3 vying to serve as head of UCF
Committee selects 2 doctors, Texas school president as finalists
A UCF committee selected two Ivy League-educated doctors and the current head of a Texas university as its top candidates to take the helm of the university after a year marked by ills, chiefly a construction spending controversy that led to the departure of its previous president.
David Brenner, vice chancellor for health sciences at the University of California San Diego; Vistasp Karbhari, president of the University of Texas at Arlington; and Cato Laurencin, professor and former dean of the University of Connecticut’s school of medicine; are finalists to lead the University of
Central Florida. They’re expected to return to Orlando later this month for public forums and interviews with the Board of Trustees.
The board is expected to make the final decision during the coming weeks. The university is still accepting applications for the post and committee members and trustees could consider candidates who come forward later.
A search committee chose Brenner, Karbhari and Laurencin over four other candidates who visited campus Thursday for hourlong interviews and campus tours. All seven candidates were administrators at other universities; the pool included three medical doctors, all of them Ivy League graduates.
Trustees are seeking a successor for Dale Whittaker, who resigned in February 2019 in the
midst of a controversy over the school’s use of leftover operating money for construction, a violation of state rules. Interim president Thad Seymour did not apply for the long-term position.
The university’s next president will be tasked with mending the school’s reputation, which has been further marred in recent months by a variety of personnel issues, including the departure of several high-level administrators and Seymour’s decision in January to place Provost Elizabeth Dooley on paid administrative leave. Earlier this year, UCF also fired or admonished three faculty members, including two it said helped a Ph.D. student obtain a degree in exchange for grant funding and a third it accused of committing an “egregious violation of academic and research standards.”
UCF also has a medical school that welcomed its first students just over a decade ago and plans to open an affiliated hospital later this year. Trustees didn’t necessarily set out to hire a doctor as its next president, Board of Trustees Chairwoman Beverly Seay said, but search consultant Alberto Pimentel was cognizant of those needs as he recruited candidates. Three of the candidates who sat for interviews on Thursday had medical degrees.
Committee members peppered candidates with questions on topics ranging from serving a large, diverse student body and developing athletics programs to growing the donor base at the young university.
Laurencin, a surgeon who also has a Ph.D. in biochemical engineering and biotechnology, received the broadest support from the committee. If he is selected, Laurencin said he’d like to continue to have a presence in the classroom and said he viewed teaching undergraduates as “something everyone should be doing.”
“I’m someone that walks the talk,” he said. “I’m a professor, I’m someone that is very much engaged on a daily basis with students.”
After seeing the 30-to-1 ratio of students to faculty, Laurencin said he wanted to double the number of academics on campus. He said he also saw that as a way to diversify the school’s faculty so it more closely mirrors the demographics of its students.
Committee members had little discussion about Laurencin because it quickly became clear the group’s consensus was that he should move forward as a finalist.
Karbhari drew comparisons between the University of Texas at Arlington, a metropolitan school with more than 46,000 students, and UCF. The Dallasarea campus is also diverse, he said, with a student body that’s about a quarter Latino and 15% black.
“It is absolutely important for us that we not just have these students, but we assure the success of these students,” he said.
At the start of his interview, Karbhari also addressed a recently filed lawsuit in which he’s named. A former University of Texas at Arlington vice president filed a lawsuit saying she and other female employees were bullied by Karbhari with unreasonable demands and goals, The Dallas Morning News reported last month. Karbhari said Thursday he couldn’t talk about the specifics of the suit, but that universities are frequently the subject of litigation. The former employee’s claims, he said, have “no basis.”
Search committee member John Euliano said he couldn’t “stop thinking” about the issue, and it gave him serious pause about putting Karbhari’s name forward to trustees. But other members were less concerned. Compared with other candidates, Seay said Karbhari’s professional experience was the closest match to the demands of the UCF position. Karbhari “did his homework” and was knowledgeable about UCF, said Vice Chairman Alex Martins and Orange County school district Superintendent Barbara Jenkins.
Brenner talked about securing one of the largest gifts in the University of California San Diego’s history from billionaire Denny Sanford. The $100 million donation came with the blessing of the Dalai Lama, who visited the campus in 2017 to deliver the commencement address. The gift, announced last summer, is to fund research on empathy and compassion and to promote those qualities in doctors.
Several committee members praised the energy and enthusiasm they saw in Brenner. One said he spoke expressively with his hands.
“I loved his experience,” Martins said. “I saw him as a true problem solver, even to an extreme as being a change agent.”
Seay said she was impressed with Brenner’s track record with finances at his current institution.
“I worry about revenue streams — the fact that he has to generate a budget every year with only 2% coming from the state gives me confidence,” she said.