Separate FSU-FAMU engineering schools could cost $1 billion, study says

TALLAHASSEE, Florida — Splitting the engineering school shared by Florida State University and Florida A&M University into separate programs could cost $1 billion and draw legal challenges on civil-rights grounds, according to a new study on the issue.

But the report, from the California-based Collaborative Braintrust Consulting Firm, also says that changes are needed at the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering if it remains a single institution.

In many ways, the final version of the study is similar to an early draft. It maintains that the start-up costs of a separate FSU engineering program that could help the university gain national prominence would run into the hundreds of millions of dollars, and that a Supreme Court ruling on education segregation known as the Fordice decision could double that.

"The cost to set up a new FSU engineering college that has the scope of a top 25 public engineering college is estimated at $500 million," the report says. "The Fordice decision seems to imply that the same $500 million would need to be invested in the FAMU engineering college. Hence, the overall cost to set up a two-college system may be prohibitive."

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