Moez Limayem was unanimously approved as the next president of the University of South Florida by USF Trustees last month.
But the earliest he can start is in three months.
That's because the Florida Board of Governors chose not to place his confirmation on their meeting agenda this week. This delay pushes back a vote on the new USF president until the next Board of Governors meeting in January.
After the board's workshop on Wednesday at the USF Morsani School of Medicine, Limayem — who is currently the president of the University of North Florida — said the only reason he was given for the delay is that their agenda was too full.
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"We need to respect the process. We have two universities involved, two great universities, and we owe it to our colleagues in both universities, we owe it to our Board of Governors, and to our taxpayers to respect the process," Limayem said. "It's really difficult for us to comment before the process is over."
Limayem said he wasn't disappointed with the delay and looks forward to laying out his plan for USF.
"Once we are confirmed, we will give you the vision and the plan for the next few weeks and months, but I think we're taking it one step at a time," Limayem said.
Timeline still in place
A spokesperson for USF said that their intention has always been for Limayem to begin this role in early 2026, and that remains the plan — pending confirmation.
Eric Silagy, who is on the Board of Governors, said the delay doesn't seem to be a political issue regarding Limayem — just timing.
He had not heard of a special meeting before the board's next regular meeting in January to discuss the confirmation.
On "Florida Matters Live & Local," Eric Kelderman — with the Chronicle of Higher Education — told host Matthew Peddie that not confirming Limayem this month is unusual. However, he doesn't know what's happening behind the scenes, and it did seem like a full agenda.
"I don't think anybody but the players involved really understands what's happening," Kelderman said. "These things typically are fairly cut and dry and might not take a lot of discussion or time, so it's unusual. But I don't want to say that is a smoking gun — that there's evidence of any sort of controversy that's happening at this point."
Another issue being discussed is how it'll be months before Limayem could even be confirmed. Kelderman said that usually by this point, everybody has signed off, and there's an employment agreement that's in place that the board will vote on and agree to.
However, this pushback in confirmation does bring an "element of uncertainty," he said.
Kelderman speculated that people could be wondering whether there's any concern with Limayem's background or if there are any hiccups in the process since he's president at the University of North Florida.
The delay has also brought to mind what occurred earlier this year with the University of Florida. The institution already approved longtime academic Santa Ono, but the Florida BOG voted against him amid criticism of his past support for diversity, equity and inclusion programs.
Limayem vs. Ono
Kelderman said he doesn't see a lot of parallels between the situations. Limayem is considered to be a "known quantity." He's been in Florida for a long time and has deep ties with the community he's serving. Whereas Ono was coming from the University of Michigan, and there had been press related to their DEI programs.
"He's [Limayem] not from a humanities background. He's a science guy — that should be some comfort to folks. The business background, I think, would be a positive for the Board of Governors," Kelderman stated. "So I don't draw any parallels necessarily there, but I think the Ono thing is casting a pretty long shadow."
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In general, Limayem strays from the most recent higher education shakeups in the Sunshine State. Many of Florida's newest public university presidents are former lawmakers or those with political connections. For example, Florida Atlantic University's president is former Lt. Gov. Jeanette Nuñez.
Kelderman described how Gov. Ron DeSantis has been "intensely engaged" in reshaping public higher education in the state and public education overall.
"Believe it or not, these university gigs are, I think, seen as somewhat desirable and also a way for DeSantis and other conservatives in the state to, I guess, put their stamp on higher education in a sense," Kelderman said.
On the other hand, Limayem has deep ties to both education and Tampa Bay. Before becoming UNF's president in 2022, he was USF's Lynn Pippenger Dean of the Muma College of Business at USF for 10 years.
He first started his academic journey in Quebec, where he became the assistant associate department chair at Laval University. He later took up posts at City University of Hong Kong, Lausanne University in Switzerland and the University of Arkansas.
"You're getting an academic who really went through all the ranks," Limayem previously said during a campus visit.
The next meeting on the BOG's calendar is Jan. 28-29 at Florida State University. Limayem was USF's sole finalist for president after Rhea Law announced earlier this year that she would be retiring.
Previous reporting by WUSF's Nancy Guan and Mark Schreiner was used in this report. This story was compiled in part from interviews conducted by Matthew Peddie for "Florida Matters Live & Local." You can listen to the full episode here.
