GAINESVILLE, FL (352today.com) – UPDATE, 7/24/2024: The University of Florida’s Board of Trustees voted unanimously Tuesday to approve Kent Fuchs as interim president effective August 1.
“I am thrilled that Kent has agreed to take on this important role at such a critical time to ensure a smooth and orderly transition as we prepare to initiate a national presidential search,” said Mori Hosseini, Board of Trustees chair. “We owe him a huge debt of gratitude.”
Fuchs said he was honored to be asked to step back into the role.
“My wish is only to be of service to the university. I look forward to working this year with the faculty, staff, students, and alumni as we lead the nation in our teaching, research, and land-grant and clinical activities,” Fuchs said.
ORIGINAL, 7/23/24: A familiar face will temporarily take up the reigns at the University of Florida (UF) during the search for a new president.
Kent Fuchs, who served as UF’s president from 2015 to 2023, has agreed to return to the university until a replacement for Ben Sasse is hired.
A release from the university says the UF Board of Trustees will vote on Fuchs’ appointment as interim president at a special virtual meeting this evening, Tuesday, at 5:30 p.m.
If approved, Fuchs will assume the duties starting on Thursday, Aug. 1. Sasse’s last day as president is Wednesday, July 31.
The former U.S. Senator announced his resignation to the Gator Nation last Thursday, July 18, in an open letter posted on the social media site X.
In the letter, Sasse stated his wife, Melissa, had suffered from an aneurysm and series of strokes in 2007 and is “struggling with a new batch of memory issues” because of it. He said he needed to prioritize his family, “Melissa deserves a husband who can pull his weight, and my kids need a dad who can be home many more nights.”
With Sasse stepping down, Fuchs steps back into familiar territory.
Fuchs never strayed far from the university after his presidency. He taught an electrical engineering class in the Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering at UF following a one-year sabbatical.
Fuchs has 40 years of experience as an academic leader and faculty member at four different national research and land-grant universities.
Prior to UF, Fuchs worked at Cornell University, where he served as Provost and Dean of Engineering.
He also served as a faculty member in Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, and then served as School Head at Purdue.
The university says during Fuchs’ administration, “UF saw unprecedented growth in national stature.” As an example, UF climbed in the U.S. News & World Report rankings, cracking the top 10 for the first time in its history and ascending to No. 5 among public universities. The university broke the $1 billion milestone in research spending during fiscal year 2022. That put UF in an elite group of only a dozen other public universities nationwide.