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USF Limits Student Transfers
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Published: February 15, 2008
TAMPA - Students transferring from other colleges into the University of South Florida have long enjoyed an open door. From now on, they will have a harder time gaining entry.
As budget cuts force the university to reduce enrollment, its leaders said Thursday they plan to restrict the number of transfer students. USF will not accept any more students transferring in next fall as freshmen or sophomores, and it will place a higher standard on those seeking entry as juniors and seniors.
Those restrictions could be in place over the next three years as USF and the state's 10 other public universities grapple with a looming budget deficit. For USF, the deficit could grow to more than $50 million.
USF's decision comes after the state's university oversight board ordered schools to admit fewer students.
Meanwhile, university leaders appealed to legislative leaders Thursday to insulate their schools from the deepest cuts.
Florida's 11 university presidents and university system Chancellor Mark Rosenberg told House Speaker Marco Rubio in a meeting Thursday that they need an additional $200 million every year for the next five years to "get back in the game" of higher education.
USF's struggle is no different from other schools. Its appeal for transfer students is unique, however. USF admissions officers long have touted that they are the top destination for transfer students nationwide, citing statistics from U.S. News and World Report.
With its plan to trim enrollment, the university may not hold that distinction much longer.
Historically, the university has accepted transfer students who had fewer than 60 credit hours from other colleges and universities, or who never received an associate's degree from a community college.
Nearly 1,000 such students enrolled at USF this academic year. The university has accepted some transfers for next fall, but will accept no more, USF Provost Ralph Wilcox said.
Also, Wilcox said students transferring in as juniors and seniors, or who have received associate's degrees, should have a 3.0 grade-point average. If they've dipped below that mark, he said, "they're probably going to find it more difficult to be admitted here."
Class Size Cuts Mandated
The university still plans to freeze freshman enrollment, which was at about 4,200 students at the Tampa campus this year. The deadline for fall admissions is March 1. As the university reaches its enrollment targets for all levels, Wilcox said it will encourage prospective students to attend its regional campuses in St. Petersburg, Lakeland and Sarasota, where there's room for modest growth.
Without reducing enrollment at all state universities, the budget cuts and their resulting layoffs will only widen the student-to-faculty ratio, which at 31-to-1 is the largest of any state nationwide.
"We're doing all we can to protect the integrity of the academic programs," Wilcox said.
A drop in state tax collections has left a $157 million hole in the collective university system budget. Last week, Chancellor Rosenberg wrote university presidents warning that the current university enrollment statewide of 298,000 students would have to trim by 17,000. He did not specify numbers for each school.
What universities want is a $1 billion investment over the next five years, and they want a mix of tuition increases and state investment to reach that goal. Rosenberg said that would boost faculty ranks and underwrite 1 million more bachelor's degrees by 2027.
Rubio said he was open to a 5 percent or 6 percent tuition increase, reiterating his statement the night before on a call-in radio talk show in Tallahassee that a tuition increase around 5 percent would be "sustainable" if colleges and universities plow a portion of that money back into need-based financial aid.
Tuition Fight
But the universities' Board of Governors has said that 5 percent isn't enough. Last month, the board approved an 8 percent increase in tuition, with 30 percent of the revenue going to aid students who need the money. It did so regardless of the Legislature's and governor's action this year.
The Legislature and Board of Governors are locked in a court battle over who has authority to raise rates. And Gov. Charlie Crist has said he doesn't want to raise the costs facing college students.
An 8 percent tuition increase, Rosenberg said, would net an additional $32 million, and would pay for 200 more faculty members. It also would raise costs for a full-time undergraduate resident of Florida by $93 a semester.
Having trimmed the current budget by about $1 billion last fall, a continuing plummet in revenue has lawmakers planning to make additional cuts during the first week of the regular session, which starts March 4.
House and Senate leaders are negotiating exactly how much to cut, but budget writers in both chambers have predicted overall trims around $300 million to $400 million - or more.
Despite the funding increases university presidents want, legislators are discussing cutting state funding to universities by possibly 4 percent this fiscal year and at least as much the next year. That could result in the loss of 2,500 faculty members, said Modesto A. Maidique, president of Florida International University.
A USF committee of faculty members is reviewing what programs the university can consolidate or cut, and they expect to report their findings as early as next week. In all, USF expects cuts of 15 percent, or about $52 million, from the $350 million it gets from the state.
Reporter Adam Emerson can be reached at aemerson@tampatrib.com or (813) 259-8285.
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