increasing university enrollments in FL are largely driven by the state's population growth...that some universities are 'bulging' with students is certainly true, just ask some undergrads who are being forced to spend 6 yrs to get their degrees...but current expansion of existing institutions is at least a decade late (par for the course in FL for public infrastructural development)...as for the newly opened state university, it does away with tenure, runs classes 7 days a week, encourages students to get credit for courses by passing a single test, and intends to 'serve' 25% of its students through long-distance (which in many cases is a euphemism for convenience learning) such as TV courses and the internet - features that contribute to the school's 'customer- based' philosophy...
and the historic role of FL's community colleges as feeders into the state university system is questionable...CCs, the great innovation of 20th century US higher ed, have always had an identity problem...the allure of democratic ideology, a desire to manage ambition, and contradictory cultural, economic, political, and social pressures have led CCs to perform a number of conflicting tasks in attempting to find their place in the educational hierarchy. The newly-appointed director of FL's CCs intends to formally transform them into work-force trainers... if successful, 'doing time' at CC will not result in transfer to a 4yr school to pursue a bachelor's degree...considering that about 95% of the new jobs in the Orlamdo area in recent years have been in the service industry, with 20% of those somewhere in a hotel...Michael Hoover