BOG Committee Denies FGCU Appeal

By the News Service of Florida

A Board of Governors committee unanimously rejected an appeal from Florida Gulf Coast University to overrule the full board's decision last week on the school's tuition request. The board had granted FGCU a 12 percent increase under the state "differential tuition" law instead of the 14 percent hike the university had requested. In brief remarks to the board, FGCU President Wilson Bradshaw said the school had been as efficient as it could be with state funding. "Today, though, we come before you because it is no longer a matter of frugality; it is now a matter of urgent need," he said. But board Chairman Dean Colson, the only member of the committee to speak substantively on the request, said he needed more for the appeals panel to overturn the board's initial decision. "I am hard-pressed to overturn an action of the full board by an appeals committee when there's really nothing new that's being presented to us today that hasn't been presented to us at the full board meeting," he said. FGCU was the only school to appeal its decision and the first to ever use the appeals process after last week's board meeting featured a series of chaotic and sometimes contradictory votes on tuition increases for the 11 universities that requested them.