By Ana Go\u00f1i-Lessan, The News Service of Florida<\/p>\n
TALLAHASSEE \u2013 State University System leaders on Thursday signed off on a three-year extension of Florida State University President Richard McCullough\u2019s contract and the sale of a Tallahassee hospital to the school.<\/p>\n
During their meeting in Pensacola, the Board of Governors voted to keep McCullough, the former vice provost for research at Harvard University, at FSU through 2029.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been an honor of a lifetime, I\u2019m humbled to be the leader of Florida State University,\u201d said McCullough, who became FSU\u2019s 16th\u00a0president in 2021.<\/p>\n
Timothy Cerio, vice chair of the board, lauded McCullough for the way he led the university through the aftermath of a mass shooting last year, when an FSU student killed two people and injured five others on campus.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe handled a horrific situation on campus with the shooting with elegance and grace, and you could see the look on his face, how much that experience devastated him,\u201d Cerio said. \u201cWe are privileged to have you at Florida State University.\u201d<\/p>\n
At the same meeting, the BOG also approved the $109 million acquisition of Tallahassee Memorial Healthcare, a hospital owned by the City of Tallahassee. McCullough has spearheaded the drive for FSU to acquire the hospital.<\/p>\n
The money will be paid over 30 years with annual payments of $3.6 million with zero interest, said Kyle Clark, FSU\u2019s senior vice president for finance and administration.<\/p>\n
As part of the purchase, FSU is pledging to spend $1.7 billion on the hospital over 30 years, including $100 million in property upgrades and invest $150 million toward clinical faculty, laboratory resources, research and academic operations.<\/p>\n
The FSU Board of Trustees approved the purchase of the hospital earlier on Thursday.<\/p>\n
Included in the contract are accountability measures, Clark said, and the university would have the right to terminate the lease if any breach occurred.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want to congratulate you on a thoughtful and well-reasoned approach,\u201d said board chairman Alan Levine. \u201cYou guys have done something here that is demonstrative of how a university would acquire a hospital.\u201d<\/p>\n
Board member Doug Broxson, a former state legislator, congratulated McCullough on the acquisition, which he called a \u201cheavy lift.\u201d<\/p>\n
Broxson said when he first met McCollough, the president expressed concerns about the health care not only for Leon County residents, but also the counties surrounding it, which are some of the poorest in the state.<\/p>\n
All four counties that border Leon \u2013 Wakulla, Liberty, Jefferson and Gadsden, are considered \u201cfiscally constrained counties\u201d in state law, eligible for state funding due to their struggle to raise money from property taxes.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen we consider what you are doing today, it will not only rebrand the great brand of Florida State, but it will send a message about its commitment to the poorest among us,\u201d Broxson said.<\/p>\n
The details of McCullough\u2019s contract extension, including compensation, will be finalized in August by the FSU Board of Trustees.<\/p>\n
State law caps the public funds that can be used to pay university presidents\u2019 salaries at $200,000, with the rest paid with non-public sources.<\/p>\n
The most recent contract from August 2025 shows McCullough\u2019s base salary as $1.25 million a year, and he also received a $500,000 bonus. His salary is one of the largest salaries among university presidents in the state.<\/p>\n
FSU is currently ranked 21st among public higher education institutions by U.S. News & World Report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Ana Go\u00f1i-Lessan, The News Service of Florida TALLAHASSEE \u2013 State University System leaders on Thursday signed off…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":51725,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[232,234,233],"class_list":["post-208207","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tallahassee","tag-tallahassee","tag-tallahassee-headlines","tag-tallahassee-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208207","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=208207"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208207\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/51725"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=208207"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=208207"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=208207"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}