{"id":231391,"date":"2026-04-14T15:54:35","date_gmt":"2026-04-14T15:54:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/231391\/"},"modified":"2026-04-14T15:54:35","modified_gmt":"2026-04-14T15:54:35","slug":"limayem-addresses-staff-and-faculty-concerns-at-usfsp-town-hall-the-crows-nest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/231391\/","title":{"rendered":"Limayem\u00a0addresses staff and faculty concerns at USFSP town hall\u00a0 \u2013 The Crow’s Nest"},"content":{"rendered":"

Additional\u00a0staff concerns included issues such as broken elevators, AI in the classroom and student resources on campus \u2014 like the therapy dog program and mental health services.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Photo by Makenna Wozniak |\u00a0The Crow\u2019s Nest\u00a0<\/p>\n

By Julia Birdsall\u00a0<\/p>\n

On April 7, the University of South Florida St. Petersburg\u2019s staff and faculty gathered in the USC Ballrooms to listen as Moez\u00a0Limayem\u00a0addressed their concerns in his first St. Petersburg campus town hall as the university\u2019s president.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201c[St. Petersburg is] not only the most beautiful campus, but this is where magic happens,\u201d\u00a0Limayem\u00a0said in his opening speech. \u201cThis is where amazing things are happening and hopefully with all of you, we\u2019ll make them even better.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

To continue his speech,\u00a0Limayem\u00a0addressed some prevailing issues that USF St. Petersburg faces, such as HR, technology\u00a0implementation\u00a0and the university culture which, according to the president, \u201clike many other institutions in Florida and every other part of the country, received a hit.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cMy goal is to do everything we can to fix these foundational issues as soon as possible,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019ll share with you what we are doing to assess where we are, where [the gaps are], and what we\u2019re going to do about that.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Much like the SG town hall hosted on April 2,\u00a0Limayem\u00a0responded to a series of\u00a0pre-submitted\u00a0questions, as well as those\u00a0submitted\u00a0throughout the event.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Salaries & technology concerns\u00a0<\/p>\n

One of the main concerns that employees had was the status of their salaries in comparison to the rising cost of living in the Tampa Bay area, as well as how their pay compared to that of other Association of American Universities (AAUs).\u00a0<\/p>\n

Limayem\u00a0\u2014 who boasted implementing the first salary raise that USF had seen in two years in his opening speech \u2014 said that while salary increases were a top priority, they will be difficult and take time to achieve.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will develop a plan hopefully to start with our blind spots and then slowly but very surely take care of everyone,\u201d he assured the room.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Employees were also concerned about departmental inconsistencies in hybrid work, as there are allegedly some departments that enforce in-person work more than others.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cMy belief is USF is not an online university,\u201d\u00a0Limayem\u00a0said. \u201cOur students need us. Even if\u00a0we\u2019re\u00a0not working directly with the students, our colleague needs us, our culture needs us\u2026and what we will do is review our policy on hybrid and remote work. We will tighten it\u00a0up,\u00a0so it is much\u2026 clearer\u00a0and also\u00a0applied in a very consistent,\u00a0fair\u00a0and\u00a0equitable\u00a0way.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Further issues with technology have arisen through Oracle HR. Though moderator Adam Freeman and\u00a0Limayem\u00a0were not explicitly clear on which issues employees were most concerned about, both commented on how\u00a0frequently\u00a0these concerns were brought to them.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cMistakes did happen. The most important thing is that we understand them so that we do not repeat the same mistakes,\u201d\u00a0Limayem\u00a0said. \u201cWe will fix it. We will share [a plan with you] very soon.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Culture erosion\u00a0<\/p>\n

Some employees raised concerns about the \u201cerosion\u201d of St. Petersburg campus culture due to statewide policies and consolidation of the three USF campuses.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Limayem\u00a0said that he and his team have been sending out and will continue to send out surveys about employee satisfaction with\u00a0different aspects\u00a0of campus environment.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

He urged all employees to take these surveys seriously and give detailed complaints as well as solution proposals.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cConsolidation was made with the intent to make us stronger, to make USF, one USF \u2014 much stronger than Tampa alone, St. Pete alone and Sarasota alone,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s what we will assess, see what worked, what didn\u2019t work and make necessary adjustments.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

A&S fees\u00a0<\/p>\n

Employees also considered student needs in their questions, and many asked about the university\u2019s plans for handling A&S funds in the coming years because, as Freeman said, \u201cthose fees remain flat, but the costs continue to go up.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Limayem\u00a0touted USF for having \u201cthe least expensive tuition in the country.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

While USF can boast having a lower tuition than the average public university, its tuition is much higher than that of Florida State College at Jacksonville and several other universities.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Limayem\u00a0also\u00a0stated\u00a0that USF\u2019s tuition, and he included fees in this assessment, is \u201cless expensive than it was 14 years ago\u201d after accounting for inflation and cost of living.\u00a0<\/p>\n

However, the university increased its tuition for\u00a0non-Florida<\/a>\u00a0residents by 10% in fall 2025.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In response to this question,\u00a0Limayem\u00a0said that the university would need to become more strategic and efficient in their expenditures.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll be looking very carefully [at] how we can be more effective, more efficient about the use of these fees,\u201d he said. \u201cUnfortunately, increasing them is probably in the near future.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Graduate program enrollment\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

With 40 of USF\u2019s graduate programs ranked among the United States\u2019 best,\u00a0Limayem\u00a0was asked about what he intends to do to increase graduate student enrollment.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Limayem\u00a0stated that, while he is happy with the graduate programs\u2019 current ranking, he wants to see more of them reaching the top 20.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is true that like many other universities, graduate enrollment took a major hit,\u201d he acknowledged. \u201cBecause of the geopolitics and the number of international students is in decline.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

To increase enrollment, he believes that the university must create a plan to recruit certain programs in\u00a0different parts\u00a0of the world.\u00a0<\/p>\n

However, an attendee raised her hand and interrupted him.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of us were not part of a graduate program before consolidation. Now we have that opportunity\u2026except that there is no funding for us to have graduate students on our campus,\u201d she said. \u201cWe\u2019re competing with people who are experienced in that negotiation with each other in each department and we lose out every time.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Another problem that she cited was the amount of time that St. Petersburg professors have to spend teaching graduate classes in Tampa.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re driving more than we\u2019re teaching,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd I can tell you that we get asked to be advisers all the time, but logistically and financially it is not working out well.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Limayem\u00a0acknowledged that more research needs to be done into the \u201cunintended consequences of consolidation.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

He urged staff and faculty to help him in this regard by contacting him about the problems but only if they also proposed solutions.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no one\u2026who understands the challenge for St. Pete \u2014 the [challenges] for certain programs \u2014 [better] than you. I\u00a0don\u2019t\u00a0know what I\u00a0don\u2019t\u00a0know,\u201d he said. \u201cIt is easy to point to problems and challenges, but please help me with solutions.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n


\n\t\t\t\t Post Views: 50 \n\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\"More<\/a>
Written by: Julia Birdsall<\/a> on April 14, 2026.
Last revised by: Julia Ferrara<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Additional\u00a0staff concerns included issues such as broken elevators, AI in the classroom and student resources on campus \u2014…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":231392,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[202,204,203,199,201,200],"class_list":["post-231391","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231391","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=231391"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231391\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/231392"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=231391"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=231391"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=231391"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}