FAMU still nowhere close to legislature’s inflated tuition projections

Once again, FAMU came nowhere close to the Florida Legislature’s inflated tuition and fee projections for the fiscal year ending (FYE) 2010.

The legislature projected that FAMU would generate $57,171,795 in tuition and fees for FYE 2010. FAMU actually collected $11,075,289 less than that figure for a total of $46,096,506.

Each year, the legislature bases its tuition and fee projections on the bogus assumption that every university student will take a full course load.

Even though the legislature continues to use projections that are out-of-touch with reality, FAMU has had the highest lower division course load average among the ten traditional State University System (SUS) schools for the past three years. FAMU’s freshmen and sophomores averaged 14.0 credit hours in Fall 2008, 14.0 in Fall 2009, and 13.9 in Fall 2010.

Currently, the only SUS institution that is beating FAMU’s lower division course load average is New College of Florida. It is a non-traditional liberal arts college that provides individualized written evaluations instead of letter grades. NCF also has the lowest tuition in the entire SUS.

FAMU's net increase in overall tuition and fee collections is down from the previous fiscal year. The university had a net gain of $834,344 in FYE 2010. FAMU’s net gain was $5,825,368 in FYE 2009.

Legislative tuition/fee projections:
2010: $57,171,795
2009: $52,778,244
2008: $52,367,797
2007: $56,427,269

FAMU’s tuition/fee collections:
2010: $46,096,506
2009: $45,262,162
2008: $39,436,794
2007: $39,255,167

The legislature estimates that FAMU will make $59,607,188 in tuition and fees during FYE 2011 and $64,091,635 during FYE 2012.

Source: FAMU Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) reports.