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Businesses seethe over USF dean's demotion

By ROBERT TRIGAUX
Published October 17, 2005

Prominent players across the Tampa Bay business area come and go all the time. But sometimes the loss of a positive force in a community in need can be especially painful and puzzling.

Ron Hill, the founding dean of USF's College of Business in St. Petersburg, is being relieved of his title by university officials. He will stay on as dean, at least on paper, through the end of the school term in December. He will then be a tenured business professor at the school.

Hired in 2003 to make the young business school a distinctive institution, Hill quickly seized the theme of "corporate social responsibility" that was the school's defining foundation. As proof, he made the school an influential presence in St. Petersburg's Midtown, a nearby and largely African-American neighborhood targeted by the city for economic assistance.

Hill, for whatever internal shortcomings USF may have seen in his role as dean, was a rare sight: An academic who got off his duff (and urged his business students to do the same) and tried to make a difference in the community.

That role was not lost on many St. Petersburg business leaders. Last week, word of Hill's ousting as dean swirled around the town. Some business leaders - St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Baker, too - were more than miffed.

"On behalf of the St. Petersburg Downtown Partnership, and the entire business community of St. Petersburg, we want to express our grave concern about the deteriorating relationship between USF St. Petersburg and the community.

"A pattern of behavior has developed over the last few years at the University, manifested most recently by the unexpected and unexplained demotion of Professor Ronald P. Hill from his position as dean."

So begins a two-page letter of protest, dated Oct. 14, that was faxed and mailed to USF president Judy Genshaft. It was signed by St. Petersburg Downtown Partnership chief executive officer Don Shea and chairman Ken Heretick and, as the letter states, endorsed by the group's executive committee.

In the letter, the Downtown Partnership said it was responsible for the investment of some $11-million in the USF St. Petersburg campus, from land acquisition to the endowment of chairs and fellowships. The group said it does not understand why Hill, who worked so well with the business community, was removed from his position.

Skip the outrage. Show me the money.

"Accordingly, we feel it is necessary at this time to suspend further support for USF St. Petersburg until the University demonstrates meaningful examples of good faith collaboration with the community," the letter concluded.

Ouch. Houston, we have a problem.

It's a long and tortured tale that USF Tampa, the university mother ship, has been viewed suspiciously by St. Petersburg leaders for its thinly veiled meddling in the efforts by USF St. Pete to become its own independent school.

Now I do not claim to know all there is to know about Ron Hill. I interviewed and profiled him in mid 2004 as a fresh face with fresh ideas in a too-sleepy business world. I have heard Hill's speeches, covered some of the business-themed conferences he helped organize and broken bread with him while hearing about his passion for cycling and a son entering college.

I have also heard for years from a wide swath of the business community - ranging from funky CreativeTampaBay leaders to straightlaced Chamber of Commerce executives - that this guy was making a positive mark. He was an agent of change.

The buzz is Hill somehow annoyed his faculty at the business school enough to complain. That the school's emphasis on corporate social responsibility was perhaps going too far, that Hill pressed professors to buy into the message perhaps more than they wanted.

Hill's boss is Mark Durand, USF St. Pete's regional vice chancellor for academic affairs. He offered up a carefully crafted explanation Friday that "Dr. Hill" (he has a Ph.D) had done a wonderful job as dean but that he wanted to pursue other projects without the "obligations" of administration.

Hill, reached Friday, declined comment other than saying he was "honored and pleased" to be a part of the business school and community.

Hill was not only the business dean. He's also the Bank of America endowed professor at USF. There was some debate whether that title (and monetary commitment), too, would be taken from Hill.

Enter Bank of America's city president in St. Petersburg, Bernie Craig.

Bank of America's endowment sticks with professor Hill - not the dean's position, she said quite clearly.

"Ron Hill has done unbelievable things in Midtown," Craig said. "We want to continue to support that. We have the utmost respect for Ron Hill."

It's rare when a business community rallies around anything, much less anyone. They see a genuine asset in Hill.

Robert Trigaux can be reached at 727 893-8405 or trigaux@sptimes.com

[Last modified October 14, 2005, 22:35:04]