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By ANITA KUMAR, Times Staff WriterThe president says her decision had nothing to do with the head of the medical school asking his staff to contribute to a political campaign.
TAMPA - University of South Florida president Judy Genshaft ordered the dean of the medical school to resign Monday, days after she admonished him for asking his staff to contribute to the U.S. Senate campaign of state House Speaker Johnnie Byrd.
Robert Daugherty, a vice president and head of the school's three medical colleges, was summoned to Genshaft's office for a 20-minute meeting, during which she told him she will search for a new dean.
Daugherty, who makes $448,000 a year, said he was surprised. He said the two had recently agreed to postpone a search for a replacement until next year.
"I had no idea," said Daugherty, who has been at USF for three years. "I came here to help USF. I was not here for the long haul. . . . I've done everything there is to do."
In recent weeks, Daugherty asked 25 of his top-ranking employees, both face to face and by phone, for up to $2,000 contributions for the Byrd campaign. About a dozen gave Daugherty checks that he kept locked in his secretary's desk.
The money was to be given to Byrd in appreciation for his planned campus visit today for a presentation on a proposed USF medical building that needs legislative funding.
Byrd said he canceled his trip, which he said was for a fundraising event, when he received an anonymous e-mail complaining that Daugherty was raising money for him. Byrd said he didn't ask Daugherty to raise money for him and turned the matter over to Tampa lawyer Steve Burton, a friend and USF board of trustees member.
"I decided I didn't want a cloud over the fundraiser," Byrd said. "I would hope a lot of people would raise money for us, but not the way he did."
Genshaft said Monday her decision had nothing to do with Daugherty soliciting money from his senior staff. But she ordered the money returned last week.
"I don't think it was the right thing to do," Genshaft said. "My concern was that when he was asking these people for money he was on campus and in a position of power."
Daugherty is married to Joy Culverhouse, widow of Hugh Culverhouse Sr., former owner of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. She has given more than $15-million to USF for medical research and education since 1988.
Daugherty said Monday that the couple will cut back - or perhaps eliminate - future donations to USF as they make more national contributions. The change, he said, has nothing to do with his departure.
Genshaft said she hopes the couple continues to donate.
"They are very good friends of the university," she said. "They are very generous."
Daugherty, 69, will leave when an interim dean is named in the next few weeks. He told Genshaft he did not want to be a "lame-duck" dean during the search.
Faculty and staff were notified of Daugherty's departure by e-mail Monday evening. He oversees 2,800 employees and 1,800 students at USF's colleges of Nursing, Public Health and Medicine.
The dean is credited with uniting the three colleges; acquiring money for a new nursing building; increasing the amount of research dollars; starting a seven-year honors programs; and enrolling a brighter and more diverse student body.
Genshaft hired Daugherty in 2000 soon after her arrival as president. She said she made the decision after realizing the former dean planned to leave and she needed someone quickly.
Daugherty served as medical school dean at the University of Nevada at Reno from 1981 to 1999, when he stepped down amid complaints about his management style. But he also took Nevada's medical school from obscurity to national prominence.
He served as co-chairman of the group that accredits medical schools, the Liaison Committee on Medical Education, which consists of representatives of the American Medical Association and the Association of American Medical Colleges.
Genshaft and Daugherty agreed when he was hired that he would serve only three to five years. The dean said the two decided in September that she wouldn't start a search until January.
"We had been talking about it for some time," she said. "He was hired to basically pull things all together for us."
That changed Monday.
Last week, Genshaft said, she heard someone at USF talking about the Byrd donations. She called Daugherty, who was on business in Washington, D.C. Daugherty told her he did not think the donations were wrong but understood that others might disagree.
Genshaft said that was the first she heard of the contributions, and told him to return the money.
"I had no clue," she said. "I didn't know about it."
She told her secretary to schedule a meeting with Daugherty for this week.
The two met Monday at the president's office but did not discuss Byrd. Instead, she told him she would start searching for his replacement. The president said she expects it to take at least a year to conduct a national search for a replacement.
Genshaft said she asked Daugherty to cancel today's event, but Byrd ultimately called to decline.
Daugherty said two Tallahassee lobbyists who work for USF's medical school - former House speaker John Thrasher and Donald "Scotty" Fraser, a former executive at the Florida Medical Association - suggested he solicit the money before Byrd came to Tampa this week. Thrasher and Fraser could not be reached for comment Monday.
Daugherty had planned to give Byrd $2,000 along with some of his employees. He wrote out a check that is still sitting on a table at home.
He and his family have given to the speaker before.
Daugherty, Culverhouse and her son, Hugh Jr., each gave Byrd $500 last year. The couple also hosted a fundraiser for him at the Tampa Club last year and raised $20,000.
- Times researchers Kitty Bennett, Cathy Wos and John Martin contributed to this report.