By Lynn Hatter
Tallahassee, FL – Florida State University has been losing teachers as the state works to close budget deficits. Last year it tried to lay off several tenured faculty members but was forced to rehire them. As Lynn Hatter reports, FSU President Dr. Eric Barron say the university can't afford to keep the faculty it has, can't afford raises for them and other universities are moving in to take them away.
FSU's College of Business has lost 12 faculty members over the past year. Barron says it's a double-whammy. The school can't afford to hire younger faculty, can't afford to compete with other schools, and is losing good teachers.
"I know the offers from nine of those universities. For those nine individuals, the salary offers were 627-thousand dollars above what Florida State pays. That means, on average my business faculty is being recruited with 70-thousand dollar raises to other institutions."
Florida's universities have complained about what they call the brain drain other universities from outside the state coming in and recruiting their professors. Barron was part of a university president panel that spoke before the a House Higher Education committee.