After nearly two decades of serving as the USF system president, Judy Genshaft announced her retirement effective July 2019. Jonah Hinebaugh | The Crow’s Nest
By Dylan Hart
The USF Presidential Search Committee stopped at USF St. Petersburg Nov. 15 for one purpose: to hear the input of the school’s faculty.
The committee, which holds regular public meetings while operating the search, plans to select a new president for the USF system by spring 2019. The new president will replace Judy Genshaft, who announced her retirement Sept. 10.
“You’re here today to help us get a sense of what you’re looking for,” said committee member Stephanie Goforth. “This includes personal characteristics, opportunities and challenges for the next decade.”
The committee emphasized that it wanted to put forth a “vision of being inclusive,” but also that it wanted the faculty’s input in what they consider to be a wide and potentially challenging search. The committee stopped at the USF Sarasota-Manatee campus earlier in the day.
History professor Raymond Arsenault echoed the sentiments of the USF St. Petersburg faculty senate, of which he is president.
“The sense from the faculty senate is that we want an academic leader,” Arsenault said. “We don’t want to go the way of Florida Atlantic University or Florida State University, where we select politicians with no background in academics.”
Kathleen Gibson-Dee, instructor of mathematics and statistics, stressed the particular assets that the St. Petersburg campus possesses.
“We need a president who realizes that the St. Petersburg and Sarasota-Manatee campuses are a value added to our university,” Gibson said.
Gibson, along with her faculty colleagues, stressed the role of community partnerships with businesses and organizations in St. Petersburg in making the USF St. Petersburg campus’ identity strong and valuable to students, citing the St. Petersburg Arts Committee and the Downtown District as examples of strong community partnerships.
Magali Michael, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, said that adding STEM resources would be an important part of growing the university. The college is the largest of the three on campus.
But with USF St. Petersburg’s separate identity from its neighbors in Tampa and Sarasota-Manatee comes a separate set of challenges.
Registrar Sheri Schwartz, along with other members of the faculty and administration, shared concerns about having the St. Petersburg campus’ voice heard.
“We need someone who will work against this mentality of ‘us versus them,’” Schwartz said. “But what works in (Tampa) may not work on this side of the bridge.”
Committee chair Les Muma recommended acquiring a “USF Tampa helicopter” to transport the president between campuses and allow them to adequately assess the state of the university system. His recommendation was met with laughter from around the room.
Regional Chancellor Martin Tadlock raised his own concerns about how a new president would affect the educational landscape of the university system.
“Everyone in this room knows that higher education is changing,” Tadlock said. “What we need is an individual who is open to rethinking completely what higher education is all about.”
Tadlock also mentioned the importance of stability in a new president, referencing the high turnover rate of administrators at the USF St. Petersburg campus.
The search committee then posed the question: “What do you worry about?”
Muma was not concerned about consolidation’s effect on the campus.
“We’re not here to talk about consolidation, but I can tell you the people who are working hard on consolidation do not want to fail,” Muma said. “We’ve put systems in place that will not allow it to fail.”
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The committee will hold two more public meetings at USF Tampa on Wednesday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Thursday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., both in the USF Marshall Student Center.
This article was updated on Jan. 13, 2019. A previous version of the story erroneously quoted anthropology professor Kathy Arthur. She says she did not offer any comments during the listening section.
