[Fla-facrl] FACRL Responds to Veto of the Complete Florida Plus Program

[Guy Cicinelli]

Dear FACRL Friends and Colleagues,On Monday, Elijah Scott, Executive Director of FALSC, learned that Governor Ron DeSantis vetoed the entire Complete Florida Plus Program funding, which includes all funding for the Florida Academic Library Services Cooperative (FALSC).  Please see below:https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.politico.com/states/florida/story/2020/06/30/desantis-kills-online-learning-program-amid-virus-resurgence-1296178__;!!PhOWcWs!hdOIxwORONoclAsEH1ISgG6QxoEoVspcUTtmI0Ct25H_IuSrMNKgJRTp23kKsmZal8V4Sw$   
“The Florida Academic Library Services Cooperative, a virtual campus program that hosts online journals, e-books and other resources for schools across the state, would be defunded, as would the Complete Florida Degree Program that helps former college students return to school to complete their degree.
Library databases would go offline in the middle of the college summer semester, which is being held largely online as college campuses remain closed to students during the Covid-19 outbreak. The veto could force schools to come up with their own programs on the fly, putting them at risk of losing access to the “appropriate electronic resources” that are required by the state’s accreditation board.”
The veto eliminates ALL funding for FALSC – staff, integrated library system, databases and electronic resources, etc. – for the next fiscal year.  This will drastically impact all state college and state university libraries, and would endanger these institutions’ ability to maintain SACS-COC accreditation.  
If this veto stands, FALSC may not survive, which would be devastating for Florida’s libraries. 
We urge you to contact your administration and Governor Ron DeSantis about the importance of restoring the Complete Florida Plus Program funding back into the budget.
If you would like to send an email on behalf of your students and institution to Governor DeSantis, please feel free to use this letter template as a starting point. 
Email: GovernorRon.Desantis at eog.myflorida.comTwitter: @GovRonDeSantisPhone: 850-717-9337 
  
Sent on behalf of the FACRL Board of Directors


Guy Cicinelli, MLISLibrary Technology Manager Lee County Library Systemmobile: 239-777-2827email: gcicinelli at aol.com
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