{"id":292700,"date":"2026-06-02T04:18:14","date_gmt":"2026-06-02T04:18:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/292700\/"},"modified":"2026-06-02T04:18:14","modified_gmt":"2026-06-02T04:18:14","slug":"florida-budget-cuts-usf-misses-out-on-millions-after-state-drops-funding-for-preeminent-program","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/292700\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida budget cuts: USF misses out on millions after state drops funding for preeminent program"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

TAMPA, Fla. – A prestigious designation that has historically come with millions in state funding is no longer paying off for Florida\u2019s <\/a>top public universities.<\/p>\n

Funding removed for Preeminent State Research University Program <\/p>\n

By the numbers:<\/p>\n

Florida lawmakers approved a state budget that does not fund the Preeminent State Research University Program, leaving the state\u2019s five preeminent universities without a funding source that distributed $40 million last year.<\/p>\n

Aubrey Jewett, a political science professor at the University of Central Florida, says universities will keep the designation even without the financial rewards.<\/p>\n

“We still get to claim the title of preeminent status,” Jewett said. “There\u2019s just no monetary rewards that are going to come with it, at least not this year.”<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

The program recognizes Florida\u2019s highest-performing public research universities. Last year, the University of Florida, Florida State University, Florida International University and the University of South Florida <\/a>each received about $10 million through the fund.<\/p>\n

UCF recently qualified for preeminent status, making the timing particularly disappointing for Jewett.<\/p>\n

Timing of funding decision questioned <\/p>\n

What they’re saying:<\/p>\n

“Two out of the last four years, including this year, we didn\u2019t get any raises,” Jewett said. “There was an implicit promise that we were going to get raises.”<\/p>\n

To earn preeminent status, universities must meet a series of strict academic and research benchmarks established by the state.<\/p>\n

State University System Chancellor Ray Rodrigues says UCF met those standards just as lawmakers chose not to fund the program.<\/p>\n

“Unfortunately, the first year they\u2019ve cleared that bar is one of the years the legislature has chosen not to fund the preeminent program,” Rodrigues said.<\/p>\n

USF still receives funding for new AI and health research facilities <\/p>\n

Dig deeper:<\/p>\n

USF has held preeminent status since 2018. While the university will not receive funding through the program this year, lawmakers still approved $25 million for a new facility for the Bellini College of Artificial Intelligence, Cybersecurity and Computing, and $10 million for a new USF Health Translational Research Institute facility.<\/p>\n

Rodrigues says lawmakers had to balance competing priorities while crafting the budget.<\/p>\n

“There\u2019s just not enough money to fund every worthy program,” Rodrigues said. “We\u2019re disappointed preeminence didn\u2019t get funding, but we\u2019re very thankful for the investment that the legislature has made.”<\/p>\n

Crystal Price, USF\u2019s media relations manager, provided FOX 13 with a statement on behalf of the university.<\/p>\n

USF says it “deeply appreciates the increased financial support from the Florida Legislature,” including funding for the Bellini College facility, a new USF Health research facility and other campus initiatives.<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

The university also added that it remains grateful for the funding it has received since earning preeminent status in 2018 and hopes the program receives additional support in the future.<\/p>\n

“Our students, faculty and staff continue to benefit from the preeminence dollars allocated in previous years, and we hope to see the program receive additional funds in the future,” the statement said.<\/p>\n

Long-term impact for students? <\/p>\n

Why you should care:<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, Jewett says students may feel the impact of this decision.<\/p>\n

“It hurts students indirectly in that we probably are going to have less faculty because some of the money was going to be set aside to increase the number of faculty,” Jewett said.<\/p>\n

The Source: Information for this story came from statements from the University of South Florida, an interview with the chancellor of the State University System of Florida, an interview with a University of Central Florida political science professor and previous reporting on FOX 13 News.<\/p>\n

Florida<\/a>Education<\/a>University of South Florida<\/a>Politics<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TAMPA, Fla. – A prestigious designation that has historically come with millions in state funding is no longer…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":292701,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[113,47,115,1536,99,135,137,136,628,1537],"class_list":["post-292700","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-education","tag-fl","tag-news","tag-organization","tag-politics","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news","tag-us","tag-usf"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292700","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=292700"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292700\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/292701"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=292700"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=292700"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=292700"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}