{"id":6346,"date":"2020-02-12T09:55:56","date_gmt":"2020-02-12T14:55:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=6346"},"modified":"2020-02-12T09:56:11","modified_gmt":"2020-02-12T14:56:11","slug":"florida-polytechnic-merger-proposal-facing-major-opposition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2020\/02\/12\/florida-polytechnic-merger-proposal-facing-major-opposition\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida Polytechnic Merger Proposal Facing Major Opposition"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Major opposition is mounting to a surprise bill to integrate Florida Polytechnic University into the University of Florida. The Polk County-based STEM university\u2019s president Randy Avent said he would attend today\u2019s Florida House Education Committee meeting to oppose the bill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The bill, PCB\nEDC 20-03<\/a>, emerged from the House Higher Education Appropriations\nSubcommittee, where Chairman Randy Fine, a Brevard County Republican, said it\u2019s\na matter of fiscal prudence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf we can stop spending $180,000 per degree and start\nspending $20,000 per degree, we could get nine kids educated for what we are\npresently paying to educate one. It\u2019s a winner for our students and it\u2019s a\nwinner for the state.\u201d Fine\ntold Tampa\u2019s ABC Action News<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Florida Polytechnic\u2019s statement about the bill:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Respecting every taxpayer dollar and maximizing the\nimpact of those dollars is clearly at the heart of this legislative proposal.\nBut the facts and the truth show that every dollar at Florida Polytechnic\nUniversity is already having a maximum positive impact. That\u2019s why we\nrespectfully and strongly oppose this unnecessary and unwarranted legislation.\nWe stand behind the fact that we have accomplished, and continue to accomplish,\ngreat things as a separate, unique institution within the State University\nSystem. Florida\u2019s future lies in the fields of science, technology,\nengineering, and mathematics, and Florida Poly offers a core STEM education\navailable nowhere else in our state. In its young life, Florida Poly has been\ndoing the job it was created for. Our projections show enrollment growth, and\napplications have nearly doubled. This university has a substantial economic\nimpact for the benefit of all of Florida, and our recently earned ABET\naccreditation is a testimony to the high standards of our academic degrees. A\nrecent study showed that Florida Poly grads can expect a return on their\ninvestment that is more than three times larger than the other universities in\nthe system.  It would be a profound mistake, for our current and future students\n\u2013 and for the state of Florida \u2013 to diminish Florida Poly\u2019s role in meeting\nthis important state objective.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Major opposition is mounting to a surprise bill to integrate Florida Polytechnic University into the University of Florida. The Polk County-based STEM university\u2019s president Randy Avent said he would attend… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6347,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"12","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","default_image_id":71799,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[12,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6346","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6346","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6346"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6346\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6347"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6346"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6346"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6346"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}