Governor Ron DeSantis’ push to give the USF Sarasota-Manatee campus to New College of Florida is a “red flag for all of us,” University of South Florida President Moez Limayem said Tuesday.
At a series of events billed as “town halls” at the USF campuses in Tampa, St. Petersburg and Sarasota-Manatee, Limayem explained why he has not come out more strongly against the idea of losing a branch campus.
“We're what now, in April? We have no idea what kind of budget we will have, what kind of recurring money and capital improvement money,” Limayem said.
Limayem acknowledged to the crowd of about 200 at the Sarasota-Manatee campus on Tuesday that the issue is on “everybody's mind,” and said “it is one of the few concerns that actually makes me lose sleep. It really is.”
DeSantis installed a slate of conservative trustees to the New College Board in 2023 in a bid to set the small honors college on a new trajectory, emulating the private conservative Hillsdale College in Michigan. The school abandoned so-called “woke” teaching and ended programs in gender studies.
Soon after, the Florida Board of Governors, which is a governor-appointed body overseeing the state university system, urged USF and NCF to “identify synergies.”
Then, internal talks between leaders of the two schools focused on giving USF’s southernmost campus to New College to aid its planned expansion.
Limayem was named USF president in mid-February, more than a year after this began. The USF asset transfer appeared in the governor’s proposed budget, and passed the House but not the Senate during the regular session, which ended in March.
That leaves the matter an open question for upcoming state budget talks.
Town halls
Although the 90-minute event in Sarasota was billed as a town hall, those in the audience were not given an opportunity to speak. Questions were submitted ahead of time, or via QR code on a screen, then vetted, summarized and paraphrased by the president’s staff. USF followed a similar format for three other town halls this week: two in Tampa and one at the St. Petersburg campus.
On the issue of what might happen to faculty and staff if the USF Sarasota-Manatee campus and assets are transferred to New College, Limayem said he would do “everything in my capacity to make sure, regardless of the decision that would be made, hopefully very soon, that we will have the resources to take good care of our people.”
He did not elaborate. USF Sarasota-Manatee has an enrollment of 1,638 students, and more than 100 faculty and staff. Criminology, nursing, education and business are among its 40 accredited undergraduate and graduate programs.
Referring to questions about why he has not made a strong public statement toward keeping the campus as part of USF, the Tunisian-born Limayem explained his process as follows:
“If that would solve the problem, I promise you, I will issue 10 every single day. But what that -- from experience -- would really say that we are against the leaders in Tallahassee, that we oppose [them]. And historically, that didn't serve the cause. Actually, it hurt the cause, hurt the university, and hurt what we were trying to achieve,” Limayem said.
“Based on 34 years of experience in academia, the best way to make the case in these situations is to talk to these lawmakers and make the case for them. A lot of discussions, trying everything we can, to communicate with the legislators and to make the case,” Limayem said.
He introduced his vice president of government relations, Mark Walsh, to update the audience on the latest talks.
“Our board [of trustees] is extremely politically engaged with the governor, appointed by the governor, and they've had a lot of conversations with the governor that have not, you know, taken the form of media requests and releases and things like that,” said Walsh.
“That's why I think you'll hear [USF Board of Trustees] chair [Will] Weatherford say with high confidence that regardless of what they decide… he feels comfortable that the governor understands that USF's priority is the people, the students, the employees, faculty in particular.”
Walsh explained that the legislature adjourned the regular session “without addressing this bill,” and described the USF Sarasota Manatee campus issue as “not one of the major holdups of the session,” but a “minor slice of the $115 billion” budget being negotiated.
“What we're expecting is that they will make some parameters of a budget deal among the leaders of the legislature, and then recall the legislature to Tallahassee to work out a budget agreement, and then at that time, determine whether or not they want to proceed with this,” added Walsh.
“We know that the governor is in favor of it. Actually, the chair of the Board of Governors (Alan Levine) has come out and said he thinks it's in the long-term best interest of the university system. The legislature is still very much in doubt.”
Down to the wire
Walsh said he and USF assistant vice president for government relations, Casey Welch, “had a conversation with a local member just yesterday about it. They still have not made up their mind on what they intend to do. So, this will come down to the legislature's decision. It's ultimately their call.”
"Please rest assured that because you don't hear a lot of public outcry from the university, that's because our board chooses to use the effectiveness of personal conversations and leveraging those relationships to say, this is what USF would need to get out of it,” he added.
The timing of any decision remains uncertain, Walsh said. A special session has been called for April 20 in Tallahassee, to consider redrawing state congressional districts. It’s possible that parameters for a budget deal could be built before, or after that session, Walsh said.
“The fiscal year goes all the way to June 30, so the legislature doesn't have to have a budget in place until June 30 at midnight in order to avoid some kind of funding lapse,” Walsh said. The campus transfer could happen as soon as July 1, according to proposed budget language released months ago by DeSantis.
Finally, Walsh urged people to call their legislators with concerns.
“If you're interested in talking to your elected officials as concerned citizens, they are listening,” Walsh said. They “come back to Casey and I all the time and say, here's what I'm hearing… can you give us some information about that? We do.”
In summary, Walsh said, “there's no ‘it's definitely happening, it's definitely not happening,’ right now. It's somewhere in between.”
Limayem said the university is planning for a variety of scenarios, but is not making those plans public. “If a legislator sees this plan, what would they think? I really don't need the campus? They (USF) don't need the money? That's exactly what will happen,” he said.
The USF president acknowledged the toll of uncertainty.
“Our latest study of economic impact of this great university: $10 billion economic impact on our state, $7 billion in our region, Tampa Bay. We create, directly or indirectly, 110,000 jobs. Anybody who can argue with that is not being truthful,” he said.
“I see what is happening here in Sarasota-Manatee as a red flag for all of us,” Limayem added. “Even if the outcome is to keep the campus and keep our people and our budget, I can assure you, business should not be as usual. This is too painful to go through it every single year, or to go through it in few more years.”
He asked those in the audience to consider how they could make the campus offerings better, and to ask themselves: “Why someone from any other part of the country would select USF Sarasota-Manatee as their home campus?”
“If we were starting our Sarasota-Manatee campus today, knowing everything we know, knowing all of these bumps and risks and red flags that we went through, how would we do it so that we don't have to go through this painful experience anymore?" Limayem asked.
"If we do not answer that question, can assure you, even if we win this time, we're not going to win in the longer term.”
