Pictured above: St. Petersburg Campus Advisory board member Susan Churuti (left) and USF Interim President Rhea Law helped to retain $250,000 for academic affairs at USF St. Petersburg.
Courtesy of Susan Churuti and Stetson University.
By Isaiah Sterling
The St. Petersburg Campus Advisory Board recommended to reverse former President Steve Currall’s order to transfer $250,000 from the St. Petersburg campus operating budget to USF Health.
The recommendation came at its Aug. 5 meeting, two weeks after Currall announced his retirement and two days after Rhea Law stepped in as interim president.
Currall ordered the transfer of funds to support a pediatric residency program at Johns Hopkins All Children’s hospital in May. When asked about his reasoning behind the transfer, he blamed “state revenue shortfalls due to the COVID-19 pandemic.”
Although the pandemic drove a deep hole in university finances, Florida universities, in total, received $10.2 billion in COVID-19 relief grants from the U.S. Department of Education this March.
After a generous relief grant and the university being spared from deep budget cuts, advisory board members still wondered why money for USF Health was specifically transferred from the St. Petersburg campus budget.
USF has one operating budget that consists of four separate appropriations for Tampa, St. Petersburg, Sarasota-Manatee and USF Health, according to St. Petersburg Communications and Marketing Director Carrie O’Brion.
Provost Ralph Wilcox predicted it would be challenging for the university to “wrestle” with multiple budgets when he discussed consolidation at a Board of Trustees (BOT) meeting in November 2019.
Former Interim Vice Chancellor for Administrative and Financial Services Nick Setteducato said Currall’s order was “kind of undercover.”
In May, Setteducato told The Crow’s Nest he’d simply “state the facts” and mentioned the transfer of funds to USF Health was directed by Currall, who had final control over USF’s budget.
Advisory board member Susan Churuti said the order was “kind of demoralizing.” She said the board led numerous objectifications in hopes to retain the $250,000 for academic affairs at the St. Petersburg campus.
Churuti suggested Currall’s transfer of $250,000 made it difficult for the board to fulfill their funding obligations.
“When we see another entity come in and take some of the money that is available to us, it’s hard to feel like we can fulfill our obligations because there is no money left,” Churuti said in the meeting.
After Currall’s unexpected departure from the university, Interim President Rhea Law stepped in to approve the St. Petersburg Campus Advisory Board recommendation.
The recommendation was submitted by the advisory board and forwarded to Regional Chancellor Martin Tadlock, Law and the BOT for final approval.
In an Aug. 10 BOT Finance Committee meeting, Law said the Campus Advisory Board saw no connection between St. Petersburg and the pediatric residency program at USF Health.
Although the funds were not approved to be budgeted to USF Health, Law is committed to finding alternate funds to support the residency program.
She said her administration is committed to the board and they will develop a framework for aligning the costs with shared services around campus.
“We will work collaboratively with USF campuses to develop this proposed framework and we propose to bring it back to the Finance Committee with a proposal,” Law said.
