USF Polytechnic - Chickens have come to roost

[Danm1983]

Not surprised in the least bit. **** JDA and his ilk. Wish there was a way for him to have to foot the bill.

 

Polk County is major UF territory for whatever reason. Them Gator folks in Polk are pretty opposed to anything USF/UCF being out there.

[BaltoBull]

However, to believe that that was the "plan all along" is giving WAAAAAYYYY too much

credit to JDA. 

I don't.

 

JD Alexander is a hard-core politician who likely saw his last chance to 'cash-in' while he was in office.

 

As Bullshutter suggested, look at FGCU and how he and his interests profited handsomely.

 

Don't forget about his other pet project, the Heartland Parkway.

 

What, the parkway would just happen to run close to Poly and necessitate the purchase by the state of land that he owns?

 

The man knows what he's doing. This is Alexander's  piece de resistance. 

 

Bet me now if Poly ends up in UF's hands, Alexander won't be named to the board of governors and paid handsomely by Machen and his Gator ilk for making sure Gainesville has an interest in the tech corridor.

 

If you don't think he's trying to give Poly to UF and secure his financial future, I don't know what to tell you.

 

That being said, Alexander is a F***-nut, no doubt - a product of Florida politics at it's finest.

[Ricky the Bull]

So sad.... and the fact that Gov. Scott, who supposedly has a tough fiscal mindset, didn't veto this turkey is just another reason that I'm not voting for him this next election.

 

http://www.tampabay.com/opinion/editorials/editorial-buyers-remorse-over-florida-polytech/2111832

[charsibb]

So sad.... and the fact that Gov. Scott, who supposedly has a tough fiscal mindset, didn't veto this turkey is just another reason that I'm not voting for him this next election.

 

http://www.tampabay.com/opinion/editorials/editorial-buyers-remorse-over-florida-polytech/2111832

 

Gotta love this quote - was this the plan all along??? Unfrigginbelievable!

 

House Speaker Will Weatherford should continue exploring ways to reel in this unaffordable fantasy before the state wastes hundreds of millions more on it.

 

A year after former state Sen. JD Alexander swiped the Lakeland campus from the University of South Florida and forced his colleagues to create a 12th university, there is buyer's remorse in Tallahassee. Gov. Rick Scott, who failed to stop Alexander's power play last year, sounded less than enthusiastic about Florida Polytech's prospects this week during a meeting with the Times editorial board. The Senate appears disinclined to give the new university even half of the $27 million it expects this year, and Weatherford wonders whether the campus should be tied to another institution such as the University of Florida. If only this sensible skepticism would have emerged a year ago.

[bullcocky101]

It was a conspiracy to use USF's budget to fund a mini UF campus...

[GaUSFBull]

It's only a matter of time before they are 'given' to UF to 'ensure their success' and to 'raise their national profile' by being directly affiliated with the state's 'flagship school'.

 

This has been the plan all along. 

 

I've heard this also.  The changing demographics makes sense since Lakeland will be the last frontier for the Tampa/Orlando metropolitan merge.  UF will not get locked out of the emerging region that's clearly USF and UCF territory in research and science.

Orlampa??

[BaltoBull]

Gotta love this quote - was this the plan all along??? Unfrigginbelievable!

 

 and Weatherford wonders whether the campus should be tied to another institution such as the University of Florida. If only this sensible skepticism would have emerged a year ago.

 

Yes. This has been the plan ALL ALONG.

[Mission9]

Can one have Pocket Protector envy? Does such a phychological disease exist? Apparently so, as JD Alexander, a State Senator in Florida has recently demonstrated that such a neorosis does in fact exist. It is sad desease, that apparently eats away at your brain’s ability to be a man and do what is right for the State constituents that you perportedly represent. And it causes you to resent those pocket protecting wearers who rejected you decades ago, and made you feel like the small man that you, JD Alexander, are today. Is such an introduction warrented? Well let’s explore one person’s view of the facts.

JD Alexander “JDA†claims that his goal is for there to be a Polytechnic College in the State of Florida. So let’s review his actions, and the implications of his words, to see if they support this assertion that JDA really is looking after the Florida University system.

