CORRECTION: In a previous version of this article, the governmental body that cut aid to public universities was misstated. The Florida Legislature made the decision. Cortez Whatley’s name was misspelled. Funlola Falade was misidentified. Falade is a male. The Daily Orange regrets these errors.

As student government president, Cortez Whatley represents the interests of the entire student body.

But when Whatley voted to increase tuition at the University of Central Florida last spring, some student groups felt he failed to act in their best interest and took issue with his decision.

Tuition at UCF increased by 15 percent this past spring after the Florida Legislature made a decision to cut $300 million in aid to public universities, said Whatley, a senior legal studies and public administration double major.

Student Labor Action Project, one of the student groups, met with Whatley in early October and planned to meet with him on Oct. 23 to discuss the latest tuition hikes, but the two parties had differing opinions on who should attend the meeting, Whatley said.

Whatley  penciled the event into his schedule as a meeting with a board of SLAP students, but the group advertised the event to the student body as an open forum, Whatley said.

When the Student Government Association heard of the fliers and Facebook pages SLAP was putting up for the event, Whatley and SGA’s Public Relations Coordinator Funlola Falade tried to stop the event at the last minute.

“The meeting was cancelled the day of (a decision made by me as the Public Relations Coordinator),” Falade said in an email. “The lack of communication and advertising made the event seem more like a venting session and ambush rather than a solution based meeting discussing the tuition increases.”

Whatley said if he had agreed upon the public format beforehand, he would have attended, but he expected a more “intimate” and “conversational” meeting with the executive board of SLAP. But Whatley rescheduled the open forum.

“For their best interests and for our best interests, we had to postpone the open forum to later in the month, which was (Oct. 31),” Whatley said.

But after insistent complaints from SLAP, Whatley agreed to meet with just representatives from the group on the day of the originally scheduled meeting. He discussed the school’s need to raise tuition to compensate for the $52-million Florida cut from UCF’s budget last year.

“We don’t have a lot of external funding, so we get a lot of it from the state,” Whatley said.

He later said “anything less than the 15 percent (tuition hike)” would be detrimental because the school would likely be forced to cut more faculty members and cancel more classes.

Whatley said he almost had to push his graduation date back a semester because one of his required classes was canceled last year due to budget constraints. He was able to find an alternative course, he said, but if the school does not generate more money, other students may not be as fortunate and could be forced to stay more than four years.

Falade said he felt the meeting with SLAP was intended to be a “PR stunt” to make headlines. He said Whatley approved the higher tuition price with the students’ best long-term interests in mind, and that SLAP’s latest actions are more of a knee-jerk reaction by a small minority.

“As the Public Relations Coordinator, I can honestly say that SLAP does not represent the voice of the average student,” Falade said. “They are simply louder and more aggressive.”

Kim Wilmath, the director of communications for the Florida University System, said in an email that even though tuition costs are getting higher, in-state public universities still charge less than most colleges in the United States. She said it must be recognized that Florida’s tuition rates are some of the lowest in the country.

Said Wilmath: “Nobody, including the Board of Governors, enjoys raising costs on students — nor does anyone like to watch state funding erode.”

Published on October 31, 2012 at 10:29 pm

Contact Andrew: asmuckel@syr.edu