Dear colleagues:
As I have shared with many of you and our Board of Trustees, higher education is experiencing challenging times. Today’s challenges require the University of South Florida’s leadership to think strategically about the university’s budget.
We must all be responsible stewards of the resources entrusted to us by the Governor, the Legislature, donors, and strategic partners. Our stewardship also compels us to continue delivering a first-rate education, serve our communities and sustain our innovative research enterprise.
We must act to protect, to the extent possible, our most important assets: the faculty and staff that have worked hard to make the University of South Florida the preeminent institution that it is today.
To meet those stewardship goals, we must preserve our financial resources and make sure that they are strategically focused. Financial stewardship requires us to prudently adopt practices to preserve those resources.
Today, a policy is being circulated that will accomplish two objectives. First, it pauses all active employment searches that are taking place (unless there are offer letters outstanding as of today). Searches may proceed on an exception basis only. Second, the policy signals that employee compensation increases also will only be considered on an exception basis, effective immediately. Please click here to review the full details.
Many universities, including other preeminent universities in Florida, are enacting similar provisions to address their financial challenges.
I appreciate your partnership as we respond to the current challenges, bringing more focus to our strategic goals as a university.
Steven C. Currall
President and Professor