TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Florida University Chancellor Resigns Post

ADVERTISEMENT

By ADAM EMERSON and CATHERINE DOLINSKI

The Tampa Tribune

Published: September 23, 2008

The leader of Florida's public university system announced Monday that he is stepping down, saying the time is right for new leadership and for him to return to the college campus he has long missed.

Mark Rosenberg will leave his post as chancellor of the state university system in February and join the faculty at Florida International University in Miami, where he served as provost.

"I had made a two-year commitment and stayed a third year," Rosenberg said of his tenure as chancellor, which began in late 2005. "This was not a long-term proposition. I love the university campus, and I like working directly with students."

Rosenberg's resignation comes as Florida's 11 public universities struggle with millions of dollars in budget cuts and the threat of worse days to come.

Job cuts have left universities with hundreds fewer faculty members, enlarging class sizes and closing doors to thousands of qualified applicants.

During his tenure, Rosenberg appealed to lawmakers to raise tuition and better cover the increasing demand for public higher education in Florida, often to no avail. Tensions came to a head about a year ago when the university system's Board of Governors joined a lawsuit to wrestle from lawmakers the power to set tuition costs.

Relations between the Board of Governors and the Legislature soured into the spring, when top lawmakers sought to disband the board and berated Rosenberg's argument that the university system was weakening.

The resignation came as no surprise to his critics.

"I think that his departure was expected," said Sen. Don Gaetz, chairman of the senate Education PreK-12 Committee. "I think that Dr. Rosenberg has been the walking dead for some time now, because his credibility was eroded over the past months."

Rosenberg said that relations between the Board of Governors and lawmakers have warmed in recent months, but admitted he underestimated what he called "the kind of heavy lifting that was involved to move the political community to accept the board."

"I had spent a lot of time in the political trenches in Miami," Rosenberg said in an interview. "But I think that, coming into Tallahassee, there was a very steep learning curve."

Even so, newly appointed Board of Governors chairwoman Sheila McDevitt said Rosenberg fulfilled his job during a politically volatile time.

The board soon will create a search team to find Rosenberg's successor.

Even if the board finds his replacement before March, McDevitt said, Rosenberg likely will serve as a consultant.

She said the next chancellor must have not only strong academic credentials but the political savvy to navigate Tallahassee.

"There are probably not tons and tons of people like that," McDevitt said.

The next session, however, may be harder on the money-starved university system. USF lobbyist Kathy Betancourt said the Board of Governors is "going to have to have someone who has a presence whom the Legislature has some respect for."

Reporter Adam Emerson can be reached at (813) 259-8285 or aemerson@tampatrib.com.

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT