The low average family income of FAMU students presents a big challenge for the university as it struggles with painful budget cuts. The university won’t be able to rely on tuition revenue to replace the federal stimulus funds that will run out in 2011.As Rattler Nation reported in June, FAMU officials have used about $4.7M in funds from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to fill in part of the gap left by legislative budget cuts. The money helped FAMU avoid cutting many faculty, staff, and administrative positions.
But after the stimulus dries up in 2011, FAMU is serious trouble. Tuition revenue won't make ends meet.
FAMU’s housing shortage makes college very expensive for the student body. Most students come from families that make $30,000 or less per year. But the legislature and FAMU Board of Trustees simply ignore that fact and continue to approve big tuition and fee hikes that students can’t afford.
The Florida Legislature expects FAMU to raise $4.4M in new revenue from tuition and fee increases this year (for a total of $57.1M). But, President James Ammons says that number is unrealistic.
“They have projected full payment from every student,” he told the Tallahassee Democrat. “But as you know, when you do projections, sometimes they’re different from reality.”
Most of FAMU’s students take smaller course loads as college gets more expensive. That directly slices into overall tuition revenue. That means tuition is not a reliable replacement for the stimulus funds that the university will soon lose.
The situation is very different at the University of Florida, where the average family income is about $105,000. UF will be able to use tuition revenue from its wealthy student body to replace the stimulus funds that will run out in 2011.
“We chose not to rely on stimulus as bridge, unlike some other universities in Florida and elsewhere,” UF President Bernie Machen said in his 2009 State of the University Address. “As a result, we do not face the prospect of falling off a cliff in two years, as they do.”
UF is using stimulus money to make new faculty hires this year. It will then use differential tuition revenue to pay for those salary lines after the stimulus money runs out.
“We will bridge differential funding with stimulus funds to make these hires this year, maintain next year, then support with tuition differential money after that,” Machen said.
How is it that they get a "bridge" if they don't need it?
ReplyDeletewhoa whoa. For FAMU they use the median household income, and for UF they use the average household income. Certainly not the same thing.
ReplyDeleteAll it would take is a couple billionaires children in the school to greatly raise the average income, but would have little impact on the median income.
Thank you 6:59!!!!!
ReplyDeleteI am also intrigued by the reported FAMU student median income of $30,000. Can someone please explain to me what which occupations earn less than $30,000 per year? Then explain to me how nearly 50% of the FAMU student population comes from families with parents employed in those occupations.
Is it possible we have a large percentage of FAMU students filing as independents? Or are 50% of the FAMU parents employed as hourly workers?
This is fascinating to me. I would love to do a study on the outcomes of FAMU students by family incomes.
There are a lot of professional occupations that earn less than 30,000 dollars a year. Most State Workers do not make 30,000 a year, Military enlisted, and Teachers just to name a few. There are some in those fields that make more but it took many many years. Alot of Health Care Providers, (the people that take care of you before you see the doctor make less. We wonder why we get the service we do, people have problems that they bring to their jobs because of the amount of money they make when their leadership is making the big dollars. Keep going and don't stop at a just 4 years of College. Get it all while you can, get experience and always know how to negoiate your contract.
ReplyDeleteYou’re right in pointing out that the article needs some clarification.
ReplyDeleteThe FAMU information comes from the Office of Institutional Research’s 2007 Student Profile. 59.5 percent of students come from families that make $30,000 or less. 38.5 percent come from families that make less than $15,000.
“Median” really isn’t the correct term. The article has been changed to reflect this.
The link to the OIR report is available here: http://www.famu.edu/oir/UserFiles/File/DataReporting/StudentProfile/STUDENT_PROFILE_FALL_2007.pdf
11:25. Surveys of teacher salaries find that on average only teachers with less than one year of experience earn less than $30,000. In Florida, the Department of Education reports the average salary of teachers with a bachelor's degree is just under $44.000 for school year 2008-09.
ReplyDeleteIt seems unusual that a large number of FAMU students have a teacher parent with less than 1 year of teaching experience, therefore earning $30,000. Same for government workers. Those on the lower part of the payscale are those with little experience. I imagine that people with 18 year old children are not the majority of people who are in entry level jobs. So although there are workers in education and state government with less than 5 years experience and earning $30,000, it is hard to believe that they are also they ones with children between 17-22 years old.
I maintain that colleges are more likely to have information on students applying for financial aid, than the entire student body. Parents not applying for financial do not provide colleges with family income data, therefore colleges cannot compute an mean, median , mode or other measure of centrality for the student body. They can only compute such measures for the families supplying data. That is most likely families requesting finaid, not the high earning families.
The state of Florida needs to more accurately describe what these numbers truly represent.
Those are good questions. We also need to remember though that FAMU requires its merit-based scholarship recipients to fill out the FAFSA and apply for need-based aid each year. The university's merit scholarships only kick in after a student's need-based grant options are exhausted.
ReplyDeleteFAMU gets FAFSA data summaries from the USDOE's National Center for Education Statistics.
I would really like to understand what these numbers truly represent. If FAMU is in fact, taking students from households earning $30,000 and less and transforming them into successful engineers, nurses, business professionals, pharmacists, etc., then the world needs to take notice and applaud.
ReplyDeleteIt is no easy feat to take kids from that income demographic and put them on a path where their earnings double or triple their birth family's income. If we are doing that for 3500 kids every year, we are indeed phenomenal and the case for FAMU has been forever made!
It is nothing less than astonishing!
I appreciate you 3:17 for pointing that out. Someone doesn't have a grip on some of the realities associated with our students' and their family household income. Trust that there are MANY who NEED who have to live a lifestyle of tough choices and not one of a student. Which will indeed point directly to housing choice patterns and retention challenges. House them and they will succeed three fold. AND GET THE ONLINE CLASSES GOING! Like yesterday.
ReplyDeleteSay it again, 12/04/2009 7:13 PM. It's crazy that the legislature doesn't provide any help for campus housing construction.
ReplyDeleteMore online classes will hike up the budget and grad rate faster than you can say "go." No more excuses, FAMU!
3:17 PM, your comments gave me chills. I've always wanted to say what you said, but could not figure out how to say it as eloquent as you.
ReplyDeleteWe need to toot our horn continuously and loudly. FAMU is doing a great job with our students. Such is making our haters look foolish.
7:13 p.m.
ReplyDeleteFAMU should definitely offer more online classes / degree options; however, don't assume that such offerings will automatically improve the graduation rate. In fact, many online instructors will tell you that the student success rate (passing the course) is a problem at many colleges and universities.
12/05/2009 2:30 PM,
ReplyDeleteWhat is the problem? Is it a lack of discipline on the part of students? Is it that the online format fails to engage the students? Or is it "all of the above and more?"