Fine: UCF shutdown comment wasn’t literal
Representative doesn’t think school is taking spending issue seriously enough
The chair of a Florida House subcommittee overseeing university funding said he didn’t mean it Wednesday when he floated the idea of a “5- and 10-year potential shutdown” of UCF because of controversy over construction spending, causing a stir among some of his colleagues and prompting a response from the school.
State Rep. Randy Fine, R-Palm Bay, said in an interview after the meeting his comments during a House Higher Education Appropriations subcommittee meeting weren’t intended to be taken literally. Rather, he said, he wanted to make a point with University of Central Florida officials, who he doesn’t think are taking the matter seriously enough.
“I will readily admit there’s an element of hyperbole,” he told the Orlando Sentinel.
The state auditor general’s office discovered over the summer that the university had budgeted $38 million to build Trevor Colbourn Hall, a classroom and office building that replaced an aging facility known as Colbourn Hall. Over the past several months, UCF, the House Public Integrity and Ethics committee and the Board of Governors, which oversees the state university system, have launched investigations into the matter.
In all, school leaders have acknowledged they spent or planned to spent about $85 million in leftover operating funds on construction, a violation of state rules for university spending.
President Dale Whittaker and the Board of Trustees have maintained they did not know the university was misusing state money. The school’s leaders are “working tirelessly to address and correct the problems of the past,” Board of Trustees Chairman Robert Garvy said in a statement sent to the media Wednesday.
“UCF is an admired and appreciated institution that has transformed more than 280,000 lives and an entire region of the state over the past 50 years,” the statement reads. “To shut it down would cause irreparable harm to Florida’s future and to the tens of thousands of organizations, businesses, and institutions that depend on its talent, ideas, and innovation.”
Fine’s comments came at the end of a presentation about university finances from Misty Shepherd, UCF’s interim vice president for finance and administration.
The lawmaker pointed out that $640 million of the university’s $1.8 billion budget last year came from the state. He described the use of leftover operating dollars as “absolutely inexcusable” and said if it had happened in a private business every member of the board would have left on their own or be asked to resign.
“I’m working on a 5- and 10-year potential shutdown of the university,” Fine said. “And so how much money of that $1.8 billion and $640 million do you believe you would need next year if next year was the first year of a 5- or a 10-year shutdown because the university refuses to put in place appropriate corporate governance?”
Fine said he realized Shepherd, who was not in her current position while the university was planning Trevor Colbourn Hall, might not be able to answer immediately but said he’d like for her to “think it through and perhaps get back to us with a number.”
State Rep. Carlos Guillermo Smith, D-Orlando, whose district includes the UCF campus, said later in the meeting he took Fine’s comment “very seriously.”
“I just need clarity on whether that’s a serious conversation because that will, of course, inform the series of questions I have for the University of Central Florida,” said Smith, who wasn’t present during the time set aside for questions following the university’s presentation.
Smith said he wanted to ask university about the number of lost jobs and the students who would need to relocate, as well as the economic impact, if the university was shut down. Fine didn’t allow the university to respond because the conversation had moved on.
“However, I will say this to you, Representative Smith: I am glad that you take seriously the gravity of what has gone on over the past few years at the University of Central Florida,” Fine said. “I hope we can see a similar attitude from them moving forward as well.”
In suggesting a shutdown, Fine said after the meeting he hoped to “impart on UCF the seriousness of what happened,” which he described as “pretty terrible.” The university trustees showed a lackadaisical attitude about the matter, he said, when they decided not to continue the Bryan Cave law firm’s investigation beyond the initial query into Trevor Colbourn Hall. The Board of Governors later voted to continue the probe, at the university’s expense.
“I don’t know that I feel like there’s an appropriate understanding of the severity of what happened,” Fine said.
When asked what university leaders should do, Fine said that’s up to them and the House Public Integrity and Ethics committee, which is scheduled to discuss the matter on Tuesday. Fine is not a member of that committee.
In a statement sent to the media late Wednesday, House Speaker Jose Oliva, R-Miami Lakes, called for a “proper investigation,” into the university’s spending.
“UCF is a growing academic, athletic, artistic, and scientific success story,” Oliva wrote. “The misuse of taxpayer dollars by a few members of the UCF administration does not diminish the achievements of the faculty and students of the university nor does it reflect negatively on the positive impact UCF has to both Central Florida and the entire state.”