Daytona Beach Community College may have to put off plans to open a hospitality management institute to help jump-start the area’s tourism economy.
University of Central Florida engineering students could have to take some classes off campus next year because space is so tight.
At Valencia Community College, administrators expect to turn away more than 3,000 students this fall because classes already are packed morning to night.
Students at community colleges and universities throughout Florida may find that class sizes will grow and major building projects will go undone under the state budget Gov. Jeb Bush proposed last month.
One of the main funding sources for these projects, the Public Education Capital Outlay (PECO) fund is expected to shrink at the same time student enrollment is rising. Annually, colleges, universities and public schools compete for those dollars, which come from taxes on utility companies.
At the same time the fund is dwindling, more of the cash would be shifted to public school districts. Districts must build more elementary, middle and high schools because a new constitutional amendment requires officials to cut class sizes.
Under the governor’s plan, universities would suffer most in the 2003-04 fiscal year. Eleven universities would share almost $90 million of the $597 million PECO fund. That’s less than one-third the money they are scheduled to receive this year for building and renovation projects, according to the Florida Department of Education.
Community colleges would receive more cash next year but not nearly enough to do all the work campus officials say they need. About $153 million — $26 million more than this year — would be distributed among the state’s 28 community colleges.
DBCC in Volusia County is proposed to receive almost $6 million from the state, most of which will go toward renovating some of the older buildings on the main campus, said President Kent Sharples.
Sharples hopes there will be more money next year to start constructing a building at the front of the campus to house the college’s growing culinary arts and hotel management programs.
“I think everyone understands that when the economy goes south, the enrollment at community colleges goes north,” he said. “There’s a significant demand on our facilities and our infrastructure.”
State officials and educators, though, are not sure if PECO funds will grow enough to cover those needs and others across Florida that will arise as existing facilities age and new buildings are needed.
Administrators said community colleges and universities will have to be creative to find ways to continue housing students and meet demand for popular programs.
Valencia may have to limit enrollment for a second consecutive year because not enough cash is included in the proposed PECO budget to add the space the college needs, officials said.
Dead last in state funding per student, Valencia last fall turned away 3,000 applicants rather than cram more students onto its four campuses in Orange and Osceola counties. During the previous two years, enrollment had jumped more than 24 percent.
Valencia President Sanford Shugart said the college will need $200 million worth of construction during the next nine years to catch up with growth and accommodate future enrollment.
“Just when the state can’t afford to give us more money is when we need it,” Shugart said.
Community colleges, which served 791,140 people statewide during the 2001-02 academic year, will be encouraging more students to explore alternative programs such as taking classes via the Internet or television.
That way, students can learn at home or elsewhere. Those programs have grown in recent years but not enough to relieve overcrowding.
Although community college administrators are frustrated by the lack of funding, those in Central Florida said they are pleased with the way the cash in the proposed budget was divvied up among Florida’s community colleges and public universities.
But, they said, the shortfall needs to made up somehow in coming years.
Universities, on the other hand, would not receive as much as community colleges. University of Central Florida, for example, would get nothing.
Although Florida’s budget likely will change as lawmakers meet this legislative session to discuss spending, area educators are not optimistic they will get much more from the PECO budget.
The state already has put the most money toward projects it considers its highest priorities as well as continuing projects that have been funded in previous years.
Lake-Sumter Community College would receive about $1.3 million, half the amount it requested for capital projects in the 2003-04 fiscal year. Officials were glad to learn they could receive even that much.
That’s because the amount is at least $400,000 higher than earlier estimates showed the college would receive, President Chuck Mojock said.
Mojock said the college, whose enrollment swelled 15 percent this academic year, could manage on that much. If additional funding doesn’t come in the future, though, LSCC will have trouble keeping up with growth.
“Next year looks even worse and that’s why when we look at this year, it’s not that bad,” Mojock said.
UCF needs $9.5 million to help construct a new engineering building. It wants another $1.5 million to expand its hazardous-waste facility and $2.5 million for infrastructure improvements that include repairing roads and replacing underground utility lines, said William Merck, UCF’s vice president for administration and finance.
Another $500,000 would buy furniture and equipment for the education building, which is being renovated now.
Those projects may have to wait.
“If this is a temporary ebb, we’ll be OK but if it’s a long-term ebb, then we’ve got long-term trouble,” Merck said.
“You can live with potholes in a road for a short period of time,” he said. “But if they’re not soon repaired, you can lose the whole road.”
Seminole Community College officials are crossing their fingers that they keep the allocation they were offered in Bush’s budget — almost $7 million, including $3.5 million to help open a campus in Altamonte Springs.
“What we see here so far is what were we’re hoping for,” said SCC spokeswoman Shelley Ouellette.
SCC officials and others across the state will be keeping a keen eye on what legislators do with the rest of the $54 billion state budget. Campuses’ operating budgets could come up short, too, officials said.
Community colleges and universities’ students could see a 7.5 percent tuition rate increase even as financial-aid programs are tightened.
Officials worry changes to their programs paired with higher prices may mean some students won’t be able to go to college. Community colleges’ basic mission is to provide education to anyone who wants it.
“We are very, very concerned about the upcoming budget and its impact on access,” Shugart said.
“There was a time when the concerns of a tight budget were about quality. Now it is about quality and access.”
