FAMU, FIU, UCF presidents refusing to back down from their enrollment growth plans

The presidents of Florida A&M, Florida International, and the University of Central Florida are pushing forward with their plans for enrollment growth despite harsh questioning on the issue from some members of the Florida Board of Governors (BOG).

UCF and FIU have been called on to defend their big student numbers at BOG meetings ever since they both surpassed the University of Florida in enrollment.

Back in 2009, UCF took UF’s former title as the largest in Florida. 

In Fall 2016, UCF was the still the biggest in the state with 64,318 students and the second largest in the country behind Arizona State University. FIU was the second largest in Florida with 55,112 students. 

UCF bringing in millions from tuition and fees and performance funds

BOG member Norman Tripp has been questioning the enrollment growth at UCF for years. 

“What is your long-range plan for size? Do you have one?” Tripp asked UCF President John Hitt in 2015.

According to the Orlando Sentinel, “Hitt declined to state a future enrollment number.”

Tripp brought the subject of enrollment growth up again at the September 2017 BOG meeting.

“We have changed the model in that you don’t get paid so much anymore for growth as you do for excellence,” Tripp said. “I really feel as a system we need to understand better what growth should be throughout the system.”

The Lakeland Ledger reported that Hitt “noted his school has twice finished at the top of the annual performance rankings for the system, which ties funding to metrics like graduation rates and job placement.”

Performing funding still doesn’t come anywhere close to matching what UCF gets from tuition and fees. UCF received $23.8M in new funds from performance funding in 2015-2016. But that was small compared to the net $295.1M that tuition and fees brought in that year.

Rosenberg defends FIU enrollment growth: “We are not going to turn our backs on eligible students in our community”

FIU President Mark Rosenberg also defended the growing student numbers at his school. According to the Lakeland Ledger, he “said his school’s growth is linked to serving a region that includes Florida’s largest county, Miami-Dade, with 2.9 million residents.” 

The article added that: "Minority students make up an overwhelming majority of FIU’s enrollment, with 67 percent of students identified as Hispanics and 12 percent as African Americans, according to the National Center for Education Statistics."

“We are not going to turn our backs on eligible students in our community,” Rosenberg said.

Back in 2009, a Huffington Post article reported “Rosenberg opened seats shortly after he arrived in 2009 upon hearing complaints that numerous qualified local students were getting shut out.”

Robinson raises FAMU enrollment with strong Fall 2017 freshman class

FAMU President Larry Robinson raised enrollment in Fall 2017 even after a member of BOG said that recruiting top students shouldn’t be a major focus.   

“Aim higher, please because these students are smart…that the success rate would be much, much more significant than striving to create more programs or try to compete in recruiting more students that have the grades and are able to go to other universities that are having better success right now,” BOG member H. Wayne Huizenga said.

But months later, Robinson reversed the FAMU enrollment decline by boosting the number of students up to 9,913. The freshman class for Fall 2017 has a 3.39 average GPA and an average score on the SAT that is higher than the state and national averages for high school students.

Gov. Rick Scott doesn’t seem to have a problem with the enrollment increase at FAMU. He recently reappointed two trustees, Kelvin Lawson and Matt Carter, who have spoken out about the need for FAMU’s student numbers to go up.