STATEMENT FROM FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY
Feb. 7, 2023
We recently received questions about one of our financial assistance programs for students (the Leslie N. Wilson-Delores Auzenne Assistantship). It is part of a statewide program created in the 1980s by the Florida Board of Regents, the then-governing body of the state university system. The regents created the program to encourage minority students to pursue graduate degrees in areas where they are historically underrepresented such as engineering, mathematics, computer science, economics, and psychology. This scholarship is currently offered by state universities throughout the Florida system. At Florida State, this program historically provided no more than 12 graduate students each year up to $5000 in financial assistance. This represents less than one percent of the total financial aid awarded each year to students at Florida State University.
Upon reviewing the program’s description on our website, we found the language was antiquated and inconsistent with current university practices. We have corrected the issue.
We have an ongoing process to review our programs to ensure they reflect the values of a state university. As we previously stated, FSU will continue to provide the high-quality educational experience that our students, their parents, and the taxpayers of Florida have come to expect.
STATEMENT FROM FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY
Feb. 2, 2023
As an institution of higher education committed to academic excellence, Florida State University welcomes and embraces criticism. This evening we reviewed Christopher Rufo’s article “The Highest Principle,” which links to 206 pages of documents that he obtained from FSU. As we shared with Mr. Rufo when we provided the documents, 146 of those pages came from a voluntary training that FSU discontinued in 2019. Some of the other items Mr. Rufo identified are also obsolete. FSU has been reviewing our programs to ensure they reflect the values of a state university. That is an ongoing process. While we do that work, FSU will continue to provide the high-quality educational experience that our students, their parents, and the taxpayers of Florida have come to expect.