Republican Rick Scott named five new members Thursday to the board of governors leading Florida’s universities – giving him a powerful hold on a panel that earlier resisted his calls for lower tuition and cost-cutting.

The five new appointees include H. Wayne Huizenga, Jr., 51, of Delray Beach,  son of the South Florida investor and former
sports team owner, and Wendy Link, 48, of Palm Beach  Gardens, managing partner of a law firm
bearing her name.

With the five new selections, Scott appointees now comprise nine-members of the 17-person State University System Board of Governors. The new members get seven-year terms and must be confirmed by the Florida Senate.

By adding new allies, the governor likely fortifies his drive to retool Florida’s university system, which he sees as central to the push to expand the state’s economy and create jobs.

“Gov. Rick Scott has chosen a group of well-qualified individuals, with broad ranges of skills and experience,” said Board Chair Dean Colson, an appointee of Scott’s predecessor, Gov. Charlie Crist. “They join the Board of Governors at a time when there is a heightened awareness of the importance of higher education to the citizens of our state.”

Gov. Rick Scott said Wednesday that he didn’t expect leaders of the state university system to approve much in the way of tuition increases, saying he thought they shared the same goals.

Scott’s comments came shortly after Florida Atlantic University President M.J. Saunders made her school’s pitch for a 15 percent tuition hike at the Board of Governors’ meeting in Orlando, which is considering 2012-13 “work plans” for Florida’s 11 public universities.

The plans include academic and enrollment goals, spending proposals and performance data. But for the universities this year, money is key.

Most are seeking 15 percent boosts to at least partially offset a $300 million budget cut to schools imposed by the Florida Legislature. Scott is unfazed.

“I believe the Board of Governors is going to look at those work plans,” Scott said following an address to a Rotary Club in Tallahassee. “I think they have the same goals as I have. They’re going to watch out how the money is spent. You know I’m very concerned about tuition.”

Scott said that given the economic pressure on Florida’s families and the debt students are currently carrying, “I’ll be surprised if there’s significant tuition increases.”

Scott, however, isn’t authorized to block any increase granted by the board, which is expected to vote Thursday. Scott sidestepped a question about whether he was exploring ways to challenge any tuition hike — if it came to that.

Saunders told the Board’s Strategic Planning Committee reviewing the work plans that FAU has shouldered a $77 million decline in state dollars from 2008 through last year, before facing a $24.7 million reduction this fall. Without a 15 percent tuition hike, the school has warned that 500 course offerings could be threatened, along with 75 faculty and 9 advisor positions.

FAU already plans to close its downtown Fort Lauderdale tower campus and Treasure Coast campus in Port St. Lucie, moving programs to the school’s nearby branches.

“We knew that if we were to keep our university strong, we had to reduce our administrative overhead,” Saunders said.

The Florida Council of 100, whose leaders include many of the state’s top corporate executives, urged Gov. Rick Scott to veto legislation that would create a 12th public university by separating the University of South Florida from its Polytechnic campus in Lakeland.

But the council said Scott should sign into law a separate measure (SB 7129) that would let Florida State University and the University of Florida raise tuition to whatever level the market will bear.

“Florida’s public postsecondary system has a historic opportunity to take a quantum leap that will ultimately mean more jobs and economic prosperity for Floridians,” wrote Steven Halverson, council chairman and president of the Haskell Company, a Jacksonville structural design company.

Halverson said the tuition bill follows the principles outlined in the counci’s 2010 report, Closing the Talent Gap, which called for bringing the state’s educational programs in line with future economic needs.

But the legislation accelerating the independence of USF’s Polytechnic campus isn’t a wise investment, Halverson wrote in a separate letter to Scott. He said the Polytechnic proposal hasn’t been adequately studied.

“The Council of 100 wholeheartedly supports making our state university system the best in the country,” Halverson concluded. “The future of Florida depends on it. Deciding where and how to invest scarce resources to achieve that objective should be the product of a fact-based, thorough analysis of the return on investment. That analysis hasn’t been done…”

University budget cuts loom and the Legislature is divided over talk of tuition increases.

But Dean Colson, chairman of the State University System’s Board of Governors, said Thursday that lawmakers’ criticism overlooks the level of belt-tightening Florida’s 11 public universities have already endured.

“I understand the need to push us to make cuts to get rid of fat,” Colson said, after testifying before the House Education Committee.  “But the last four years, we’ve gotten rid of $500 million worth of fat, so I’m not sure there’s that much fat left.”

The Senate budget committee approved a state spending plan Wednesday that reduces state support for universities by $400 million, including a $47 million cut for Florida Atlantic University. The FAU reduction amounts to about one-third of the school’s operating budget.

The Senate plan also doesn’t include a tuition increase, although budget chief J.D. Alexander, R-Lake Wales, acknowledges that universities can seek up to 15 percent tuition hikes from Colson’s board. Alexander said universities should first draw down the more than $800 million in reserves they hold.

Colson, though, isn’t so sure about how easy it’ll be to tap the cash.

“There’s an explanation for most of that money,” Colson said, adding, “but if some have hoarded that extra money, it’s okay to squeeze them for it.”

Gov. Rick Scott has rejected the pitch for tuition increases. And Colson also distanced himself from another level of Scott criticism: That universities should work on reducing the robust salaries drawn by many of the school’s top admininstrators.

