Page 4 - Florida Sentinel 12-4-18

Features
Search For New USF President Has Shifted Into High Gear
USF PRESIDENT
JUDY GENSHAFT ...announced retirement in
September
BY KENYA WOODARD Sentinel Feature Writer
The quest to find a re- placement for University of South Florida President Judy Genshaft moved into high gear with a pair of meet- ings by the search committee before the Board of Trustees
BRIAN LAMB ...Chairman of USF Board
of Trustees
convenes this week to vote on the job description.
The committee held its first meeting last month and met again on last Thursday. Chairman Les Muma held a special invite-only listening tour on Wednesday with se- lected students, staff, and faculty.
On Tuesday – their last
meeting of the year – trustees are scheduled to ap- prove the position descrip- tion.
President Genshaft
announced her retirement in September, prompting Board of Trustees Chairman, Brian Lamb to appoint a 15-mem- ber search committee to as- sist search firm
ANDDRIKK FRAZIER ...appointed to 15-member
search committee
Groundbreaking For New High School Planned
BY IRIS B. HOLTON Sentinel City Editor
On December 5th, mem- bers of the community will join forces for the ground- breaking ceremony of a new high school. The ceremony commemorating the begin- ning of construction will take place at 11 a.m., at the site, 10650 County Road 672, in Riverview.
This will be the first new high school constructed in several years.
The funding for the school is a result of 3 years of impact fees. The school is slated to open in August 2020. The school currently known as High School TTT, is being constructed to provide an ad- ditional educational facility in the area.
Jeff Eakins, Hillsbor- ough County School Superin- tendent and School Board members said the school is necessary to combat the over- crowding at Lennard High School and East Bay High Schools.
Currently, Lennard High School is over capacity and has 24 portables on its cam- pus. It was designed to accom- modate 2,500 students. However, its current enroll- ment has exceeded 3,100 stu- dents.
In an effort to combat the influx of new high school stu- dents, the School District re- cently opened a new wing at East Bay High School. The new wing can accommodate an additional 500 students.
Also designed to educate 2,500 students, its current en- rollment is 2,300, with an ad- ditional 900 more students anticipated to enroll at the school.
The new school will be de- signed with more than 238,000 square feet and en- roll nearly 3,000 students and will cost $70 million to build.
The project team, includ- ing construction professionals CORE/HORUS Construction and the design professionals from Harvard Jolly, will show- case renderings of the school and campus.
Greenwood/Asher & Associ- ates with hiring a successor by next spring.
In his charge to the com- mittee, Lamb outlined the group’s work and set March 5 as the deadline when trustees will select a final candidate and March 28 as the date the new president will be pre- sented to the Florida Board of Governors for ratification.
Lamb cautioned the com- mittee that “throughout this process we will need to be at- tentive to the views of all USF communities; transparent in our processes and grounded in our strategic priorities and mission.”
Anddrikk Frazier, USF alum and a founding member of the Black Leadership Net- work, a scholarship and lead- ership program is a member of the 15 member committee.
“Finding a new president – the university’s seventh – who will matche Genshaft’s popularity with and dedica- tion to the USF community will be tough,” he said.
“The ideal candidate will be someone who is commit- ted to affixing themselves to the university as Genshaft has done for the last 18 years,” said Frazier, who is
the CEO of Integral Energy. “You don’t see as many presidents as popular as she
is,” he said.
Additionally, the new
leader must build on USF’s current trajectory which in- cludes its being named by the Board of Governors as a “pre- eminent state research uni- versity,” landing a chapter of the prestigious Phi Beta Kappa honors society, and completing a $1 billion fundraising campaign.
More changes are ahead for the university system as it moves to consolidate its three campuses in Tampa, Mana- tee, and Sarasota into one in- stitution. Whoever comes in will have to deftly handle such a huge undertaking, Frazier said.
Other top universities also are looking for new leaders, making this an experience that is both exciting and chal- lenging, he said.
But USF has plenty to offer that makes it outstand- ing among the rest, Frazier said.
“Not many of them have a preeminent institution in a major metropolitan area,” he said. “We do have some things on our side.”
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