Thank you, Dr. Phalin, for the invitation today and for the commitment to the university that you've already shown during your first months as a member of the Board of Trustees.
First, I can't talk about the stature of this great university without acknowledging the transformational leadership of President Fuchs. I was Chair of the Board of Governors when the UF search committee was considering the provost from Cornell to be the 12th president of this place. I didn't know Kent and had no idea what to expect.
During our initial meeting, I asked Kent whether he would commit to helping the University of Florida earn its rightful spot among the top 10 public universities in America. Kent said that not only would he absolutely commit to getting Florida's flagship university into the top 10, he believed that top 5 was possible.
It turns out he was right, but that's just one of many places where President Fuchs' vision and leadership have created a home where students, faculty, and the rest of the university community can thrive.
I expect that there will be plenty of opportunities to celebrate Kent and his leadership over the coming months, so I won't go on as long as I could about my friend.
But, of course, Kent is returning to the classroom after eight years of leadership of UF and I imagine that you're interested in how the search is going for the 13th president of this great university. I'll talk about that in a few minutes.
Before that I want to extend a heartfelt thank you to our faculty from me personally, and on behalf of our Board of Trustees and the entire university community. The work you do is nothing short of phenomenal, and you have the awards and recognitions to prove it.
This year alone, nine UF faculty members were named recipients of the National Science Foundation's Early Career Development Awards - a record number from UF. One was named to the National Academy of Engineering and another to the National Academy of Sciences, bringing the total number of National Academies members at UF to 34. And one is a winner of both the Latin Grammy and the Emmy.
I could go on, but my point is to tell you how grateful we on the Board of Trustees are for your remarkable accomplishments. Not only do they speak volumes about what an impressive institution the University of Florida is, but, more important, they speak to the high quality of education that our students receive from you.
I also want to say thank you for your extraordinary service during the pandemic. While we sometimes had differences of opinion about how to handle things, our faculty saw to it that our students had the best learning opportunities possible while achieving an incredible milestone of more than $1 billion in research expenditures.
Thank you.
So now let's talk about the Board of Trustees' priorities over the past several years and the next few.
One of the lessons I've learned in my private business is that if you take good care of your employees, your customers will get well taken care of. We're trying to bring that same approach to the University of Florida, but I have to admit that we had to start from a significant hole.
You heard President Fuchs report that we have added more than 1,000 faculty positions since he arrived at UF in 2015. But that tells only part of the story.
In the early part of the last decade, our student-to-faculty ratio became unacceptably high. That not only increased the load on our faculty, it was not the best way to prepare students or serve the many others who depend on us.
