Budget bill would make USF Polytechnic state’s 12th university

This article is from Miami Herald

Senate leaders inserted last-minute language in a budget bill Wednesday to immediately split the Lakeland campus of the University of South Florida into the state’s 12th university.

This move would fulfill a top priority of Senate budget Chairman JD Alexander, R-Lake Wales, who, because of term limits, is in his last legislative session. It would allow the 1,300-student branch campus in Lakeland to almost completely sever ties with USF and become "Florida Polytechnic" this year.

The bill was sprung on unsuspecting lawmakers minutes before the start of a late-afternoon higher education budget meeting.

"Is this the procedure, to get one piece of paper to create a new university?" asked state Sen. Steve Oelrich, R-Alachua.

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