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Colleges, Legislature At Odds Over Research Funding
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Published: April 23, 2008
Updated:
As the Legislature gets closer to taking control of the state's university system, higher education leaders say lawmakers also are meddling in the process of awarding research money to schools.
Several universities, including the University of South Florida, expected to split up $87 million to build research centers that an independent group of experts said could yield hundreds of high-paying jobs.
Senate leaders have their own plans for the money, however. They want to spend most of it on a project to develop innovative energy sources in Florida, a project that received lower marks from the same group of experts.
The university system's Board of Governors had designed the funding process to be free of politics. It paid a highly regarded assembly of scientists and economists $200,000 to rate 41 proposed research centers on their merit.
A state panel took the expert recommendations and suggested funding for the seven top-ranked centers, including $22 million for two at USF. The energy project was among the 41 proposals, but its scientific and economic potential scored too low for funding.
Nonetheless, the Senate wants to take $50 million of the $87 million available for so-called "Centers of Excellence" to bankroll the energy consortium at five universities. Senators would take another $8.5 million to back an unrelated energy project at Florida Gulf Coast University, which was never proposed as a Center of Excellence.
The Board of Governors would divide the remaining $28.5 million among the top-ranked centers that aren't in the energy consortium.
USF Faculty Reacts
Aghast at the news, USF faculty members say they spent years developing their proposals knowing that their peers, not lawmakers, would judge their work.
"I don't think the message we want to send is that we go through a technical review, and then ignore it," said Pritish Mukherjee, professor of physics at USF and lead scientist in a proposed research center that would focus on electronics, energy conversion, biomedicine and nano-, or micro-, technology. Thirteen companies have expressed support for the center, including Ford Motor Co., which is interested in how nanotechnology can be applied to headlamps.
The second USF center includes the University of Central Florida in the creation, and eventual marketing, of technologies in security, health care, environmental monitoring and entertainment. Fifteen companies, including Lockheed Martin and General Electric, have expressed support for the project.
Both proposals scored high in potential for scientific advances and economic growth with Oak Ridge Associated Universities, a consortium of research institutions whose experts reviewed the 41 proposals.
The state technology board took the consortium's recommendations and asked the Board of Governors to award the two USF projects $11 million each. The two ranked No. 6 and 7 on the state panel's shortlist.
Other projects that scored high include a research center in cancer care at the H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center & Research Institute ($11 million) and a center in hurricane damage mitigation at Florida International University in Miami ($10 million).
The Board of Governors paid for an outside review of projects to avoid the mess that came with the last Centers of Excellence awards.
In late 2006, USF was awarded $10 million to help launch a new cancer vaccine laboratory, which was considered the best of 19 proposals at the time. The board also awarded Florida State University a cut of money, but only through a bizarre clerical error that was realized a day later.
After the state technology board found its mistake, it took FSU off its shortlist, which also included Florida Atlantic University and the University of Florida. But that move angered FSU's leaders and the powerful lawmakers close to the school. The Board of Governors later awarded FSU money for a different project, and in doing so cut $2 million from USF's initial award.
"They made it clear from the very beginning that they were going to do it right this time," Mukherjee said.
When he heard of the Senate's current proposal, Mukherjee said, "It can't be."
'It Is The Legislature's Money'
Bill Edmonds, spokesman for the Board of Governors, said that although some university leaders and faculty members are appalled that senators would redirect the money to their pet projects, "it is the Legislature's money."
"Clearly, energy is a pressing need statewide," Edmonds said. "It's hard to say this is a great legislative sin. It's totally legitimate, and it's something the state of Florida should have paid attention to decades ago."
The Senate plan for the energy consortium pays $15 million to the University of Florida, the lead university in the project, and nearly $9 million each to FSU, UCF and USF, as well as Florida Atlantic University, which had proposed its own energy project.
Sen. Burt Saunders, R-Naples, put the plan in a 200-page energy bill, which calls for an efficient energy plan in the state, and focuses research on innovative and alternative energy systems. The legislation, which would need House approval, also creates an oversight board for the project.
For some faculty members and university advocates, the move is just the latest political intrusion into higher education. This spring, the Senate passed a measure that would strip the Board of Governors of its powers and place control of the university system with lawmakers.
Senate President Ken Pruitt, R-Port St. Lucie, is pushing the plan, arguing that the power to set tuition should rest with an elected Legislature.
Reporter Adam Emerson can be reached at (813) 259-8285 or aemerson@tampatrib.com.
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Reader Comments
Posted by ( RobKay ) on April 23, 2008 at 7:05 a.m. ( Suggest removal )
Well has anyone decided on what the universities purpose is or should be? Are they here to educate students or create jobs? Should the state be giving money to schools to create jobs at research facilities or to cover the cost of teaching students or both? How about putting it to a vote and let Florida's residents decide what purpose they want Florida's universities to have instead of bickering over it in the legislature and coming to no conclusion.
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Posted by ( rbstreeter ) on April 23, 2008 at 8:45 a.m. ( Suggest removal )
Good idea from RobKay, except the real issue is not educational mission, but control.
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