The University of North Florida has been denied millions of dollars in state funds for the second straight year.
UNF is one of three schools that will miss out on a share of the $245 million appropriation from the state. Florida A & M and Florida Gulf Coast universities are also being left out.
Ian Poblete is an eager, incoming UNF freshman.
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“It's local, and it just stood out, out of all the others,” Poblete said.
This news was not what Poblete wanted to hear.
“I had some relatives that came here, and it was all good things, and just to hear something like this about it, it surprises me,” Poblete said.
Thursday, the university system's Board of Governors made it official that they'll only distribute the funds to eight of a possible 11 institutions based on their performances through the 2014-2015 academic year.
“It makes you wonder why that is,” UNF senior Alexandra Zephirin said.
It also puzzled UNF junior Bianca Hascin.
“I always thought we were doing pretty good,” Hascin said.
The Board of Governors said UNF scored poorly on its six-year graduation rate and on the percentage of returning students with at least a 2.0 GPA.
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UNF president John Delaney is at that Board of Governors meeting in Tampa, but Action News Jax got him on the phone.
“I've always sort of considered it a flawed report card,” Delaney said. “It's like giving somebody that had an 80 on the test a failure, but giving somebody that went from a 40 to a 60 an 'A' because they improved. The relative scores are an 80 and a 60 and they should be graded appropriately and in which case UNF would be in the middle category.”
Delaney, who is retiring in a year, expects next school year to be better for UNF, and said the school did receive other state appropriations.
Cox Media Group
