UPDATE 2 (6/30/25):
The last-minute switcheroo only swapped out the Budget and Finance Committee agenda item, not the “Full Board” agenda item. The committee agenda item is only a recommendation; the full board agenda item is the binding action of the Board of Trustees. Regardless of the timing or the motive for the last-minute FAU switcheroo.
This alone almost certainly invalidates the Board’s action. Which version did the Trustees vote for, or which did they think they were voting for?
Direct links below, but in one image:
Links:
Current Master Agenda (Last modified by Andrew LaPlant, Director, Board of Trustees & Board Liaison, 6/27/2025 9:52 AM)
Current Budget and Finance Committee Agenda Item (Last modified by Andrew LaPlant 6/27/2025 9:27 AM)
Current Full Board Agenda Item (Last modified by Andrew LaPlant 6/19/2025 9:04 PM)
No-longer-available Budget and Finance Committee Agenda Item (Last modified by Jayson Iroff, Vice President for Financial Affairs and CFO, 6/20/2025 5:16 PM)
UPDATE: Operating Budget modified at 9:27 AM before 10:00 AM meeting start time.
Above: Showing the two versions of the Operating Budget (Page 12) and the PDF Metadata showing modification at 9:27 AM., June 27
Left: Public notice of the meeting at 10 AM, June 27.
UPDATE 1 (6/28/25):
During the FAU Board of Trustees meeting, I noticed that the budget on the website was different from the budget I had downloaded a few days earlier. This was not mentioned during the meeting.
This is a $5 million discrepancy.
Modified June 20, 2025, 5:16 PM (original document).
Modified June 27, 2025, 9:27 AM (new document).
ORIGINAL COMMENT:
My name is Mike Sanderson, some of you may know me from my comments to the Board of Governors. I thank the members of board for taking time from your day to exercise oversight on behalf of the state and people of Florida. My comment concerns the FAU operating budget document, one of your key responsibilities to the state and people of Florida for oversight.
I want to focus on the most extraordinary issue, truly unprecedented, which is the retroactive changes to the athletics budget, made possible by the emergency rule change by the Board of Governors last week.
I want to comment on what this retroactive budget change to athletics actually is, and. I also have some questions about this, including a counterfactual because I don’t know which is true. Finally if I have time I’ll touch on a few general issues.
The retroactive Athletics budget changes are mostly shown by asterisks throughout.
So I pulled last year’s budget slides. At this meeting a year ago, you increased the Athletics budget from about $32 million to $35 million in this ending fiscal year ending now. less than 3 million difference and less than 10% increase.
Now you’re going to retroactively change the athletics budget for this past year to $40 million.
That means in 1 year you will have increased the athletics budget by $8 million or 25% increase to athletics, in one year. Nowhere are you seeing the numbers for the current fiscal year or the year before that. On Page 12, the main document, it actually says you’re decreasing your athletics spending. I don’t think this is an oversight, no pun intended.
This is an extremely misleading way to present this unprecedented change. I don’t know if Board members are also being misled, in which case you should be angry, or if this is just to mislead the public about what you are voting for.
I will note, the House settlement involves Back Pay, but for 10 years with a complex system. If FAU needs to commit funds for back pay, you should be seeing that laid out, you hear the word “Back Pay” that’s not telling you you need to pump $5 million in a rush.
Here's the first counter counterfactual question, because the fiscal year is over, and what I don’t know is, has that $5 million already been spent? or committed? Because if that money has already been spent or committed, and there’s a $5 million deficit, that’s extremely concerning and you should be told that. But that $5 million wasn’t already spent, why are you doing this?
And what was that $5 million in Clear wire money being spent on already? Money is fungible, and if it was paying for things that will now be picked up by taxpayers or other donors, it’s just a shell game. If the university has a $5 million revenue stream that’ s flexible about how you can spend it, maybe you should be making that decision deliberately.
Generally, this entire document is not a budget, it’s a brochure. IT’s a powerpoint pitch deck.
I don’t have time to discuss the financial aid budget, but look at the definition of Financial Aid on Page 62, and then on page 31 and 32. “The ending fund balance represents a timing difference between the receipt of the funds and disbursement to students.”
The choices made in this document won’t make the board or the public informed about how the money is actually being spent. I looked at your athletics department financial audit you saw at your last meeting, I ask at the least, that you reject the retroactive injection of money until the administration presents clearly athletic budgets at that level of detail for this past year and the coming year, and how the money is being spent. Thank you.
