Gators for Higher Education

What is Gators for Higher Education

It's a group of UF alumni, friends and employees who help us get out the message about UF's legislative needs to Florida lawmakers in Tallahassee. Co-sponsored by the UF Alumni Association, we launched this initiative in February. I am pleased that we now have over 3,000 members from all over Florida.

What's the group's purpose?

Legislators hear from a lot of different people, but they are particularly sensitive to feedback from their constituents. Our goal is to make our concerns heard as part of this process. When UF has an important issue in the Legislature, we want lawmakers to hear about it from people in their district — perhaps even people they know, or people who supported them during their election.

What are the logistics?

Sometimes during the Florida legislative session, things change overnight, and we literally have 24 or 48 hours to make clear our position on legislation that could have a dramatic impact on our university. A well organized advocacy group can help in these circumstances. Each situation is different, but we might send out an e-mail to all members asking them to contact their legislators, or we might contact members in a specific district or districts where we really need representatives' support.

Have we tried this out yet?

Yes. We asked Gators for Higher Education members to advocate on behalf of differential tuition with their lawmakers, and we believe their efforts had some impact. How much? It's one of those things that is difficult to measure, but the bill passed, giving UF and other Florida universities limited control over setting their own tuition.

Who can participate?

Alumni, of course, but you don't have to be a UF graduate. You just have to be a friend of the university who is willing to contact your legislator on our behalf.

Might UF form a Gators for Higher Education group at the federal level?

The federal bureaucracy requires a whole different approach to have an impact, and the process is usually much longer in duration. So it's unknown at this point whether this model would work in Washington, D.C., but it is certainly something we might consider.

For information on Gators for Higher Education or to become a member, go to http://GatorsForHigherEd.ufl.edu.