Can FL get high tech biz with crappy colleges?

NO!


[TALLAHASSEE - Associate history professor Matt Childs needs to spend another four to six months in Cuba to finish his second book on the country's slave history, but Florida's 2-year-old ban on research travel to the communist country prevents him from going.

He has received just one merit raise in his six years at Florida State University. He's married with one toddler, and another baby and endless bills on the way.

So when the University of South Carolina recently came calling, Childs answered.

Starting in the fall, he will teach and pursue his Cuba research from USC's Columbia campus.

"I have made my name now as a scholar of Cuban history, but I can no longer do my job here if I can't go to Cuba to do research," Childs said. "Also, I just did not see a viable financial future in Florida with a growing family. This is what pushed us out."

State university system leaders fear more will follow, as the budget situation worsens and political tensions between academics and lawmakers rise.

They say Childs and his wife, an elementary school teacher who stands to earn at least 25 percent more in South Carolina, are an example of the brain drain threatening the state's public education system.

Already, Florida's $2-billion budget deficit has the 11 public colleges considering layoffs and program cutbacks - and that has professors thinking twice about their futures here...

..."This budget crisis will put USF back five years."

Florida universities have been in similar straits before, during the recession of the early 1990s. Then, an FSU professor traded her classes of 100 students for classes of less than 20 at the University of Southern California - and at double her FSU salary.

"Now I worry about not only losing the quality of the professors, but also our faculty-student ratio," said Carolyn Roberts, chairwoman of the board that oversees the 11 public universities. "When you look at some of our universities, it's to a critical level already."

The university system in Florida has one of the worst student-faculty ratio in the country: 30 students for every tenured instructor. ]
emphais added
http://www.sptimes.com/2008/01/23/news_pf/State/State_universities_fe.shtml