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Genshaft: Budget ‘blatantly unfair’

Senate proposes 58 percent cut from USF’s budget and another 14 percent to be held

Published: Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Updated: Tuesday, February 14, 2012 12:02

ORACLE PHOTO/JASMINE ABNEY

ORACLE PHOTO/JASMINE ABNEY

— USF President Judy Genshaft displays what she called the “draconian” budget proposed by the Florida Senate.

"He has very real power over what each university gets," he said. "He's been in that position for a while, and he is without question a very powerful person."

Genshaft, who told reporters after the meeting that the cuts were "blatantly unfair," said the budget was not final, and there was time to make a difference.

"There's a reason we use the term ‘unstoppable,'" she said. "This is not an institution that stands with a cloud over its head saying, ‘We can't do anything.' Reach out. Make calls. Send emails. Touch those you know and even those you don't know that are our friends in the legislatures to change this draconian budget. We can change this. It is not a done deal. Don't get scared and leave."

Ramil closed the meeting with an aggressive tone and said that no political figure was stronger than an institution.

"This university has been under assault for the past several months," he said. "You have to play the game for a while, but when the game starts to move you away from what's right, you have to put your foot down. And we've said ‘Enough.'"

Additional Reporting by Jessica Velez

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8 comments

Anonymous
Fri Feb 17 2012 02:15
Lets not forget the 110 k worth of green spot lights that light the water tower on those fewer and fewer times our football team wins. Just more USF waste
Anonymous
Wed Feb 15 2012 12:11
If the school's operating budget was $178 MM last year, then repainting the water tower was 0.0014 % of that. Judy's salary could roughly total 0.0035 % of the budget. Meanwhile, if an individual takes home 100k per year and spends $100 on family and friends at Olive Garden one night than that's 0.001 of your annual operating budget. Don't we deserve nice things?

To suggest that all those relatively small expenditures if saved, would have been anywhere near covering the $128 the state bill is threatening to wipe out, is just wrong. And to suggest the faculty is rich is downright preposterous. Unless you're a department chair, dean or in some other administrative leadership role, our faculty makes far less than it's national counterparts.

People are missing the point entirely if they feel the solution to our problems is to point the finger at the university. The university, just like any other a-hole you know, will piss you off sometimes, but it is and always will be our strongest ally through this ordeal.

Anonymous
Wed Feb 15 2012 10:02
If you read past articles in the Oracle, for years people have complianed about the way USF spends money on the "extras" ...... trees, art, good sidewalks ripped up and re done, Sports parksbuilt while educational classrooms are ignored, and of course ..Pay raises for the top USF officials

Looks like its finally caught up to the USF Administrators

Anonymous
Tue Feb 14 2012 20:10
Well, let's see.

$675,000 for a new canopy.

$250,000 to re-paint the water tower with the 'U' logo.

Tens of thousands more for video games, Bulls Nite Out, Week of Welcome, the "ULS", water bottle filling stations, etc.

It all adds up year after year.

I bet Genshaft and all her $100k-$200k a year talking bobblehead 60+ year-old administrative administrators wish they could have all that money back right about now, huh? Had they banked all that money over the years, maybe we wouldn't be in the world of SHIT that we're about to be in.

USF administrators had their chances to cut the overspending all these years, but they didn't do it. Now the students, faculty, staff, and the local economy will pay the price for their irresponsibility.

Anonymous
Tue Feb 14 2012 19:22
USF spends money like water. The other poster is correct, there are tons of waste ..Bull Plants, Game rooms with custom furnture, Genshafts New Office Building, wastefull spending by student Govt and the bottomless pit known as USF athletics.

Please ..... EDUCATION HAS ALWAYS BEEN LAST ON THE PRIORITY LIST AT USF !!

Anonymous
Tue Feb 14 2012 15:19
HAHA! The USF President and Facutly can take a 0.1% paycut from the ridiculous amount of money they make to cover the cuts.

THIS IS PATHETIC

Anonymous
Tue Feb 14 2012 14:45
People that come up with these ideas/legislation/budgets already have their education, so why would they care about us?
Anonymous
Tue Feb 14 2012 08:28
That's what you get wasting gobs of money year after year. Just look around the campus at all the waste. Fountains, game rooms, flagpoles, useless construction projects, the list goes on and on.

That being said, we have an overly uber-conservative extremist right-wing state government right now. This is exactly why political extremism (in either direction) is BAD. These Republicans are so extreme in their ways that they want to cut everything razor thin no matter what's going on in the job market or economy.





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