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<\/a><\/p>\n\u201cI don\u2019t anticipate any problem with that,\u201d Collins said.<\/p>\n
BOG\u00a0regulations<\/a> limit university Presidents to one-year contract extensions once their original terms expire.<\/p>\n FSU <\/a>ranked No. 21 among public universities nationwide by U.S. News & World Report in 2025, keeping close to the top 20, when in 2021 it landed at No. 19<\/a>.<\/p>\n FSU was the third-highest scoring public institution in the\u00a02025 performance-based funding<\/a>\u00a0metrics.<\/p>\n Eight of the 12 state universities have concluded or have started a presidential search since June 2024. That figure includes the University of North Florida, which is anticipated to start a presidential search if the BOG votes, to make current UNF President Moez Limayem head of the University of South Florida. Incoming BOG Chair Alan Levine said he\u00a0intends to support Limayem<\/a>.<\/p>\n Collins, who was unanimously elected chair of the FSU Board of Trustees in August for a two-year term, said he doesn\u2019t anticipate FSU becoming the ninth university with a new President.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s going to be no change in leadership prior to the end of his next year. We would extend him now as a board if we could,\u201d Collins said.<\/p>\n Recently-departed Presidents<\/p>\n Some of those recently-departed State University System (SUS) Presidents, Kenneth Jessell at Florida International University, Ben Sasse at University of Florida, and Martha Saunders at University of West Florida, left their posts before their contracts expired and following outside pressures.<\/p>\n All the while Gov. Ron DeSantis, who has been instrumental in reengineering leadership at universities, has been hovering in the background.<\/p>\n DeSantis\u2019 Office guided Sasse to Gainesville, POLITICO<\/a> reported, before he left in a shroud of spending controversy. The Governor reached out to place Lt. Gov. Jeanette\u00a0Nu\u00f1ez at FIU<\/a>, a Trustee said.<\/p>\n DeSantis in the Spring<\/a>\u00a0told UWF to \u201cbuckle up\u201d and promised changes were on the way. Those comments and DeSantis\u2019\u00a0overhaul<\/a>\u00a0of the UWF Board of Trustees caused a stir among UWF stakeholders who expressed fear about gubernatorial interference.<\/p>\n Saunders left after DeSantis\u2019 comments. After that, Manny Diaz, DeSantis\u2019 top education official, eventually took the reins of UWF as an interim President and now is interested in the permanent job.<\/p>\n Other recent presidential searches,\u00a0shrouded in secrecy<\/a>, have stirred up some alumni at Florida A&M University, UWF, New College of Florida and FIU, who\u2019ve cried about politically-connected people being named President.<\/p>\n FAMU stakeholders protested Marva Johnson being named its next President. She is a political appointee of former Gov. Rick Scott and DeSantis. New College of Florida was the first university made-over with DeSantis\u2019 brush,\u00a0when former House Speaker Richard Corcoran was put at the helm in 2023.<\/p>\n But Collins says he has no worries there will be any external interference with the future of FSU\u2019s leadership.<\/p>\n \u201cI have no concern on that at all for Florida State or President McCullough. He\u2019s done a fantastic job, everybody in state government, I think, recognizes that. Certainly the BOG recognizes that. It\u2019s a big job, right?\u201d Collins said. \u201cAnd he\u2019s the perfect person for it right now. So I don\u2019t anticipate any outside factors or outside influences affecting certainly our decision over the next year and certainly our decision to take him to the BOG for his one-year extension.\u201d<\/p>\n McCullough, through a university spokesperson, declined to discuss his future at FSU.<\/p>\n The deets<\/p>\n McCullough in August was awarded a pay raise, now putting his salary at $1.25 million. He also was given a positive performance review that included a $567,000 one-time bonus. His initial 2021 contract provided him a $700,000 base salary.<\/p>\n The President laid out his goals for the year at the Oct. 31 FSU Board of Trustees meeting, which included a focus on national rankings, research and entrepreneurial excellence, as well as athletics and community engagement.<\/p>\n McCullough isn\u2019t the only university President whose contract is set to expire in 2026. Florida Gulf Coast University\u2019s President Aysegul Timur\u2019s contract expires June 30, 2026. That university has been among the lowest scoring<\/a> SUS institutions in performance based metrics in\u00a0recent years<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Amid a flurry of moves that has seen several Florida university Presidents get replaced in the past year…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":41537,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[27510,27511,27512,27236,1422,3603,27513,27514,27515,27516,9057,13147,27517,21670,14008,412,232,234,233],"class_list":["post-41536","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tallahassee","tag-alan-levine","tag-aysegul-timur","tag-ben-sasse","tag-board-of-governors","tag-florida-state-university","tag-fsu","tag-jeanette-nunez","tag-kenneth-jessell","tag-manny-diaz","tag-martha-saunders","tag-marva-johnson","tag-moez-limayem","tag-peter-collins","tag-richard-corcoran","tag-richard-mccullough","tag-ron-desantis","tag-tallahassee","tag-tallahassee-headlines","tag-tallahassee-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41536","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=41536"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41536\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41537"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41536"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41536"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41536"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/20250658_FINAL_FloridaPolitics_728x90.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n