Latest / Conversations: Special Guests with Preston Scott / Are Florida's Public Universities Worth It?
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- 2:06Speaker 4: Third hour of the Morning Show with Preston Scott. I'm Preston,
- 2:09Speaker 4: he is Jose. It is show fifty two seventy four.
- 2:13Speaker 4: So if you find that we have failed in our
- 2:16Speaker 4: responsibility to provide entertaining and informative provoking content, you go
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- 2:25Speaker 4: using number five to seventy four. Great to be with
- 2:30Speaker 4: you for the third hour, and I'm thrilled to have
- 2:32Speaker 4: with me first time ever, the Chancellor of the State
- 2:35Speaker 4: University System is joined me on the program. Ray Rodriguez, Ray,
- 2:39Speaker 4: Welcome to the program. How are you, sir?
- 2:42Speaker 5: I'm doing well. Thank you for having me on, Preston.
- 2:45Speaker 4: My pleasure. Let's do this for listeners. Let's first give
- 2:50Speaker 4: a brief overview of the state university system. It sounds
- 2:54Speaker 4: like a really big thing. Break it down. What does
- 2:59Speaker 4: this what does does that system do? And then your
- 3:02Speaker 4: role is chancellor.
- 3:04Speaker 5: Very good. Our state University system in Florida is comprised
- 3:07Speaker 5: of our twelve universities that would include Florida State University
- 3:12Speaker 5: fam U, University of West Florida, University of North Florida obviously,
- 3:16Speaker 5: University of Florida, University of Central Florida, University of South Florida,
- 3:21Speaker 5: Florida Atlantic University, Florida International University, Florida Gulf Coast University,
- 3:26Speaker 5: and then New College and Florida Polytechnic University. It is big.
- 3:30Speaker 5: We're the third largest university system in the country. We
- 3:35Speaker 5: have over four hundred and thirty thousand students who attend
- 3:39Speaker 5: one of our twelve institutions. My role as chancellor is
- 3:43Speaker 5: I am the CEO of the Borda Governors and the
- 3:46Speaker 5: chancellor of the State University System of Florida. I advocate
- 3:50Speaker 5: for the university. I also serve in a regulatory position
- 3:54Speaker 5: and that it's our responsibility at the Borda Governors to
- 3:58Speaker 5: ensure that all that's being done within our state university
- 4:02Speaker 5: system is compliant with the regulations and with state statutes.
- 4:06Speaker 5: And finally, we're focused on student success.
- 4:09Speaker 4: What's the intersection between what you do with the Board
- 4:13Speaker 4: of Governors and as chancellor with for example, the state legislature,
- 4:18Speaker 4: the Governor's office, and the Florida Department of Education. Is
- 4:22Speaker 4: there any kind of ven diagram where those things overlap
- 4:25Speaker 4: or are you a totally separate entity.
- 4:29Speaker 5: Well, that is a great question. We are a separate entity.
- 4:32Speaker 5: We were constitutionally created to be the independent board that
- 4:38Speaker 5: serves as the regulatory authority over our Florida universities. We
- 4:44Speaker 5: do interact with each of those entities. The Florida the
- 4:49Speaker 5: Board of Education has the authority over the Florida College System,
- 4:54Speaker 5: which would include Tallahassee State College and the other twenty
- 4:58Speaker 5: seven members of of the Florida College System. We work
- 5:02Speaker 5: very closely with the Florida College System so that there
- 5:06Speaker 5: is a consistent education experience and ease of transfer for
- 5:10Speaker 5: graduates in the Florida College System that wish to continue
- 5:13Speaker 5: their education and obtain a bachelor's degree at one of
- 5:17Speaker 5: our universities. We interact, and when I say we, I'm
- 5:20Speaker 5: talking about the state university system with the legislature, because
- 5:25Speaker 5: we are advocating for their appropriation request and we're also
- 5:29Speaker 5: advocating for good policy in the realm of higher education
- 5:33Speaker 5: with the legislature, and we interact quite a bit with
- 5:35Speaker 5: the Executive Office of the Governor, working on both appropriations
- 5:39Speaker 5: and policy issues.
- 5:40Speaker 4: If you were to draw a kind of a comparison,
- 5:43Speaker 4: where does Florida rank within its university system in other
- 5:49Speaker 4: states with regard to affordability, Well.
