Good afternoon. I'm Mike Sanderson.my full comment and more is at Mike Sand dot com.
To the feedback I received from the board on my previous comment, “it was so disjoint,” and “he sent me some long convoluted thing,” I take responsibility for communicating clearly verbally and in writing.
I know you're talking about me during the recess. I blame the Teams interface— was Microsoft the low bidder or something? I think you could sole-source a Zoom license.
First a follow up to last meeting, and then to the packet.
About my comment that it’s illegal to spend nonrecurring expense over several years, the following week I called the office of the house budget committee in Tallahassee, spoke to Billy, and was told , pretty authoritatively, that while for normal agencies this would be not allowed, the universities can do it as part of the carryforward process. Ok, that makes sense.
I stand by my comment it's not a good practice to have a $19 million presidential discretionary fund, 27% of the E&G budget. There are still rules for carry forwards, by the way. A big problem here is the administration has destroyed its credibility.
Can an LLM Replace the Board?
On to the meeting packet, I’d like to recall something— Trustee Otto. Cliff? Do you remember when you were Chair, we met and chatted for a few? At breakfast, in Orlando at the Board of Governors meeting in November 2023? I mentioned I am a software engineer, and I was experimenting with LLMs. Do you remember what I said? I said it would be possible to have an AI replace the board of governors.
Well that day has finally come.
I have Anthropic’s Claude Cadillac plan so dropped the packet into and said, “I’m a on the board of trustees, give me some things I should ask.” And it did. Then I gave it last years packet too and it found even more. All pages are in the PDF.
The Budget
The first thing it said about the budget was the line “Contingencies & New Initiatives is down by $7 million.” Both that it’s down, and that’s 17% of the budget this year, that’s a lot to be in big ol black box. Utilities increase by 252%. Chemistry gets added. Why is your police under your IT budget line? I heard the VP of IT went to Colorado to receive a prestigious award from your vendor. And the award from your vendor came with a cash prize, is that right?
Other changes:
Civil Engineering ×~4,
Industrial Engineering ×~3,
International Relations ×~4
LIbrary: ×~1/2.
In fact, took a different session and dropped this pack and last years packet and asked it to find stuff.Then it said, that “presidential discretionary"got renamed probably after somebody started asking questions.
A bunch of other stuff is renamed without notes. It even noted moving General counsel into presidents office and reducing its budget threatens the independence of the legal function.
First thing it said, what's with that $19 million presidential discretion fund? It's renamed to contingent funds
Capital Spending
The Claude AI also reviewed the capital spending. About the Student Center, it noticed the $12,001. Then it zeroed in on “professional services.”Claude asked how a building spent $5 million on professional services already. And on proposed Academic Building 3, it asked why that’s spending $4 million on professional services in its first year.
Around this point also, AI said, you know your CFO is interim? How’s the search for a permanent CFO going, while you’re
The Legislative Budget Request
The legislative budget request was the most amazing. The AI caught that on the bottom of Page 18 you say 2031 will have “4,107 FTE” but then the next page you say headcount of 3,462 by FY31.
The year-to-year caught stuff from the metrics. Post grad earning declined, and percent employed declined, but you raised the goals for both. Classic Florida Poly.
And then, AI caught, ironically, $1.5 million for AI? 15,000 staff hours redirected or avoided? Where’s this coming from. Maybe the more expensive AI will tell you what the more expensive AI is good for.
Workaday Sole-Source
And finally, they all caught the last item, asking the president to sign everything on a $3 million increase for a contact you signed a year ago.
You’ll never guess who the presenter is telling you to give the President authority to spend another $3 million as he sees fit.
And on the subject of sole-source, I see the document has been pulled down so I reposted it. Single-Source-Justificaiton_Barbar-Associates.pdf
Conclusion
I appreciate the questions about the Presidential Yacht. I did note President Stephenson went on a junket to Barcelona to get some fake award. I don’t care about the money, I care about the fake award. It’s embarrassing. And I would add, is this the Theranos Board of Governors? Fancy technology, no expertise to see if it is actually working. So is the fact that Florida Poly is essentially no different in marketing from a Silicon Valley hype machine or a trade school.
