One month ago, Rosenberg said he had no imminent plans to retire

Mark Rosenberg’s sudden resignation from the Florida International University presidency on Friday shocked the community, largely because the veteran administrator had given no distinct public indications in recent interviews that he had retirement on his mind.

On the contrary, in a video interview conducted by the Miami Herald on Dec. 14, Rosenberg answers the direct question, “Are you retiring anytime soon?” with the response, “No, nothing soon. But ...”

When then pressed as to whether his retirement could come in the next three or four years, Rosenberg

Rosenberg

said, “Well I can’t say that. I won’t commit to that.”

The university’s fifth president was then asked what his “most important expectation is, at some point when you retire?”

Rosenberg responded that he wants FIU to be considered “the most trusted public institution in the United States. And I want an institution that people know is the go-to place to get things done where students’ success comes No. 1, No. 2 and No. 3 as a priority.”

ROSENBERG’S OTHER VIDEO

In another video, also produced by the Herald on Dec. 14, Rosenberg was ebullient and optimistic about FIU’s current standing and bullish about the public university’s future.

“We have significantly expanded the research enterprise. We have significantly expanded the number of eligible students and the graduation rates and that has helped us to have the resources to do what we wanted to do. My philosophy on that is scale gives you leverage,” he said at the top of the video.

Rosenberg doesn’t utter the words “retire” or “resign.” He gives no clear indication that he was poised to hand over the presidency to another leader who could take FIU into the stratosphere he was envisioning in its near future.

Instead, the president said FIU had just graduated 6,000 students in December and that the university would would see 17,000 more students earn their degrees in 2022.

“This university is really unstoppable,” Rosenberg said in the clip. “This university is very optimistic about the future. This university is finding ways to make things happen with the talent that it has and this university is destined to be a top public university — Top 50 — and then further moving up. That’s important because our community deserves a world class university [and this] is a world class community.”

Miami Herald staff writer Jimena Tavel contributed to this report.

Howard Cohen: 305-376-3619, @HowardCohen