Last week, we announced that UWF had begun an investigation into the Complete Florida Degree Program, which provides online academic support services for students and help adults obtain degrees.
The news site POLITICO is reporting the school has swept the several state programs under its control for administrative charges and deferred maintenance to cover other budget shortfalls the sweep have “financially devastated some programs,” such as Florida Virtual Campus. Inweekly has learned that UWF has already terminated some employees of Florida Virtual Campus, which provides electronic resources to Florida’s 28 public colleges and 12 state universities.
According to POLITICO, the Florida Department of Education and the State University System Board of Governors want to take Complete Florida Degree Program out from UWF’s control, citing a lack of transparency and accountability.
UWF by law is permitted to charge programs under the Complete Florida Plus umbrella up to 5 percent of their budgets for administrative fees and other costs. However, during some budget cycles, the university charged less than the 5 percent allowed by law. The leftover state funds rolled into carry-forward, or reserve, balances for the programs to spend later.
According emails obtained by the news site, UWF this past June hit Florida Virtual Campus reserves for $439,000 to cover a deficit in the school’s student trust fund, which is usually supported by tuition and fees. Apparently, the school also pulled an additional $571,689 from Florida Virtual Campus for deferred campus maintenance on top of the allowed fees in 2017.
Check out all the numbers -Â “UWF takes heat…”