Faculty Losses Hurting Florida's Universities

[Drewski]

http://www2.tbo.com/content/2008/aug/07/me-brain-drain-hurting-universities/

Nothing really new here, but this story continues to make headlines...

Florida's public universities are seeking $65 million from the Legislature to stop the exodus of talented faculty members who are drawn to better opportunities in more financially stable regions.

The University of South Florida, for instance, already has lost three times the number of faculty members that normally have left by now in previous years, USF Provost Ralph Wilcox said.

Nearly all have been drawn to universities from Texas to North Carolina with the promise of money and high-tech lab space.

USF, meanwhile, is cutting more than $50 million from its budget and is hard-pressed to keep its top talent from fleeing.

"Florida is becoming the target of opportunity for other states," Wilcox told members of the state university system's Board of Governors at their meeting Wednesday in Jacksonville.

USF most recently fought off universities trying to recruit its top federal grant winner, Jeffrey Krischer, who so far has brought in $389 million to make Tampa the epicenter of every major diabetes study worldwide.

Last month, however, the university lost its high-profile robotics researcher, Robin Murphy, whose search-and-rescue robots made headlines from ground zero to the Gulf region ravaged by Hurricane Katrina. Texas A&M University lured her with more money and a $54 million building used to test search-and-rescue technology.

USF is not alone. Every one of the state's 11 public universities is losing talent it can't afford to keep. "Unless we can do something to invest in human capital, to match the competition we're facing out there ... our future is indeed dark," Wilcox said.

The University of Florida, for one, has set aside $11 million from its tuition revenue and student fees to boost faculty pay and stem the exodus.

However, every university argues it needs more. The $65 million they seek would boost the pay of current faculty members, who have received state-funded raises in only two of the past five years. The money is part of a $3.1 billion 2009-2010 budget proposal for the governor to consider, which is only a 5 percent increase from last year's university system budget and one that a Board of Governors member called "bare bones."

Even a bare-bones budget isn't guaranteed, however. State economists are expected later this month to report a continued decline in tax collections.

Florida's operating revenue for this fiscal year could drop by $1.5 billion, said Tim Jones, the state university system's executive director of budget policy.

If universities have to cut further, that could make keeping the faculty they have even harder, administrators say.

"The longer revenue projections keep coming in at a lower rate, the greater the likelihood that we'll have to trim our budget even more," Wilcox said.

Reporter Adam Emerson can be reached at (813) 259-8285 or aemerson@tampatrib.com.