While discussing the proposed spin-off of the as of today theoretical USF Polytechnic, JDA talks about his experience during his short attendance at Georgia Tech decades ago, and about how they were a bunch of nerds with pocket protectors. Apparently he did not have what it takes to succeed at Georgia Tech and harbors resentment about it to this day. If that wasn’t the case, why else, give me one reason, why he would bring up GT during a discussion about a matter before the Florida State Senate that clearly has nothing to do with GT? This was supposed to be about how USF was botching the development of a Polytechnic College. So JDA takes that opportunity to take a shot at the very University that he couldn’t make it at which is not even in Florida? In fact, GT should be a model of what a Polytechnic University could or should be in Florida, as it is indisputably one of be the best engineering based Universities in the Country, and clearly would be counted amount the very best such public schools in the US. I say this as a graduate of Virginia Tech, and that is not easy to do, since we are consistently ranked behind GT, or as us VT graduates believe, just behind GT, when it comes to top Polytechnic Public Universities in the US.

So does JDA have respect for what a Polytechnic school would have to offer, or is he ensuring that a “bunch of nerds†don’t become part of a large University in USF that could in the long term challenge the primacy of his beloved UF, which apparently he did have the ability to graduate from? What are the chances that a small Polytechnic College could pose any threat to his beloved UF if it is not part of a large University? So JDA wants us to believe that a small start-up Polytechnic College with no alumni base, no history, no endowments, no grants, will somehow be better off separate from a large research University such as USF? If it is not about JDA trying to ensure there is less competition for UF, why after he had passed the bill in the Florida Senate to separate USF Polytechnic from USF did he shout “Go Gators� So in looking at JDA’s emotional outbursts, which is more likely – that he is really looking after the University system in Florida? Or is he really looking to ensure an up and coming USF doesn’t challenge his UF Gators? And if that is not enough evidence of his emotional state, JDA says just before his “Go Gators†cheer, that USF students are a bunch of wannabes that wish they were UF students. Hmmm, JDA in the same speech which was purportedly about why USF should not have a polytechnic school, where you impugn GT students as nerds, you say USF students really wish they were UF students? Sounds like to me, JDA, that you wish you had the smarts to make it at GT, and you want to ensure that USF, or the State of Florida for that matter, does not have a Polytechnic school of a quality nearing the level where you would be rejected as you were by the nerds at GT. JDA, congratulations, you finally have your revenge on the nerds.

So if one can accept that JDA has psychological reasons for having a fear of the nerds, let’s look at what the real issue is, as it always is … the money. If this wasn’t about the money, why did JDA tie USF spinning off USF Polytechnic as part of the funding of many other parts of USF for fiscal year 2013? In summary, if USF did not spin off USF Polytechnic, USF stood to lose State funding of tens of millions of dollars per year for a number of established programs at USF including the Pharmacy School. My guess, and yes it is only a guess, is that JDA is afraid if USF Polytechnic remained a part of USF, that in the long run, the students who graduated from USF Polytechnic would go out into the marketplace, and those pocket protecting wearing nerds would make good money and donate to USF. So what is a pocket protector fearing JDA to do? Kill USF Polytechnic. JDA fears an already fast growing alumni and donor base that USF has been developing over the last couple decades, and if USF adds to that USF Polytechnic, what could happen? Do I have to recount how fast USF Football has risen over the last decade? If you think JDA’s “Go Gators†was all about academics, you have never met a Bull Gator (aka donor) like JDA.

I would like to clarify that this is not meant to be a shot at the University of Florida, or the vast majority of its students and alumni. The vast majority of these folks have likely not even heard about what JDA has been up to these last few months, much less have anything to do with JDA’s revenge on the nerds. Yet, Bull Gators such as JDA, have demonstrated that they are afraid of the Rocky the Bull, and in response have come up with a whole bunch of bull to justify their actions. And that makes them small, pocket protector fearing reptiles. Maybe they really fear getting hooked by Rocky the Bull wearing a pocket protector? But who can diagnose the motives of those with power, and how they manipulate the system to comport with their own personal biases?

My brother, who went to Virginia Tech and has not lived in Florida since 1998, wrote this as an editorial to submit to one of the papers where he lives and some in Florida. I do not think it was ever published but I think is an interesting insight from someone whose only connection to USF is me and some of his employees.

Edited March 31, 2013 by Mission9

[BaltoBull]

Thanks for sharing the post above, Mission9!

[Rizman]

Here we go.... just like everyone was warned:  The unaccredited and student-less former USF Poly is asking for an ADDITIONAL $25 million while the budgets of existing universities are being slashed.

 

http://www2.tbo.com/news/opinion/2013/feb/19/1/naopino1-the-florida-polytechnic-fraud-ar-637840/

Call your representative and say no.