“The president of the university of Florida is running a $4 billion, $5 billion operation. What should he get paid? You can’t pay him $200,000-a-year,” Colson said.

Indeed, UF President Bernie Machen earned almost $524,000 in 2009-10, according to the most recent review of presidential pay, compiled by the Chronicle of Higher Education.

Colson said that whether Scott or the Legislature endorse a tuition increase, he expects universities will come to the Board of Governors to seek approval for as much as a 15 percent hike next year. But he conceded that less certain is how the board will rule on those requests. 

The deep, $1.3 billion budget cut imposed last year on Florida public schools would be largely offset with a similarly sized increase in classroom dollars proposed Tuesday by the Florida Senate.

Senate Pre-K-12 education budget chief David Simmons, R-Altamonte Springs, said he was looking restore school funding this election year after many districts absorbed thousands of layoffs and program cuts when per-pupil dollars were dragged to their lowest level in six years last fall, by budget-slashing lawmakers.

“It’s not 2005-6, but it sure is good,” Simmons said Tuesday.

The Senate has been slow to release details of its budget proposal and Tuesday mostly just dribbled out its education package. The House, by contrast, is poised to approve its full $69.2 billion spending plan later this week.

But for starters, the Senate has trumped the House in school funding. The House is recommending a $1 billion boost, which amounts to a 2 percent increase per-student. The Senate plan tops 3 percent and would bring per-student dollars up an average $192.70 — about $51 more than what the House is offering.

For Florida’s 28 colleges, the Senate proposed a 3 percent tuition boost. But for universities, the Senate appears to be more closely alligned with Gov. Rick Scott — who has dismissed a call from university presidents for higher tuition.

The Senate’s proposal calls for no base tuition boost. The House would give Florida’s 11 public universities authority for an 8 percent base increase that can be raised to 15 percent for universities, with approval from the State University System’s Board of Governors.

Even with the the Senate snub, universities could still seek  as much as a 15 percent hike from the board. But if Scott digs in, it’s likely the governor-appointed board may be reluctant to OK higher tuition.

The Senate proposal cuts university dollars by 4 percent — about double the cut leveled by the House. Both sides, though, look on track to continue a trend in which state dollars for Florida universities have dropped 24 percent since 2008.  Florida’s average tuition level ranks 45th in the nation — and administrators have been clamoring for more authority to shift costs onto students.

With the House already including a potential 15 percent tuition increase in its budget, 300 Florida students rallied at the Capitol Thurday to oppose shelling out more even as lawmakers reduce the state’s share of higher education spending.

Michael Long, chairman of the Florida Student Association, told the crowd that tuition has climbed 60 percent over the past four years, while the state has reduced general revenue support for schools by 24 percent.

“We do not mind contributing to our education as long as its reasonable,” Long said. “But 60 percent in four years is not reasonable.”

In his role as FSA chairman, Long also sits as a member of the State University System’s Board of Governors. Along with opposing the tuition boost, students are opposing separate legislation that would give the governor authority to appoint the BOG’s student representative.

For his part, Gov. Rick Scott didn’t include a tuition increase in the $66.4 billion budget proposal he unveiled last month. He also has questioned the spending priorities of the state’s 11 public universities — nudging them to promote for science and technology programs that employers are said to want.

The Senate so far hasn’t begun serious budget work.  But Senate President Mike Haridopolos, R-Merritt Island, was among those speaking to the student group Thursday. He pointed out that even with the steady increases, Florida has the fifth lowest average tuition in the country among state systems.

Haridopolos, though, told the crowd that one of the reasons the Senate was moving slowly on the budget was so that it could hear more from those — like the students — affected by the Legislature’s budget building in a year when lawmakers are trying to close a $2 billion shortfall.

Alexander Press, a 22-year-old Florida Atlantic University senior, was among those at the rally.

“It’s a lot of money,” Press said of the tuition hikes. “We’re just starting to make a recovery from this recession, and it’s not easy for families to have to keep paying more.”

Dean Cannon covered the tall tasks facing lawmakers in balancing the state’s budget and completing once-a-decade redistricting, but in convening the 2012 House, the speaker moved higher education up on his priority list.

Cannon said he didn’t have a clear direction. But setting the state’s 11 public universities and two dozen colleges on a new course should be one of the session’s goals. Clarifying the role of the State University System’s Board of Governors is one area that needs work, Cannon said.

“Since we have contributed to the muddying of the waters, it is my hope that the Florida House can play a constructive role in clarifying them,” Cannon said. 

 Cannon said the House Higher Education Committee will hear Friday from the presidents of Florida State University and the University of Florida, followed next week by testimony from leaders of the states’ nine other universities.

 In his opening speech to House members, Cannon acknowledged that legislation may not emerge this year — but that a dialogue should begin.

The speaker’s pitch on higher education follows a year in which Gov. Rick Scott made news by saying universities should be producing more graduates with degrees in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, ridiculing those who study such subjects as anthropology in the process.

Senate budget chief J.D. Alexander, R-Lake Wales, also played a central — critics called it divisive — role in advocating for the University of South Florida’s Polytechnnic campus in Lakeland to become an independent 12th university. The move was delayed by the Board of Governors, helping prolong a bitter fight between Alexander and USF administrators.

“Our State has reached a moment in our history where we must find new pathways for success,” Cannon said.  “The undeniable fact is that the stability and diversity of our state’s economy are inextricably linked to the maintenance of a strong and dynamic system of higher education.”