Dr. Martin Tadlock, recently confirmed as USF St. Petersburg regional chancellor, attends Get on Board Day in the University Student Center, greeting students and visiting with recruiters, Aug. 23, 2018. Martha Rhine | The Crow’s Nest
By Dinorah Prevost, Whitney Elfstrom and Emily Wunderlich
Joy radiated across Martin Tadlock’s face as he jumped and jived to the “Petey Shuffle” alongside students and faculty Thursday at Get on Board Day, just two days after being named regional chancellor of USF St. Petersburg.
Tadlock, 64, who served as interim regional chancellor for 11 months, has a distinctly different leadership style from his predecessor, Sophia Wisniewska, whom he replaced after her abrupt ousting in September 2017.
Jumping into the mix of campus culture is nothing new for an administrator who usually gets to work before dawn, regularly mingles with students and sends emails to employees that are full of cheer and exclamation marks.
Now that his position as regional chancellor is secure, Tadlock vows to work hard for students and faculty as the St. Petersburg campus prepares to unify under one accreditation with Tampa and Sarasota-Manatee in 2020.
In a phone interview with The Crow’s Nest, Tadlock called himself a “staunch defender of making sure students have every opportunity possible.”
“I’ve never been shy about expressing the needs that we have in St. Pete,” he said.
Last spring he started what he calls “Sailing with Tadlock,” where students can put their names into a raffle for a chance to take to the sea with the regional chancellor.
Instead of having an employee pass out flyers or post them around campus, Tadlock himself walks around and hands them to passing students.
Tadlock also said he wants to start biking around downtown and taking pottery classes with students. It’s important that students know their voices are being heard, he said.
It’s not just the student body Tadlock wants to reach.
Each week, he sends an upbeat “Regional Chancellor’s Weekly Message” to faculty and staff with updates on campus developments, personnel changes and faculty achievements. And he regularly holds campus forums to make announcements and take questions.
Family and education first
At a faculty forum in September 2017, Tadlock described his early life and his long, circuitous journey into higher education.
He grew up “dirt poor” near the small town of Rockingham, North Carolina. In thinking about life after high school, college was not really an option.
No one in his family had gone to college, Tadlock said, and his father called it a “stupid idea.”
Instead of waiting for the draft to send him to Vietnam, Tadlock signed up for the Air Force. He served for four years, married and eventually had four children.
Toward the end of his tour, he lived in Turkey, where he started thinking about life beyond his discharge.
The thought of college was daunting – until he took a writing class through the University of Maryland extension services and got a B.
He enrolled at Utah State University after leaving the Air Force. And after six years, three major changes and many excess credits, he got a bachelor’s degree in geography with a minor in English.
He later earned a master’s in secondary education at Utah State and a doctorate in educational administration and leadership at Miami University in Ohio.
Throughout his college years, Tadlock said, his family was a great support system – especially his wife, LaRae.
“LaRae is highly supportive and has been my entire career,” he told The Crow’s Nest. “She’s always my sounding board. We’ve been married since ‘74. About every decision, it’s always been our decision.”
“I could not be doing this work or any of the work that I’ve been doing in education if it wasn’t for the support of my family,” he said. “That’s just critical.”
As he followed his career in education, his family had to relocate to Utah, Wisconsin, Oklahoma and Minnesota.
“We’ve been to six different universities, which required our family to move while my children were in various stages of their K-12 experience,” Tadlock said. “And, of course, it’s always been a family conversation about those kinds of things. It’s been that way my entire career.”
Now with his four grown children living in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Idaho and Texas, Tadlock and his wife are alone here in St. Petersburg.
“We’re the modern American family,” he said. “We have no immediate family in this area so the community, faculty, staff and students really become our family here. That’s what helps make up for that distance we have from each other.”
Impressive metrics
Tadlock is the seventh leader of the St. Petersburg campus since Judy Genshaft became USF system president in 2000.
After ousting Wisniewska, Genshaft said she would begin searching for a permanent replacement in the summer or fall of 2018. Tadlock, who had arrived as regional vice chancellor for academic affairs just 14 months earlier, was to assume the interim role during the search.
That search never happened, said Ray Arsenault, a longtime professor of Southern history and politics, and it wasn’t the first time, either.
Arsenault said the faculty didn’t have any say when Margaret Sullivan was hired after Regional Chancellor Karen White was replaced in 2009 for mishandling the campus’ accreditation. Sullivan also started as interim regional chancellor, according to a 2008 report in the Tampa Bay Business Journal.
“There was no search; (Sullivan) was just named,” Arsenault said. “There were a lot of people upset that that happened.”
In an email to The Crow’s Nest, Adam Freeman, director of USF media relations, confirmed Genshaft made Tadlock’s appointment to regional chancellor without a search.
“Her message to the campus community explained the reasons for the choice,” he said.
During the spring, Arsenault said, various department chairs from the university sent a letter to Genshaft stating the campus needed more stability as it undergoes reorganization. The letter suggested Tadlock would better serve the university if he were not an interim.
Tadlock accepted the offer Tuesday, and in a systemwide email Wednesday, Genshaft commended his contributions to student success, citing the 10-point increase in freshman retention this year.
“It’s not just about me, it’s about President Genshaft’s trust in everyone at USFSP,” Tadlock said.
Although his contract extends through June 2021, Tadlock said he will continue to focus on implementing the priorities already set forth by campus faculty, students and administration.
“I’m not going to think about what comes three years from now,” he said. “That’s just something you don’t know. Student success comes first; that’s why we’re here.”
Under the contract, Tadlock will earn $315,000 a year in his new position, plus a performance-based stipend determined solely at Genshaft’s discretion.
The contract directs Tadlock to “provide proactive, collaborative leadership to implement the Consolidation of the USF System with no lapse in accreditation, preeminence or opportunities for our students to graduate on time,” to “keep the (third) USFSP residence hall project on budget and on schedule” and to “continue to focus on meeting student success goals and the Performance Based Funding metrics for USFSP.”
Once his contract expires, he can opt to return to an active faculty position after completing a semester of professional development.
For a list of Tadlock’s contractual duties outlined in the letter from Genshaft, visit https://crowsneststpete.com/2018/08/24/campus-reacts-to-tadlocks-appointment-as-regional-chancellor/.
The Crow’s Nest’s Martha Rhine contributed to this report.
