Comment Re:"Steven Salzberg, your blog sucks?" (Score 1) 628
Because that's not really what's happening. The new polytechnic university and this move at UF have nothing to do with each other. The timing was just a coincidence.
Furthermore, the new polytechnic university wasn't really needed and the state can't afford it. It was the brainchild of a moronic state senator who wanted to make a legacy for himself on his way out the door due to term limits (he also has a road to nowhere project in the budget) by converting a satellite branch of USF in Lakeland (not Tampa) with a couple thousand students into a full fledged university. Furthermore, by ramming it through the state budget instead of going through the plan laid out by the State University Board of Governors, it will take several years for this new university to get accredited, so they will have trouble actually attracting students.
Meanwhile, they've cut the budgets to the other 11 state universities by a combined $200 million this year, with FSU, UF and USF taking the biggest hits.