UF requests $50 million from Legislature for graduate campus in Jacksonville

The University of Florida is seeking $50 million from the state Legislature to help create a graduate-level education center in Jacksonville that would specialize in teaching about high-skilled technology in the fields of health care and financial services.

State Rep. Wyman Duggan, R-Jacksonville, filed the appropriation request on behalf of the University of Florida, adding a third track in funding for the UF center along with potential support from the city of Jacksonville and also philanthropic donations.

House Speaker Paul Renner, R-Palm Coast, said the request will get consideration during the budget-writing process.

"We will review appropriations requests as the budget takes shape," he said in a statement. "The prospects of creating a hub for innovation and high-paying jobs are exciting and any community would be lucky to have a world-class institution like the University of Florida in their backyard."

Duggan said Friday he'll make the case to fellow lawmakers that the UF center will bolster Jacksonville's ability to fortify major sectors in the regional economy.

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"We're not trying to jump-start this industry in Northeast Florida," Duggan said. "It's already here. We're already very successful at recruiting businesses to come here with high-wage jobs."

Mayor Lenny Curry is asking the City Council to support a $20 million appropriation for the possible education center in the first of three years of city funding that would eventually total $50 million.

The third leg of the financing for the UF center would be $50 million in private support.

Legislation filed by Curry for the first $20 million installment in city backing is slated to come up for a vote by the City Council while the state Legislature is crafting its 2023-24 budget.

"If the council were to not approve the city match, it's too early for me to tell you definitively what that would mean for the state funding," Duggan said. "It's just too early in the process."

The appropriation request filed by Duggan says in the initial phase, UF would need to lease space in downtown Jacksonville while it hires additional experts and faculty so it can "begin offering part-time programs in 2025 as plans move forward to build a new campus over a multi-year period."

Duggan said the projection by the University of Florida is that once the education center is "fully up and running," the combined number of faculty and students at it will be in the range of 2,000 to 4,000.

"That's a very significant number of people," Duggan said.

Graduate-level UF center would have a ripple effect

Duggan said UF is a top-tier university nationally so having UF graduate programs in Jacksonville would be an "enormous boost."

"Obviously in this case, it aligns very well with our existing economy, but it's like having the Jags and having an NFL team in your town," he said. "It's that level of pre-eminence and it just has a multiplying effect."

He said the graduate-level program will deliver advanced training for workers so existing companies and businesses relocating here will be able to fill the jobs they need for their expansion.

"Having a pipeline of qualified, trained, accredited folks will help support that," he said.

The state's strong finances made it possible last year for the Legislature to approve $80 million for another UF-related project: construction of a new trauma center and emergency room at the UF Health campus on Eighth Street.

The state funding for the UF Health trauma center started with a $6 million request and increased substantially as lawmakers developed the 2022-23 budget.

This year's appropriation request for the UF Health and Financial Technology Graduate Education Center says it will offer professional graduate programs creating a "pipeline of highly trained students" for the state while fostering innovation and invention through "solutions-based programs" developed by UF Health and the UF colleges of business and engineering.

The center will boost biomedical and artificial intelligence technologies, healthcare safety and quality for patients, health care administration and fintech, according to the appropriations request. Fintech is the use of technology in financial services.

"The primary direct services will be education and related support" and the initial academic programming "is expected to focus on UF's colleges of medicine, nursing, engineering and business," according to the request.

UF would use the state money to work with "public/private partners" in developing the center and its curriculum. The state funding also would lease facilities "as needed while development is underway and after," hire faculty and student support professionals and explore "collaborative education/innovation opportunities" with other education and research institutions in the area along with the kindergarten- through 12th-grade school system.

The center would be in the downtown area. Duggan said UF will select the exact location.

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: University of Florida asks Legislature to pay for Jacksonville campus