- 5:53Speaker 5: I'm glad you asked that question, because there is no
- 5:56Speaker 5: one who is more affordable. In the state University system
- 5:59Speaker 5: of Florida, the College Board, which is the organization that
- 6:04Speaker 5: administers the SAT, every year doing a report specific to affordability,
- 6:10Speaker 5: and they just release their report for the current year,
- 6:14Speaker 5: and our tuition in fees in the State University System
- 6:17Speaker 5: of Florida are six three hundred and sixty dollars. The
- 6:21Speaker 5: average public university has tuition in fees of eleven thousand,
- 6:26Speaker 5: six hundred and ten dollars, so we're forty five percent
- 6:30Speaker 5: below the national average. We have not raised tuition or
- 6:34Speaker 5: fees since twenty thirteen, and as a result of that,
- 6:39Speaker 5: our students are able to attend without going into debt.
- 6:43Speaker 5: You know, the narrative nationally is that higher education is
- 6:46Speaker 5: unaffordable and that the only way to obtain a degree
- 6:49Speaker 5: is to go into a significant amount of debt, and
- 6:52Speaker 5: so students are looking at that and weighing whether that's
- 6:54Speaker 5: a worthwhile investment. And that's largely true for many of
- 6:59Speaker 5: the states in this nation, but Florida is the exception
- 7:02Speaker 5: because we do have the lowest tuition and fees and
- 7:05Speaker 5: as a result of that, seventy seven percent of our
- 7:07Speaker 5: students enrolled in fall semester do not have the federal
- 7:11Speaker 5: student loan. We are graduating students stet free.
- 7:14Speaker 4: Do we really put our focus on keeping our kids
- 7:18Speaker 4: in state? Are we doing anything to try to attract
- 7:20Speaker 4: because I would imagine the cost of out of state
- 7:23Speaker 4: tuition for someone that comes to Florida for an education
- 7:26Speaker 4: is a little bit different.
- 7:28Speaker 5: That's true. Every state charges more to their out of
- 7:32Speaker 5: state students than their in state students. Florida is fairly unique.
- 7:37Speaker 5: The only other states who do what we're doing would
- 7:39Speaker 5: be North Carolina and Texas in that we require a
- 7:46Speaker 5: set percentage of students who are allowed in from out
- 7:49Speaker 5: of state. So, for example, in the Florida State University system,
- 7:53Speaker 5: we allow ten percent of students from out of state.
- 7:55Speaker 5: So if you look at our four hundred and twenty
- 7:57Speaker 5: thousand students, ninety percent of them are Florida right. And
- 8:01Speaker 5: the reason for that is our Florida legislature has made
- 8:03Speaker 5: a significant investment in higher education. In fact, since twenty thirteen,
- 8:08Speaker 5: when we implemented performance based funding centered around student success,
- 8:13Speaker 5: our appropriations in state for state education higher education have
- 8:18Speaker 5: gone from one point seventy four billion to four point
- 8:22Speaker 5: eighty five billion. That's an increase of two hundred and
- 8:25Speaker 5: eighty percent. Our legislature has prioritized investing in higher education
- 8:30Speaker 5: for Florida citizens, and so we want to make sure
- 8:33Speaker 5: that it's Florida citizens that are benefiting from those taxpayer dollars.
- 8:37Speaker 4: The graduation rates, first of all, what are they inside
- 8:42Speaker 4: the state? And secondly, what's the timeframe of graduation on average?
- 8:48Speaker 5: You know, that is also a very important question. If
- 8:50Speaker 5: you were to google typical graduation rate in the United States,
- 8:54Speaker 5: the number that would come up would be sixty four percent.
- 8:57Speaker 5: So that's the national average. What you would no unless
- 9:00Speaker 5: you drill down on that, is that sixty four percent
- 9:03Speaker 5: is actually a six year graduation rate. That is the
- 9:07Speaker 5: standard for measuring graduation rates in higher education today. Here
- 9:12Speaker 5: in the state of Florida, we measure in four year
- 9:16Speaker 5: increments because that's what the universities are measured on in
- 9:20Speaker 5: terms of performance space funding. Our four year graduation rate
- 9:24Speaker 5: is sixty four percent, So we're doing in four years
- 9:27Speaker 5: what the typical public higher education across this country university
- 9:30Speaker 5: is doing in six If you want our six year
- 9:33Speaker 5: graduation rate number, it is just below eighty percent. It's
- 9:37Speaker 5: very important to us that our students are successful. US
- 9:41Speaker 5: News and World Report has ranked the State University System
- 9:44Speaker 5: of Florida and our Florida College System as the number
- 9:47Speaker 5: one state for higher education since twenty seventeen when they
- 9:51Speaker 5: began ranking state systems, and it is an objective measure
- 9:55Speaker 5: that they use when they do that metric and they
- 9:58Speaker 5: issue their rankings, they're looking at how much does it
- 10:01Speaker 5: cost to attend, how deep in debt are students, how
- 10:05Speaker 5: many of them graduate, and when they graduate, do they
- 10:07Speaker 5: find jobs? And on all of those metrics, the State
- 10:11Speaker 5: University System of Florida is extremely successful.
