University of Florida President to Resign, Plans to Transition to Professor

University of Florida President Kent Fuchs will resign from his position as he would like to transition from president to professor, he announced in a video posted on the university’s Twitter account.

However, Fuchs will continue to serve at the university until the next president is appointed, which according to the announcement, is expected to take place by early 2023, Erudera.com reports.

After leaving the position, he said that he will take a sabbatical, then return as a professor at UF, in his home department of electrical and computer engineering, to work in teaching and to conduct research.

“I have planned that the final phase of my career would be as a member of the teaching and research faculty in my home academic department, electrical and computer engineering, here at the university,” Fuchs said in his message to UF community.

While announcing his plans, Fuchs also highlighted the three commitments which he was asked to make to the Board of Trustees and the Board of Governors when he was appointed as president back in 2014.

“First, that I would work to raise the stature of UF to be among the nation’s top 10 public universities. Second, that UF would launch and complete a $3 billion fundraising campaign. Third, that UF would not increase its tuition while I served as president. Those promises were made and those promises were kept,” he said.

He closed the message quoting the Bible, in which the apostle Paul said to Timothy, “I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race. I have kept the faith.”

President Fuchs told University of Florida Board of Trustees Chair Mori Hosseini in August 2021 about his decision, and both agreed that Fuchs would inform the UF community in January 2022 that this would be his last year as president.

In January 2015, Kent Fuchs became the university’s 12th president and has been serving at the university for eight years.

Previously, Fuchs joined Cornell University, where he served as Provost and Dean of Engineering. He also worked as faculty member in Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, and served as the School Head at Purdue University.

Currently, there are 4,642 full-time faculty at the University of Florida, an increase of over 25 percent compared to 2014 when there were 3,691 full-time faculty working at the institution. The university has also seen an increase in student applications, with 60,000 students applying for the fall of 2022 entering class.