Some university leaders not happy with Legislature’s enrollment oversight

Florida's Board of Governors voted Thursday to implement a new law tying university budgets to a 10% systemwide cap on out-of-state enrollment, letting the board deny tuition hikes to schools that exceed it. The provision, tucked into a special-session budget bill mainly about transferring a USF campus to New College of Florida, followed a failed House push earlier in the session to cut the cap to 5%.

University trustees complained loudly after the vote passed without controversy. FSU's Peter Collins called it a ham-fisted solution to a problem nobody asked to solve, while UF's Mori Hosseini called it a legislative overreach passed in the middle of the night that could push universities to shrink enrollment just to protect rankings.

Florida currently has the third-lowest out-of-state tuition in the nation, and a majority of state universities already exceed the 10% threshold, with the systemwide average sitting exactly at 10%. Board member Doug Broxson urged caution about pushing back, reminding colleagues the Legislature controls the $8 billion higher-education purse.

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