- 10:14Speaker 4: Yeah, I was just going to ask about success defined
- 10:17Speaker 4: as in careers after schooling, getting a degree in something
- 10:23Speaker 4: that actually leads to a job. How do you determine
- 10:26Speaker 4: what the best paths are in making things available to students.
- 10:31Speaker 5: Well, we have a couple of things that we utilize.
- 10:34Speaker 5: One is within our performance based funding metrics. We have
- 10:38Speaker 5: programs of strategic Emphasis, and to be designated a program
- 10:42Speaker 5: a state teach emphasis, it has to be a program
- 10:46Speaker 5: in which there is an existing job shortage in the
- 10:49Speaker 5: state of Florida or a projected job shortage in the
- 10:52Speaker 5: state of Florida that meets the minimum wage threshold, and
- 10:55Speaker 5: to get that data, we work directly with the Department
- 10:58Speaker 5: of Commerce. We work with our Chambers of Commerce, the
- 11:02Speaker 5: Florida Chamber of Commerce, and our local Chambers of Commerce
- 11:06Speaker 5: at our institutions, so that we're plugged into what the
- 11:09Speaker 5: local job needs in each of the communities within programs
- 11:12Speaker 5: of strategic emphasis. More than sixty percent of our undergraduate
- 11:16Speaker 5: degrees or awarded in majors that lead to those open jobs,
- 11:21Speaker 5: and sixty five percent of our graduate degrees are in
- 11:24Speaker 5: programs of strategic emphasis. The next thing we do, and
- 11:27Speaker 5: this is also something that makes Florida unique, is we
- 11:30Speaker 5: have something called my Florida Future. If you go to
- 11:32Speaker 5: the Florida Border Governor's website, this is the most visited
- 11:36Speaker 5: page on our entire website. You can choose any institution
- 11:41Speaker 5: and then once you've chosen that institution, look at every
- 11:43Speaker 5: major that's offered and it will tell you what recent
- 11:46Speaker 5: college graduates are earning when they graduate. And so you
- 11:50Speaker 5: go into the university with your eyes wide open when
- 11:53Speaker 5: you choose your major of what your job prospects are
- 11:56Speaker 5: going to be after graduation. Hormant space funding on that metric,
- 12:02Speaker 5: we look at postgraduation, how are our graduates doing. Seventy
- 12:07Speaker 5: five percent of them are either continuing their education in
- 12:11Speaker 5: a professional degree, law school, medical school, or going on
- 12:15Speaker 5: to get their masters or their doctorates, or they're employed.
- 12:18Speaker 5: And if they're employed, we're looking at what are the
- 12:20Speaker 5: wages that they are earning. And the medium wage of
- 12:24Speaker 5: a graduate from the State University System of Florida is
- 12:27Speaker 5: fifty dollars.
- 12:29Speaker 4: A lot of parents concerned, and I think one of
- 12:33Speaker 4: the things that a lot of people are struggling with
- 12:35Speaker 4: is what happens in secondary higher education when it comes
- 12:39Speaker 4: to the indoctrination of students. They go to college thinking
- 12:43Speaker 4: one way and they come out thinking of another. Because
- 12:46Speaker 4: there are notable professors that take advantage of it that
- 12:50Speaker 4: they have almost a captive audience. What does the board
- 12:54Speaker 4: of regions? What do you do as a chancellor to
- 12:56Speaker 4: ensure that that kids are getting an education and exposure
- 12:59Speaker 4: to all philosophical ideals and ideas when it comes to
- 13:04Speaker 4: governance and economics and all of the various philosophies that
- 13:08Speaker 4: are out there.
- 13:09Speaker 5: Well, that is a very real concern. Gallup Organization does
- 13:14Speaker 5: an annual poll where they measure the confidence of Americans
- 13:17Speaker 5: in their institutions, and last year they found confidence in
- 13:21Speaker 5: higher education had fallen the thirty six percent. The last
- 13:24Speaker 5: time they had done that confidence level was close to
- 13:27Speaker 5: sixty percent, so it was shocking. This year, they were
- 13:30Speaker 5: prepared so when they polled, they had follow up questions
- 13:33Speaker 5: and once again the confidence level is down to thirty
- 13:36Speaker 5: six percent. The theory last year was the reason Americans
- 13:39Speaker 5: had lost confidence was because higher education had gotten so
- 13:42Speaker 5: expensive and students were going so deep in debt. What
- 13:46Speaker 5: Gallup found when they asked the follow up questions as
- 13:48Speaker 5: to why you lost the confidence in higher education, that
- 13:52Speaker 5: was actually the third reason the cost and the debt.
