The new budget entity for the college appears as item 138A under Section 2
of the General Appropriations Act in both chambers. It is entitled “Florida Agricultural
and Mechanical University and Florida State University College of Engineering
from General Revenue Fund.” The House proposes $12,999,761 but the Senate
proposes slightly less with $12,997,476.
This changes the appropriations method of the past 28 years,
when FAMU received the core operating funds for the College of Engineering as
part of its general revenue budget. On February 19, the Florida Board of Governors
voted to seek a new budget entity for the program when it approved a proposal
entitled “Commitment to Guiding Principles and a Plan of Action for the
FAMU-FSU Joint College of Engineering.” That plan received the support of both
the FAMU and FSU presidents.
Back in 1987, FAMU President Frederick S. Humphries and FSU President Bernie Sliger agreed that FAMU would permanently manage the operations budget of the E-College. They also recommended “separate budget entity status” for the program. The two presidents also agreed that FSU would be permanently in charge of selecting the dean of the college.
If the 1987 agreement between FAMU and FSU continues to be
honored, FAMU will still manage the budget of the college.
The new budget entity does not have all of the operating funds that the College of Engineering received in 2014. Last year, FAMU received a $10.9M
appropriation for the program. That was the money for maintenance needs, plant
operations, and the salaries of 23 FAMU professors and 27 FSU professors. FSU
received a separate appropriation of $5M in its general revenue budget that
paid for another 36 professors.
If all of that money was present in the new budget entity, the
total would be about $16M. But the House and Senate bills both list
approximately $13M for the line item.