The Florida Senate

240.36  Dr. Philip Benjamin Academic Improvement Trust Fund for Community Colleges.--

(1)  There is created the Dr. Philip Benjamin Academic Improvement Trust Fund for Community Colleges to be administered according to rules of the State Board of Community Colleges. This trust fund shall be used to encourage private support in enhancing public community colleges by providing the community college system with the opportunity to receive and match challenge grants.

(2)  Funds appropriated shall be deposited in the trust fund and shall be invested pursuant to s. 18.125. Notwithstanding the provisions of s. 216.301 and pursuant to s. 216.351, any undisbursed balance remaining in the trust fund and interest income accruing to that portion of the trust fund not matched shall remain in the trust fund and shall increase the total funds available for challenge grants. At the end of a fiscal year, any unexpended balance of an appropriation in the trust fund will not revert to the fund from which appropriated, but will remain in the trust fund until used for the purposes specified in this section.

(3)  For every year in which there is a legislative appropriation to the trust fund, no less than $25,000 must be reserved to permit each community college and the State Board of Community Colleges, which shall be an eligible community college entity for the purposes of this section, an opportunity to match challenge grants. The balance of the funds shall be available for matching by any eligible community college entity. Trust funds which remain unmatched by contribution on March 1 of any year shall also be available for matching by any community college entity. The State Board of Community Colleges shall adopt rules providing all community college entities with an opportunity to apply for excess trust funds prior to the awarding of such funds. However, no community college may receive more than its percentage of the total full-time equivalent enrollment or 15 percent, whichever is greater, of the funds appropriated to the trust fund for that fiscal year and, likewise, the State Board of Community Colleges may not receive more than 15 percent of the funds appropriated to the trust fund for that fiscal year. A community college entity shall place all funds it receives in excess of the first challenge grant and its matching funds in its endowment fund and only the earnings on that amount may be spent for approved projects. A community college entity may spend the first challenge grant and its matching funds as cash for any approved project, except scholarships. If a community college entity proposes to use any amount of the grant or the matching funds for scholarships, it must deposit that amount in its endowment in its academic improvement trust fund and use the earnings of the endowment to provide scholarships.

(4)  Challenge grants shall be proportionately allocated from the trust fund on the basis of matching each $4 of state funds with $6 of local or private funds. The matching funds shall come from contributions made after July 1, 1983, for the purposes of matching this grant. To be eligible, a minimum of $4,500 must be raised from private sources, and such contributions must be in excess of the total average annual cash contributions made to the foundation at each community college in the 3 fiscal years before July 1, 1983.

(5)  Funds sufficient to provide the match shall be transferred from the state trust fund to the local community college foundation or the statewide community college foundation upon notification that a proportionate amount has been received and deposited by the community college entity in its own trust fund.

(6)  Each community college entity shall establish its own academic improvement trust fund as a depository for the private contributions and matching state fund established herein. The foundations of the community college entities are responsible for the maintenance, investment, and administration of their academic improvement trust funds.

(7)

(a)  The board of trustees of the community college and the State Board of Community Colleges are responsible for determining the uses for the proceeds of their respective trust funds. Such uses of the proceeds shall be limited to expenditure of the funds for:

1.  Scientific and technical equipment.

2.  Other activities that will benefit future students as well as students currently enrolled at the community college and that will improve the quality of education at the community college or in the community college system.

3.  Scholarships, which are the lowest priority for use of these funds.

(b)  If a community college includes scholarships in its proposal, it shall create an endowment in its academic improvement trust fund and use the earnings of the endowment to provide scholarships. Such scholarships must be program specific and require high academic achievement for students to qualify for or retain the scholarship. A scholarship program may be used for minority recruitment but may not be used for athletic participants. The board of trustees may award scholarships to students in associate in arts programs and vocational programs. However, for vocational programs, the board of trustees must have designated the program as a program of emphasis for quality improvement, a designation that should be restricted to a limited number of programs at the community college. In addition, the board of trustees must have adopted a specific plan that details how the community college will improve the quality of the program designated for emphasis and that includes quality measures and outcome measures. Over a period of time, the community college operating budget should show additional financial commitment to the program of emphasis above and beyond the average increases to other programs offered by the community college. Fundraising activities must be specifically identified as being for the program of emphasis or scholarship money. The community college must fully levy the amount for financial aid purposes provided by s. 240.35(10) in addition to the tuition and matriculation fee before any scholarship funds are awarded to the community college as part of its approved request.

(c)  Proposals for use of the trust fund shall be submitted to the State Board of Community Colleges for approval. Any proposal not acted upon in 60 days shall be considered not approved.

(8)  The State Board of Community Colleges shall establish rules to provide for the administration of this fund. Such rules shall establish the minimum challenge grant reserved for each community college entity and the maximum amount which a community college entity may receive from a legislative appropriation in any fiscal year in accordance with the provisions of the General Appropriations Act.

History.--s. 18, ch. 83-325; s. 20, ch. 85-196; s. 1, ch. 87-126; s. 15, ch. 87-331; s. 38, ch. 88-337; s. 12, ch. 89-381; s. 56, ch. 92-136; s. 18, ch. 97-246.