Blogging at Bridge To Tomorrow, a blog focused on "a strong K-20 pipeline for physical scientists and engineers," Paul Cottle noticed something about the latest output from a semi-obscure feature of the oversight group for Florida's university system.
So, I appreciate the larger point that you’re making, but Florida does have the Fortune 500 fertilizer company Mosaic, which employs lots of chemical engineers.
The practice of publicly funded universities looking at state economic and employment trends as part of evaluating program offerings is quite legitimate. Preferring to keep graduates in-state to get a return on the investment of tax dollars is a state goal to which few would object. The linked list of programs of emphasis is well over 500 & presumably there are more that just are not emphasized. The linked PowerPoint had 36 additions & 59 deletions. Most of the deletions are described as duplication. While anything coming out of Florida government must be taken with many grains of salt & I assume shenanigans until proven otherwise, I think this take is overblown.
Of course then we have the situation in Wisconsin where the Culture War clashes with the needs of the business community. The state legislature is decreasing funding to the UW system school by 32 million until the system cuts all of its DEI programs. They are also refusing to grant already approved raises to all system employees and have denied funding for a new state of the art engineering building in Madison and a new allied health career center in La Crosse. This in spite of a hefty state surplus. This leaves the business community shaking their heads but at least they are starting to advocate for the building projects.
Excellent take on ‘forced education channels’. I LOVE the term ‘meat widgets’.
So, I appreciate the larger point that you’re making, but Florida does have the Fortune 500 fertilizer company Mosaic, which employs lots of chemical engineers.
The practice of publicly funded universities looking at state economic and employment trends as part of evaluating program offerings is quite legitimate. Preferring to keep graduates in-state to get a return on the investment of tax dollars is a state goal to which few would object. The linked list of programs of emphasis is well over 500 & presumably there are more that just are not emphasized. The linked PowerPoint had 36 additions & 59 deletions. Most of the deletions are described as duplication. While anything coming out of Florida government must be taken with many grains of salt & I assume shenanigans until proven otherwise, I think this take is overblown.
Of course then we have the situation in Wisconsin where the Culture War clashes with the needs of the business community. The state legislature is decreasing funding to the UW system school by 32 million until the system cuts all of its DEI programs. They are also refusing to grant already approved raises to all system employees and have denied funding for a new state of the art engineering building in Madison and a new allied health career center in La Crosse. This in spite of a hefty state surplus. This leaves the business community shaking their heads but at least they are starting to advocate for the building projects.