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Jeb's USF smackdown

Student leaders at the University of South Florida St. Petersburg have so much pride in their growing campus that they offered their own fees as a way to improve it. Why, then, would a governor slam the door in their face?

The special fee, which would pay for a new $11-million student activities center, sailed through both houses of the Legislature by a combined vote of 153-2. One reason is that student government president Tom Piccolo visited the Capitol himself, lobbying for fellow students who soon will live in campus dormitories and offering a constructive solution with a fee students are willing to pay. Lawmakers were duly impressed.

Gov. Jeb Bush was not and vetoed the bill, offering students what amounts to a bureaucratic conundrum. He said the plan "does not appear to be part of a cohesive state policy regarding university tuition and fees." But student leaders wouldn't have been forced to offer the new fee if the state had a cohesive policy for financing growing universities. He said the campus has "other available revenue options." But the only other option is to raise existing fees beyond the 5 percent annual cap - a change that also would take legislative action.

The governor's plea for consistency would be more compelling if he hadn't killed the former university Board of Regents by arguing that each university could govern itself. He's right that the bill would have created a special student fee at only one campus, but the precedent is hardly a dangerous one. How many other student governments are likely to petition to raise their fees? How would it be harmful to higher education if they did?

"We're disappointed for the students," says USF St. Petersburg regional chancellor Karen White. "They took this on themselves, went through all the committee process. You have to be very proud of a group of students who take on an initiative like this."

White has reason to be proud. The governor doesn't.

[Last modified June 18, 2005, 01:36:03]