

Allowing UCF to charge higher tuition would financially hurt students only to further benefit a huge institution that doesn’t properly handle the money that it has already been given. I suspect that it was an error to allow USF, UF, and FSU to increase tuition, but I can only testify to UCF’s waste and lust for power.