- 13:55Speaker 5: The number one reason Americans have lost confidence in higher
- 13:58Speaker 5: education is because of a belief that is indoctrinating students
- 14:03Speaker 5: into a left wing ideology. And that was shocking because
- 14:07Speaker 5: no one thought that would be the number one answer,
- 14:09Speaker 5: And that was number one because it's a top concern
- 14:11Speaker 5: for both Republicans and those who identify politically as independents.
- 14:16Speaker 5: In the state of Florida. The action that's been taken
- 14:18Speaker 5: has been led by Governor Rod DeSantis. He championed legislation
- 14:22Speaker 5: two sessions ago to remove THEI programs out of our
- 14:27Speaker 5: universities and for us to address these concepts, particularly in
- 14:31Speaker 5: our general education crisculum, because that's where the real threat
- 14:35Speaker 5: on indoctrination occurs. In general education, students have to take
- 14:39Speaker 5: these courses. They don't have a choice. So it's one
- 14:42Speaker 5: thing if you want to go major in one of
- 14:44Speaker 5: these concepts or majors or programs that have these theories
- 14:49Speaker 5: in them, but a student shouldn't be forced to sit
- 14:52Speaker 5: through this in order to complete their general education Crichlum.
- 14:55Speaker 5: The statute removes these concepts out of general education crism
- 15:02Speaker 5: and so in State of Florida, you're going to be
- 15:03Speaker 5: able to complete your general education curriculum without being exposed
- 15:07Speaker 5: to any left wing in doctrination there.
- 15:10Speaker 4: I'm sorry, but Chancellor, is there a process for students
- 15:13Speaker 4: that are still being exposed to this type of thing
- 15:16Speaker 4: where they're they're required to agree with certain principles or
- 15:20Speaker 4: their papers don't get graded or they get just raked
- 15:23Speaker 4: over the coals with the grading curricu the grading model
- 15:26Speaker 4: that's being used. Is there a way for these professors
- 15:30Speaker 4: because they're still out there and they brag about being
- 15:32Speaker 4: out there, How are they.
- 15:34Speaker 5: Reported, that's a good question. I'm going to give you
- 15:38Speaker 5: two things. The first is within that legislation that requires
- 15:42Speaker 5: these concepts to be removed out of general education crisculum,
- 15:46Speaker 5: there there's a caricter and a stick, and the stick
- 15:49Speaker 5: is if the university is found to have these concepts
- 15:52Speaker 5: in general education and to continue in doctrination, the university
- 15:56Speaker 5: is subject to losing their performance space funding. In Flora,
- 16:00Speaker 5: the appropriations that we receive, and I mentioned earlier how
- 16:03Speaker 5: they've gone up nearly three hundred percent, are all appropriated
- 16:07Speaker 5: through the prism of performance based funding. So that is
- 16:10Speaker 5: a significant threat to universities that they absolutely, from a
- 16:15Speaker 5: leadership perspective, will be seeking to avoid. The second thing
- 16:18Speaker 5: I want to share with you, and this is also
- 16:20Speaker 5: something that makes Florida unique, is that every year we
- 16:23Speaker 5: survey all of our students on the concepts of viewpoint,
- 16:27Speaker 5: diversity and intellectual freedom. And this year we just completed
- 16:32Speaker 5: what is the largest voluntary survey that's been done in
- 16:35Speaker 5: higher education in the history of the United States, because
- 16:39Speaker 5: our system is so large and the results that came
- 16:42Speaker 5: back were very encouraging and that the overwhelming majority of
- 16:46Speaker 5: our students believe in their classrooms that viewpoint diversity is
- 16:50Speaker 5: presented and that intellectual freedom is encouraged, and we're going
- 16:54Speaker 5: to continue measuring that every single year. If a student
- 16:57Speaker 5: is in a classroom and they are being exposed to
- 17:00Speaker 5: these concepts, then they have the ability to report that,
- 17:03Speaker 5: and I can guarantee you the university is going to
- 17:06Speaker 5: take action, because no university is going to risk losing
- 17:09Speaker 5: their performance space funding.
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