Letters to the Editor 20 May 2009

Why is Machen slashing budget? 

It is hard to fully express my disappointment that despite the state not cutting the University of Florida's budget, President Machen will still cut $40 million because not all of the money is guaranteed to reoccur in coming years.

When it became clear how damaging the potential cuts to the university could be, the faculty, students, and the greater Gainesville community worked to save UF, with thousands of phone calls (which Machen encouraged), rallies, letters, and visits to representatives' offices. Machen never indicated that he would still make cuts no matter what happened.

Everyone knew that the state would fill the budget hole with federal stimulus dollars. The speed with which he announced the cuts after the budget was finalized leads many to conclude that had always been his plan. When we should be looking to him for leadership, people involved in the fight with the Legislature feel the president personally misled them.

Some trustees have spoken about this being an "opportunity" to turn UF from a great undergraduate school into a research center. UF will never turn a profit and, more importantly, it never should.

Machen and the trustees like to use a business model and measure the "productivity" of different departments. However, UF is an institute of higher learning. The "product" it produces is a well-educated graduate. The measure of the value of a department is not only how many credit hours it teaches, but also how well it instructs.

Too often the proposed cuts do not account for the quality of education alongside the hard dollar numbers. Finally, Machen's rationale for the cuts seems shortsighted. There will be federal stimulus monies next year, too. Why not delay cutting and see what the economy is doing next year (when UF will have more new tuition dollars as well)?

Bret Seferian, 

Gainesville