Maybe now is the time to reassess Judy Genshaft's score card

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© St. Petersburg Times
published December 23, 2002

It will be interesting to see, some years from now on the day Judy Genshaft leaves her post as president of the University of South Florida, whether anybody still begrudges her the money.

I hope that the answer will be "no."

Certainly, the short-term politics are difficult.

While Florida is in a budget crunch and talking about cutting scholarships, we are handing out huge raises and new benefit packages to several state university presidents. Genshaft got hers last week.

But, you know what? If Florida is actually going to compete with the rest of the nation in something, I'd just as soon it be in paying big-time salaries to its university presidents, not just its football coaches.

A driver? So what? Genshaft runs a billion-dollar enterprise. I expect her to use her time doing something other than driving herself around town and looking for parking spaces. It is easy to make fun of the perks in her contract, but they are not unheard-of, and not out of line for her level of executive responsibility.

Is it bad that university faculty and staff salaries also don't compare favorably to other states? You bet.

Are a lot of Floridians going to be mad if we cut or change the Bright Futures scholarship program? Absolutely.

But those are not arguments in favor of lower salaries for presidents. Here in Florida, especially, a strong president can make all the difference in a school's success.

Sorry to rain on the Judy-bash. Just to be a good sport, I'll include her on Wednesday in a list of fake Christmas carols ("On the first day of Christmas, the trustees gave to me...")

Here's the bigger point.

While Genshaft's new salary and perks got most of the attention last week, the most significant news might eventually prove to be the new level of independence and power she has acquired.

Until now, Genshaft has been working on a series of one-year contracts. Hardly the atmosphere for digging in for the long haul or establishing your ownership over a large, ingrained bureaucracy.

On top of that, in three years' time Genshaft has worked for three different power structures:

The old Board of Regents and the statewide chancellor who hired her.

A new local board, appointed entirely by Gov. Jeb Bush, with total power over Genshaft and the school.

Now, coming soon, a brand-new Board of Governors just created by the voters, sharing power in a still-unknown way with yet another version of a newly appointed local board.

During this upheaval, Genshaft also has had to deal with a meddlesome and contrary Legislature that sought to carve up her school, the ambitions and competition of St. Petersburg College, tumultuous lawsuits in USF's athletic department, and on top of all that, the would-be firing of controversial professor Sami Al-Arian. In that last matter almost everyone is certain of what she should do; she is the only one who has to contemplate the full consequences either way.

As she has negotiated these fields, what, then, has been the resulting rap on her? I am guilty of sharing it at times: that she has been too timid, too cautious, a sort of superficial cheerleader ("Go Bulls!") and, in the Al-Arian case at least, too mindful of political pressure from her board.

Maybe it is time to revisit this assessment. The yardstick is not how her predecessor Betty Castor (a hardened insider in Florida politics) would have fared, but how any other newcomer would have fared in her place.

Now Genshaft has a five-year contract and a deal for up to three years of severance pay if she is fired without cause. She has security and a platform that she has not had until now.

This should be the beginning of a rebalancing act between the president and the board. With no disrespect intended to that fine body -- well, okay, a little disrespect -- we need to be hearing less from them, and more from the president of USF. This role is hers to seize.

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