QUESTION SYNOPSIS
Every department this fall learned its budget for the year upcoming, and as always there are many worthy projects, designed to support or enhance learning or teaching, unfunded. This is generally explained as a function of the university's limited resources.

On May 5, 2004, the university rented out the whole of the luxurious Ribault Club for the full day; in order to hold a "retreat" for more than 100 of the university's highest paid administrators. The administrators were given free breakfasts, free lunches, free souvenir coffee mugs, and -- at the end of the "retreat" -- a free boat tour.
May we know the total cost of this retreat?

A second all-day retreat has been announced for October 8. For this one, the university has secured "The Outpost in Ponte Vedra," advertised as "a rustic, low country-style lodge in a private, 100-acre forest preserve overlooking Lake Guana." Again, more than a hundred of the university's highest paid administrators will be provided free breakfasts and free lunches.
May we know the cost of this retreat, the second in six months?

It has been announced that "three or four" such retreats will take place this year.
May we know the total projected cost of these retreats?

As for the work accomplished at these retreats:
The administrators on May 5 spent the morning -- between the free breakfast and the free lunch -- listening to each other present informational reports.
May we know why these reports couldn't be distributed by e-mail, at zero cost?

The administrators on May 5 did spend time after lunch working in groups small and large, talking their way toward progress on various issues of real importance to the success of UNF.
May we know why these talks could not simply have taken place at the University Center, after the lunch hour?

The overall question is this:
May we know exactly how much money is being spent on the retreats, and -- especially given that resources genuinely are limited -- may we know how the university justifies the unnecessary cost of doing its business off campus, at luxurious private clubs?