State: Young plans to depart helm of UF

University of Florida president Charles Young said Thursday that he plans to resign within two years, leaving the state to hunt for new leadership at its two flagship schools.

Young, 70, recruited as an interim president three years ago, told the UF Board of Trustees Thursday that he wants to leave office by fall 2004 but would stay on longer if needed.

"He's done a great job," said Carolyn Roberts, a member of the Board of Education, which oversees universities in the state. "We will feel the loss."

Florida State University president Talbot "Sandy" D'Alemberte announced last week that he plans to resign by January.

"It is unfortunate both our flagships will have searches at the same time," said Secretary of Education Jim Horne. "But people want to come to Florida. We will attract a lot of candidates."

Horne said it's possible both schools will attract the same candidates, making the searches difficult. Two of the nine other public universities, Florida Atlantic and the University of North Florida, began searching for leaders earlier this year.

D'Alemberte, 69, who was released from a hospital Thursday to continue recovering at home after an angioplasty to relieve a blocked artery, said he spoke to Young before he made his announcement last week.

"I'm not surprised," he said. "Chuck has served for a long, long time as a university president. I'm sure that he'd like to have some private time."

Young, who retired after serving 29 years as chancellor of the University of California at Los Angeles, took over the helm at UF in November 1999 when John Lombardi resigned as president. He was considered one of the nation's top academic administrators during the years he built UCLA into a research powerhouse.

He was initially reluctant to commit to UF in 2000 because his wife was battling breast cancer and he traveled frequently to Southern California, where she was treated. Sue Young died last year and Young remarried this year.

"I think that almost all of us knew in the back of our minds that this was going to be happening," said Nikki Fried, student body president and a UF trustee.

Young is credited with encouraging minority enrollment under Gov. Jeb Bush's One Florida initiative, which eliminated race-based policies in college admissions, and building up research funding.

Under Bush's One Florida program, the percentage of black freshmen at UF dropped from 11.8 percent in 2000 to 7.2 percent last year. The percentage of Hispanic students also declined, from 12 percent to 11 percent.

But today, Horne and Lt. Gov. Frank Brogan will go to UF to announce freshman minority enrollment went up this year, to 10 percent for African-Americans and 12.27 percent for Hispanic students.

UF has more than 46,000 students this fall, by far the largest school in the state and one of the largest in the nation.

"He's been a very qualified leader for the University of Florida," said Education Commissioner Charlie Crist.

Young wanted to lead the university while the higher education governance system in Florida was revamped the past couple of years to give each university its own board of trustees, Roberts said. Young said Thursday that he wants to stay long enough to implement a new university management plan.

Marshall Criser, chairman of the trustees, said a plan to begin a national presidential search would be presented at the board's December meeting. Criser, a former UF president, recently asked university attorneys to draft preliminary guidelines.

In 2000, the six finalists for the UF presidency removed their names from consideration. Young became an interim leader.

-- Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.

Back to State news

Contact the Times | Privacy Policy
Standard of Accuracy | Terms, Conditions & Copyright

Special Links

Lucy Morgan

From the Times state desk