FSU trustees give President McCullough a salary increase to $1M and a strong evaluation

 

FSU trustees give President McCullough a salary increase to $1M and a strong evaluation

FSU received about $109 million in new recurring funds along with new funding for capital projects for the 2023-2024 fiscal year, which ties into McCullough receiving the highest score for his goal of establishing relationships with elected and appointed governmental officials on all levels, such as the Florida Legislature.

McCullough's goals include efforts to make it into the nation’s top 15 public universities and making progress to become an Association of American Universities (AAU) member, both of which are listed as his first goal, as well as strengthening FSU’s research profile, increasing funding and improving fundraising initiatives.

FSU is currently ranked as no. 19 among the best public colleges and universities across the country — tied with the University of Maryland, the University of Washington and Rutgers — according to U.S. News & World Report, which will be announcing its latest rankings for 2023-2024 on Monday, Sept. 18.

When it comes to AAU membership, FSU was passed over by the association earlier this year, which came as a shocker to some of FSU's faculty as the University of South Florida and the University of Miami received invites instead.

Despite having a strong evaluation, comments under the goal of improving fundraising efforts — where nine out of 13 trustees said McCullough meets expectations — show what some of the members want to see that emphasized.

A trustee wrote, “Much work yet to do here. Parts of the needs have been addressed, but critical infrastructure is still lacking.”

The board members also discussed Trustee John Thiel’s suggestion for McCullough to make certain priorities — such as FSU Health — more prominent throughout his 2023-2024 goals.

The FSU Health initiative consists of a new FSU Health-Academic Health Center through a partnership between the university and Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare that is slated to be constructed in a couple of years.

“I don’t think that it’s prominent enough in his goals, whatsoever,” Thiel said during a Governance Committee meeting Thursday. “It shows up in one place by definition in goal three (investing in academic excellence), but not in goal one, and we’re not getting into the AAU without FSU Health.”