{"id":245366,"date":"2026-04-24T22:02:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-24T22:02:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/245366\/"},"modified":"2026-04-24T22:02:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-24T22:02:07","slug":"unf-uf-task-force-coordinates-jacksonville-campus-plans-ahead-of-2026-launch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/245366\/","title":{"rendered":"UNF, UF task force coordinates Jacksonville campus plans ahead of 2026 launch"},"content":{"rendered":"

With the University of Florida\u2019s Jacksonville campus set to launch<\/a> in a temporary facility in fall 2026, the University of North Florida continues active collaboration with UF in the \u201ctask force\u201d established by former UNF president Moez Limayem.<\/p>\n

The joint committee between the two universities functions as a network of dean-to-dean and faculty-to-faculty meetings designed to prevent program overlap, according to UNF Vice President Paul Eason.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Last month, the Board of Governors said<\/a> they were uncomfortable with the lack of updates from the UNF-UF collaboration committee, but Eason revealed that the \u201ctask force\u201d remains highly active. However, leadership within the United Faculty of Florida (UFF-UNF) chapter says they have been excluded from the process.<\/p>\n

Addressing BOG concerns<\/p>\n

The collaboration committee, established by former presidents Limayem<\/a> and Ben Sasse, first met in 2024, according to Eason.<\/p>\n

\u201cBack in 2024 at the BOG meeting where the campus was approved, we actually met the week before that meeting as an official committee, and it comprised the presidents, the VPs, and the deans at that time of College of Computing, Engineering and Construction, Business, and the law school dean from UF,\u201d said Eason.<\/p>\n

Although BOG members recently expressed<\/a> confusion about the task force\u2019s status, Eason noted that the board had not yet requested a formal report.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not that we weren\u2019t active; we just were never asked to report that,\u201d said Eason. \u201cIf you go back and watch the BOG meeting, I think it was Chancellor Rodrigues who said, \u2018To be fair, we have not asked for a report.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Decentralized coordination<\/p>\n

According to Eason, he and UF Vice President of Special Projects Kurt Dudas serve as liaisons, coordinating quarterly meetings among the engineering, business, and health colleges.<\/p>\n

\u201cKurt and I functioned as liaisons between the two universities more than quarterly during the two-year period, setting up a number of meetings between both universities at the program levels in the colleges of engineering, colleges of business, colleges from UF nursing and UNF health,\u201d said Eason.<\/p>\n

According to Eason, the goal is to ensure UF Jacksonville \u201caugments\u201d existing UNF offerings rather than competing with them, and to resolve potential program duplication before entering the formal BOG approval process.\u00a0<\/p>\n

For instance, UF recently withdrew<\/a> a proposed Master of Health Administration program to avoid duplicating an existing regional program.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s actually to try to facilitate as much opportunities between the two universities as possible so that a Jacksonville campus augments what UNF does, doesn\u2019t compete with what UNF does.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Eason could not detail some of the committee\u2019s initiatives as they are \u201congoing and in development\u201d, he did reveal that there are ongoing collaborations between the engineering and health sides of the universities.<\/p>\n

Faculty exclusion<\/p>\n

Despite Eason\u2019s assertion that program collaboration must occur at the faculty level, UFF-UNF chapter representatives report no involvement.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat [collaboration] kind of has to happen at a faculty-to-faculty level because programs are developed and disseminated by the faculty,\u201d said Eason.<\/p>\n

In 2024, former president of the UNF United Faculty of Florida chapter Mark Halley said faculty have questions about the Jacksonville campus and want to be involved.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re at a university that\u2019s kind of the premier university in your area, and another university is moving in town,\u201d said Halley. \u201cPeople wonder, \u2018OK, what\u2019s that mean for me? What\u2019s going to happen next?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite this, the current UFF-UNF president, Madalina Tanase, said that the UFF-UNF has not been involved in the collaboration committee.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe aren\u2019t in a position to offer meaningful insight on the initiative,\u201d said Tanase. \u201cWe have not been involved in any capacity.\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

For more information or news tips, or if you see an error in this story or have any compliments or concerns, contact [email\u00a0protected]<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With the University of Florida\u2019s Jacksonville campus set to launch in a temporary facility in fall 2026, the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":245367,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[116,118,117],"class_list":{"0":"post-245366","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-jacksonville","8":"tag-jacksonville","9":"tag-jacksonville-headlines","10":"tag-jacksonville-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245366","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=245366"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245366\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/245367"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=245366"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=245366"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=245366"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}