UCF sets $100M goal to help fund school

Institution wants to be more self-sustaining

UCF wants to raise $100 million over the next 20 years so it can invest more in itself and rely less on state taxpayer money and tuition, the university’s top finance official said.

The school is in the early phases of developing a plan to generate more money by possibly increasing online class enrollment, finding new corporate sponsors, capitalizing on patents and considering other ideas that could help pay for such things as updated science labs and other needs, UCF chief financial officer William Merck said.

“For us to really ramp up our game and do some really special things, we need to find ways to supplement what we get from state funding with dollars from other sources,” Merck said. “We have a lot of goals and a lot of aspirations.”

The $100 million target developed as officials approved the school’s long-term strategic plan last year.

In the wake of the financial crisis, more public institutions are diversifying their revenue, said David Bass, a senior director of

research at a Washingtonbased nonprofit called the Council for Advancement and Support of Education.

“They’re in the vanguard of a larger national trend,” Bass said of the University of Central Florida. “They have a reputation for being an entrepreneurial institution. This makes perfect sense in that regard.”

UCF’s desire to become more self-sustaining comes as state lawmakers clash on higher education spending.

Senate President Joe Negron, R-Stuart, has pledged to make higher education a priority this year by proposing a $1 billion increase in state funding for it.

But a House committee this month scrutinized public universities and their foundations for what they called wasteful spending. And the House is considering ideas that would scale back spending on universities. A plan outlined by Higher Education Appropriations Chairman Larry Ahern, R-Seminole, would reduce spending by at least $80 million and perhaps more.

University officials are also mindful of potential problems with raising money from nontraditional sources.

“New revenue may bring about a clash with existing culture within academe,” warned a draft report on the proposal. “There has long been an aversion to being profit-driven, influenced by corporate interests, or being seen as ‘business’ oriented.”

Merck said it was important to protect the independence of research and education in the classroom as the school looks for corporate sponsors and other new revenue.

“We will be careful whose money we take and what purpose that money is intended for,” Merck said.

Last year, the university said it was among the top 20 public schools in the country for the number of U.S. patents secured. Perhaps those innovators could help UCF raise more money, officials said.

“Getting a patent, that just locks an idea in,” Merck said. “Now are there opportunities to commercialize those patents at a faster rate than what we’re doing now? … I don’t know. Those are the kind of things we want to dig into right now.”

Another possibility could be growing online enrollment to attract more international students, the chief financial officer said. UCF also could pursue more sponsorships.

The school has decided against renewing a contract with a third-party vendor for securing sponsors for UCF athletics. With that work done in-house now, the university could find more opportunities for sponsorships in other areas too, including the emerging downtown Orlando campus, said Merck and Kaye-Alese Green, his project coordinator.

There were even smaller ideas, such as a company sponsoring T-shirts, for instance, for intramural sports. That could give the recreation department more money to increase programs at a time when student fees have remained flat.

The school would need $100 million to create a “meaningful impact” in an annual budget that tops nearly $2 billion, Merck said. He added donations raised by the UCF Foundation and grants would not count toward the goal.

UCF is seeking to raise $2.5 million in the first year and reach $35 million by the halfway mark of the 20-year plan, according to a draft report.

“We can’t do this overnight,” he said as the school determines this year how to track the new money and when the proposal will officially start. “It’s going to take time to ramp up.”