Even though the University of Central Florida is able to get the funds together to reportedly pay President John C. Hitt $741,500 a year, university leaders say money is so tight they need to hike tuition another 15 percent.
Hitt’s salary became a hot news topic this month after the Chronicle of Higher Education reported Hitt’s total compensation last year made him the 9th highest paid public university president in the country.
A UCF board of trustees committee already passed the 15 percent tuition hike today, according to the Orlando Business Journal, and the full board finalized that hike this afternoon. The latest hike makes UCF’s tuition 75 percent higher than it was five years ago, before lawmakers began slashing university budgets, according to WFTV.
State lawmakers and Gov. Rick Scott have said universities need to tighten their belts and find ways to save money, like everyone else in the tough economic times. But UCF has argued it already has tightened its belt and now tuition hikes are needed.
Hitt told the OBJ class sizes have gone up from on average from 40 to 48 students and the student-to-faculty ratio is also worse than before.
“That’s what productivity increases look like, folks.” Hitt told the OBJ. “We don’t like this either. I especially don’t like asking [UCF Student Government President] Cortez Whatley and his fellow students to pay more for what is essentially less.”
Only one trustee, Harris Rosen, opposed the hike, according to the Orlando Sentinel.
As for Hitt’s compensation, the first $200,000 of it comes directly from UCF and the rest of it comes from a UCF direct support organization called the UCF Foundation — the same type of corporation UCF is insisting it controls as a public, state agency in its appeal of the Ereck Plancher trial verdict. Public agencies have a cap on the amount of money they have to pay in a lawsuit, while private corporations do not.
The Board of Governors would need to approve the tuition hike to make it official.
