USF Arts-Sciences Dean Resigning, Cites Budget Cuts

TAMPA - The dean of the University of South Florida's largest college told faculty that he is stepping down and expressed dismay that the university's budget-balancing plans zeroed in on his programs.

John Skvoretz, who has led the College of Arts and Sciences since 2005, wrote in an e-mail to faculty Sunday night that it was hard watching the university weigh proposals that would dismantle the college.

The budget-cutting proposals USF announced last month have the greatest impact on the College of Arts and Sciences, which houses programs as varied as Africana studies and anthropology, along with chemistry and criminal justice.

Of the nearly $22 million the university will cut from the academic operations on the Tampa campus, about $7 million will come out of the College of Arts and Sciences, or about 32 percent of the burden.

"I carefully considered the fit between the type and style of the leadership I can provide and the type and style of the leadership the College needs at this point in time and concluded, reluctantly, that the fit is no longer there," Skvoretz said in his e-mail.

In an interview Monday, Provost Ralph Wilcox said he agreed and accepted Skvoretz's resignation. "It was time for new leadership," Wilcox said.

In a separate e-mail Monday to faculty members, Wilcox praised the dean's leadership during a time when the college grew with students and faculty. Skvoretz also led the college through a time when it produced more degrees and brought in more research funding, Wilcox said.

He noted, however, that the college is in a time of transition and that "the coming months and years will call for some difficult decision-making as we continue to focus on our strategic path to the future."

Wilcox named an interim dean, Eric Eisenberg, a professor and former chairman of USF's communications department.

Eisenberg's job will not only include improving student success and scholarly output, Wilcox said. He also must focus on boosting faculty morale.

Skvoretz, who previously led the liberal arts college at the University of South Carolina, intends to remain at USF and resume teaching and research in his specialty, social network analysis. His last day as dean is Aug. 6.

In recent weeks, Wilcox and other USF leaders have weighed plans to take some disciplines out of the College of Arts and Sciences and move them to other colleges at the university.

In his e-mail, Skvoretz wrote, "It has been extremely difficult over the past six months to see the advocating of proposals for its potential dismantling with quite limited consideration of the up and down sides of such a large and potentially contentious undertaking."

One proposal calls for removing all science departments from the college and incorporate them into the College of Engineering, said Wilcox, who added that he doesn't plan to endorse that.

The College of Arts and Sciences may undergo significant restructuring, however. The university is eliminating 170 vacant faculty positions on its Tampa campus. Of those, 41 are in the College of Arts and Sciences.

With fewer faculty members, administrators plan to reduce the available seats in course sections by 5 percent. The reductions have hit the College of Arts and Sciences hardest.

Skvoretz declined to speak much further, but wrote in a separate e-mail Monday to reporters that "Arts & Sciences is a large and diverse College and leading it can be compared to juggling chain saws while keeping 20 plates spinning - and that's when things are going well!"