It's time to get back to work for president-elect Law – The Crow's Nest at USF St. Petersburg - The Crow's Nest
Commenting on vacancies in university administration, Law expressed the need for ‘somebody that’s excited about USF.’
Courtesy of USF
After her confirmation as the University of South Florida’s eighth president by the Florida Board of Governors, Rhea Law is ready to get back to work.
During a March 21 meeting at the St. Petersburg campus — the day before she was selected as president by the Board of Trustees— Law discussed past achievements, present challenges and future goals for USF.
She commended the consolidation of the university’s three campuses as one of USF’s biggest strengths, as each of its three locations have their “own unique style, characteristics and contributions to the success of the university as a whole.”
“Together we are great and together we can become greater,” Law said.
She also recognized the efforts put forth by students, faculty and leaders across the institution to advocate for USF’s 2022 priorities –– resulting in the approval of over $318 million directed to the university by Florida legislators.
“This was a historic year for funding,” Law said. “It’s the fact that the legislature recognizes the University of South Florida in our trajectory and our ability to move forward.
“We have a relevance to them, and they see that they want to invest.”
Included in these investments are $75 million to fund the construction of the Environmental and Oceanographic Sciences Research and Teaching Facility on the St. Petersburg campus, $3 million to plan the construction of the new Nursing and STEM building on the Sarasota-Manatee campus and $55 million recurring increase in USF’s operational budget –– the largest single-year investment in operational support the university has ever received.
Law also praised the growth of USF athletics, especially the pursuit of building an on-campus stadium for the university’s football team in Sycamore Fields.
“Our athletic opportunities have been wildly expanding,” Law said. “We have the on-campus stadium, which is very exciting. It will bring a whole different focus for the university, giving us an opportunity to pull in the community, alums and others from around, so that they can see the campuses and see what they have available to them.”
As for the challenges the university is facing, Law said that they lead to change and create new opportunities.
According to Law, a big challenge lies within USF’s budgetary issues, especially as the COVID-19 pandemic sent revenues into a downturn, leading to the Board of Trustees’ approval of a $36.7 million budget cut in 2021.
“One of the first things that was addressed when I got here was that the budget was not transparent, nor was it predictable,” Law said. “Budgets should not be a surprise.”
She continued to explain that in order to address these issues, Richard Sobieray was hired as interim senior vice president for financial strategy and has since worked arduously with people from across the campuses to get the budget back on track.
Another major challenge she addressed was the search for the soon-to-be vacant administration positions, such as St. Petersburg’s regional chancellor, the provost, the vice president for research and innovation and the vice president for diversity, equity and inclusion.
Law mentioned the need for leaders that have “seen the mountain and seen what true excellence looks like, and wants to take us there.”
“[We need] somebody that’s excited about the University of South Florida,” Law said.
Regarding goals during her tenure, Law mentioned the necessity to further strengthen community connections, not only in the Tampa Bay area, but throughout the region and beyond.
To achieve this, she has established different presidential advisory committees which work on several areas of the university to focus on how “we reach out to [the community], make sure that they understand what we’re doing and can help us think about how we portray ourselves to them.”
When asked about her plans to empower cutting-edge research at USF, Law said “we have a long way yet to go.”
She said that some of her first steps will be to provide help to faculty through training programs in research and development and make dealing with office-sponsored research more user friendly by creating a dashboard to incentivize communication and promote resources.
In regards to furthering sustainability, she tapped into her experience as an environmental lawyer and recognized the importance of the different ecosystems throughout the USF campuses, including St. Petersburg’s waterfront location and Tampa’s Brooker Creek, geopark and botanical gardens.
“We are teaching students to respect the natural resources, to understand what they are and to understand that they need to be protected,” Law said. “That’s what we are giving [the students] as a learning experience and that’s how we’re helping our world move forward.”
source: https://crowsneststpete.com/2022/04/04/its-time-to-get-back-to-work-for-president-elect-law/
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