Statements
Good morning! Mr. President, my fellow trustees, leaders and faculty: It’s great to be with all of you.
My tradition for my remarks is to devote a few minutes to what’s coming before you. Today, I’ve asked Melissa for a little more time than usual. I want to take about 20 minutes to give a level set on where we stand as a university today and in the future.
We’ve all experienced the changes of the past few months. We’re all aware of important needs, such as filling key deans’ and other leadership positions.
But what I want to make clear is this: The University of Florida is on firmer ground, and has a brighter future than ever before in our history.
Thanks to many years of focused effort by this board, the president and cabinet, faculty, and staff, we have built an incredibly accomplished and vibrant institution.
And with the continued support of our governor and lawmakers, and the leadership of our next exceptional president, the sky is the limit for UF’s continued rise in national and global stature.
This is our final meeting of 2024 and a big step into 2025 and the years beyond.
Over the next two days, you will get to act on a number of exciting and impactful new opportunities.
I joined this board in 2016 and became chair in 2018, and many others here are also longtime veterans. It’s important for us to look back so that we can move forward.
So … I’d like to reflect on how we arrived at this point, with so much promise ahead.
We were recently described in a national media outlet as “laser-focused on the national rankings.” We wear that mantle proudly because it’s a big part of what got us here.
First:
We are also laser-focused on rankings because they measure performance and quality.
For example, improving our student-faculty ratio means that students get more one-on-one time with professors.
But let me be clear: We are also laser-focused on building something no one can rank: A culture of excellence.
Today, this culture means that:
We just got the news that 90% of our law students passed the bar, making UF No. 1 in Florida.
As you’ll hear later, our law school dean has a plan to take us to 95 percent. That’s our culture of excellence.
Our tech transfer operation is No. 2 among publics and privates for bench-to-bed tech transfer, behind only Carnegie Mellon. That’s our culture of excellence.
UF Health has been adding new facilities at lightning speed, and just last year the UF Health Cancer Center received National Cancer Institute designation, elevating it to the top cancer centers. That’s our culture of excellence.
Let me back up.
One problem was that our universities were being measured by inputs instead of outputs.
Enrollment was growing rapidly because funding was determined by how many students were enrolled.
Universities were admitting students just to get more funding.
The result was that most universities were growing in size but stuck-in-place in stature. At some, as few as 39 percent of students were graduating in six years, with more than 60 percent washing out.
UF was better but not great. We were ranked 19th among public universities in 2011, and we stayed in the double digits until 2017. But I’m getting ahead of myself.
Working with then-Governor Rick Scott and the legislature, we switched the focus to outputs rather than inputs.
Instead of rewarding enrollment growth, we began rewarding positive results.
This came in the form of Performance Funding and subsequently, Preeminence Funding.
The metrics used by these two programs are similar to the metrics used by U.S. News and other rankings:
Things that actually matter to our students and to their success after they graduate.
Well, guess what? Performance and Preeminence funding worked. Why did they work? One word: Accountability.
Thanks to Performance and Preeminence, Florida’s State University System has been ranked No. 1 in the nation for eight years running.
Again, this is because of our focus on outputs rather than inputs.
All universities have benefited.
Today, four universities receive Preeminence dollars and the rest are striving to join them.
FIU for the past two years has hit it out of the park in Performance metrics, a historic rise.
The impact on UF has been profound:
We are mindful of the saying, “To whom much is given, much will be required.”
We refilled the 500 faculty positions – and then hired more faculty. Then we added another 100 faculty focused on artificial intelligence.
Our sponsored research spending, which was $801 million in 2017, has topped $1.26 billion.
Just last week, the National Science Foundation reported that, for the sixth straight year, UF led the nation in agricultural sciences and natural resources conservation research.
During this time, we also began surveying our students to find out how we’re doing, something we had never done before in a systematic way.
That feedback on advising and other topics helps guide us on our path to continuous improvement.
In August, Rob Ferl, a distinguished professor, flew to space on a Blue Origin rocket, becoming the first NASA-funded university researcher to conduct experiments off our planet.
Rob and his longtime UF research partner, Anna-Lisa Paul, are sharing their story as the commencement speakers at our fall graduation ceremonies this weekend.
And finally, we come to our U.S. News rankings.
The goal for Preeminence was for UF to become one of the top-10 publics.
But when we finally broke into the Top 10, it wasn’t good enough for this board.
We said, "Why stop at Top 10? Why not go for Top 5?"
Top 5 became our target.
For 30 years, the-top 5 public universities remained essentially unchanged.
That is until 2021, when UF broke into the Top 5 and stayed there for a second year.
When you look at the national rankings of all publics and privates, UF rose from 50th in 2016 to 28th in 2024 — one of the most impressive climbs in the history of the U.S. News rankings.
What UF has done is something other institutions can only dream of.
So, have we been “laser-focused on rankings?” Yes, we have! With the result that UF is now one of the very best public universities in the nation.
However that’s not the whole story.
Since 2017 we’ve also improved this university in key ways not measured by rankings.
Over the past nine legislative sessions, state leaders have appropriated more than $1 billion to UF to expand our facilities and do critical maintenance and renovation.
The UF Police Department was working out of substandard offices – trailers, basically.
We built a state-of-the-art public safety building.
We built:
Thank you, Bill! We dedicated $120 million to deferred maintenance.
Between 2015 and 2023, UF added 2.8 million square feet of new facilities — and we’re growing more.
Underground, we did more than $200 million in infrastructure improvement and upgrades.
In the virtual world, we’re adopting Workday, a cloud-based platform that will underpin administrative systems for the next 20 years.
As terrific as all these developments are, what’s most exciting is our future. Today is about the future.
As you’ll soon discuss, we’re cementing a partnership with Jacksonville to create a new graduate campus with $300 million in funding.
This campus will supercharge statewide workforce development in high-wage, high-skill jobs.
What’s the location? Stay tuned.
Finally, I know how much everyone loves football — and I do mean everyone. UF has 3.3 million fans. Do you know that 6 million people watched UF beat LSU?
While the board won’t be taking any action today, we have plans for a $1 billion revitalization of Ben Hill Griffin Stadium.
All of which gets me back to where I started.
Are we perfect? No.
Do we have challenges ahead? Yes – Absolutely!
There is still much to do. But let’s appreciate who we are.
Our UF Health doctors treat the sickest and most seriously injured patients.
Our agricultural experts help farmers all over the world improve their crops to feed the hungry.
Our engineers keep cyberterrorists from disrupting our economy.
Our artists create music and literature that inspire.
And our students are becoming leaders who will make the world better.
This happened because people accepted the challenge, rolled up their sleeves and got the job done.
People – not one person or one leader. We’re too big for that.
All because of our culture of excellence. All because we chose to be laser-focused on the rankings.
Rather than sit on the sidelines and hurl criticism, we have chosen to be the people actually doing the work.
Let me close by borrowing a few lines from a speech President Theodore Roosevelt gave in Paris more than 100 years ago but still rings true today.
“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better.
The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly … who spends himself in a worthy cause.”
The future of the University of Florida is a worthy cause.
The future of the great state of Florida is a worthy cause.
And…the futures of our sons and daughters is the worthiest cause of all.
It is a privilege to lead this cause with all of you. Thank you!