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In the News... Lake-Sumter Community College To Be One of the Beneficiaries of Governor Bushs 2004-2005 Budget Proposal LEESBURG - Lake-Sumter Community College President Dr. Charles Mojock and fellow members of the Community College Council of Presidents received great news during their Orlando meeting with Governor Jeb Bush on January 15. The 2004-2005 proposed state budget includes a $104 million increase for the Florida community college systems general operating funds. A statewide 7.6 percent increase...the largest in 14 years. LSCC will receive $723,036 of these state funds, a 6.8 percent increase. This, along with raises in tuition, will account for a 8.16 percent total increase. The governors budget proposal will enable LSCC to pursue some of our top priorities, President Mojock was glad to report. Priorities such as: continued expansion of our nursing and corporate training programs, implementation of a rank and promotion plan for faculty, much-deserved raises for college staff, and the hiring of additional full-time faculty for our growing Associate in Arts degree program. It could also help restore technology funding needed for LSCC to stay up-to-date with computer labs, smart classrooms and distance learning. He was quick to add that an accomplishment such as this does not come by accident. The presidents of Floridas 28 community colleges met with the governor three times last year, once on LSCCs Leesburg Campus, to discuss the crisis of state funding not keeping up with the huge increases in student enrollment. This great budget news is the result of months of hard work and a dedication to a unified message about how to help our students, emphasized President Mojock. Trustees, presidents, faculty and staff, through the umbrella organization of the Florida Association of Community Colleges, have been spreading the word about the statewide needs of our system, not just the needs of their own institutions. Students have raised their voices as well, individually and as a group, through the Florida Junior and Community College Student Government Association. Most important is the fact that all of these efforts would be for naught if the Board of Education, Education Commissioner Jim Horne and of course, Governor Bush had not embraced the cause of Floridas community college students. We are most appreciative of their support and urge the legislature to follow their lead in bringing our community college system back to good health. The governors budget also proposes an increase for state programs that match funds raised by community college foundations and those earmarked for facilities. There will be a tremendous return on the investment, vows President Mojock, to the students, to business and industry, to the communities of Lake and Sumter counties, and to the state as a whole. |
