University of Florida President Bernie Machen gathered opinions from the faculty and staff at UF about the impending budget cuts during an open forum meeting yesterday, the first meeting of its kind between both faculty members and the university President. The main issue of concern revolves around the levels of cash in the university's reserve funds. President Machen said at the meeting that the level of cash in the reserves is indeed low right now, but only because all unallocated funds were already set aside for last year's budget.
But not everyone is happy with the way President Machen explained the univerity's current budget troubles. John Biro is the current president of the "United Faculty of Florida"....a union made up of full-time faculty members. In my conversation with him earlier today.....I began by asking what he thought of the administration's budget explanations.