Funding From the Florida Lottery

There is a common misconception among people outside of the educational forum on how much money the lottery actually gives to education. id like to make it more apparent that the lottery doesn't give as much as we'd like to believe. I'm going to use FAU as an example for how much funding the lottery gives the State university System. From tuition FAU receives approx. $65million, and from the State budget approx. $125million. this is for general educational funding. now i have attached a link to the lottery homepage that gives a diagram of how much money they give. as you will see it is considerably smaller than people think, because it has to be divided up among all of the universities. the claims that the lottery funds education needs to be rethought and made apparent to the masses so that we can find another way to increase funding, i don't know how we as a state can go about finding another revenue stream to fund education because I'm not an expert but i do believe experts need to start thinking it over.

Florida Lottery Breakdown <-- CLICK HERE!

How Will Budget Cuts Affect YOU?

While most of the questions about the statewide budget cuts remain unanswered, one thing is for sure: we will all be affected in one way or another. Do you fear delayed graduation because of courses being cut or offered less often? Do you have a younger sibling who may be kept from being admitted to a decent Florida public university? We are hosting a Town Hall meeting on April 15th with Legislators and members of the media and we need your help. Write a comment that includes YOUR questions or comments for the Legislators or Administrators, and it may be read to the Senators, Representatives, and Faculty members attending the meeting. EVENT DETAILS TO COME

HOW WILL BUDGET CUTS AFFECT YOU?

Enrollment Rising at Community Colleges as Budgets Shrink

If your classes aren't available at FAU, you're likely to turn to Community Colleges such as BCC or PBCC to meet your class needs. They have open enrollment. They HAVE to let you take classes at their school. Thing is, they are facing budget cuts too. Here's an article on the budget cuts and changes within the State public Universities and the ways they are affecting Community Colleges in the State.
Enrollment Rising At Commuity Colleges <-- Click Here

Unnatural Disaster in Our Colleges

Here is an article about the state of our budget and the reasons why we are facing these massive cuts:
Unnatural Disaster in Our Colleges <-- Click Here

Closing in on 1000......

THATS RIGHT- 888 Signatures and counting!


Members of the SOS Project Action team have been in the breezeway collecting signatures for our new Legislative Petition. Among the signatures are President Brogan and Tony Teixeira (The SGA President). The petition is addressed to both Marco Rubio, the Speaker of the House and Ken Pruitt, the Senate President. We have requested that it be read during Legislative session and entered into public record. Here's what we had to say...

Dear Senator Pruitt,

A few weeks ago, we—the concerned students at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton—hosted the largest student-initiated rally in our university’s history to raise awareness among our fellow students regarding the proposed budget cuts affecting our higher education, as well as sending a message to our state legislators about the importance of “S.O.S.”: Saving Our School. Now, we are sending you a different kind of “SOS”, as we are writing to request that you share this letter of petition with your colleagues in the Florida House of Representatives, and that it be entered into public record for all Floridians to see. Speaker Rubio, please act as our voice to your fellow Legislators.

We urge you as Legislators to preserve state funding of the State University System to the utmost of your ability. It is understandable that budget cuts must occur due to the cycles of our economy, but certain areas of the State budget should be preserved for the overall good of the Florida people who the Legislature represents. Through our intensive research, we have found that graduates of Florida schools are more likely to stay in the State, thus contributing to the overall state economy in the long run. We’ve also learned that experts suggest that the quality of a state’s public university system is a direct projection of the future of the economy for that state as a whole. Nowhere is this more relevant than in the tri-county area of Southeast Florida where we attend Florida Atlantic University.

Florida Atlantic University is made up of one of the most widely diverse student bodies in the United States, containing students of all ages, ethnicities, religions, cultures and general walks of life. Only on very few college campuses will you see a recent high school graduate studying for an exam with a recent retiree and a stay-at-home mom who has returned to finish her degree while her own children attend school—and FAU is proud to teach these traditional and non-traditional students alike. Together, if we are able to keep the access to higher education open to a wider group of people, this will help to break cycles of poverty and lack of education within the great state of Florida.

As a whole, the State University System is essential to the overall success of Florida. Please take the seriousness of this matter—and the hundreds of students, faculty, staff, and members of the community who have signed our petition—into consideration when making any final decision regarding the State's higher education budget.

Respectfully,
The Founding Students of the SOS Project at FAU