Kent Fuchs was confirmed as UF’s 12th president by the Board of Governors, which also made decisions concerning market tuition and several UF programs.
Fuchs presented his goals for the university to the Board, including hiring preeminent faculty, expanding UF Online, developing curriculum for first-year students and promoting graduate studies.
“There’s a real need for universities across the nation to be more successful in higher education,” Fuchs said.
The Board also approved the appointment of FSU presidential candidate, John Thrasher.
Joseph Glover, UF provost and senior vice president for academic affairs requested the termination of a doctoral program in biochemistry and molecular biology.
Students have not been admitted into the Ph.D. program in more than 10 years, Glover said.
“A student can come in and major in this, we’re not eliminating this science from the University of Florida,” Glover said.
The Board unanimously agreed for the termination of the Ph.D. program.
Glover additionally presented to the board reasons for limited access on the dietetics and nutritional science programs.
In order for students to gain a license as a registered dietitian in Florida, he or she must complete both the undergraduate dietetics curriculum and an internship under the supervision of a dietetic, he said.
Only 87 internship slots are available in the state of Florida for students in the dietetics program.
The dietetics program seeks to limit access to students who earn below a 3.0 grade point average in core classes, while the nutritional program would require students to have a GPA above a 2.5.
Chairman Norman Tripp said the university needs a higher quality of students to be successful in both programs.
The Board agreed to limit access for the two programs.
Market rate for tuition costs for five UF graduate programs were unanimously approved at the board meeting Wednesday as well. The programs included Master of Science in Microbiology and Cell Science, Master of Arts in Medicine and Master of Science in Pharmacy Clinical Toxicology.
For all five programs, UF will match the expected tuition cost to the market price, which can be lower or higher than the in-state tuition cost for out-of-state students.
Toward the end of the meeting, Fuchs was interviewed by the board. Fuchs went through a series of interviews at UF for his future seat as UF’s next president, which he will begin Jan. 1.
“President Fuchs, welcome to the family,” Chairman Mori Hosseini said.
[A version of this story ran on page 1 on 11/7/2014]
