FSU President goals

 

FSU president points to surge in faculty hiring, moves to double research grants

“One of the reasons that grant money and research money is so important to the community is that these dollars circulate directly into the community if we build a strong research program at Florida State University,” McCullough said. “We will continue to pump money into the region in ways that you may not know about.”

The FSU president started with acknowledging FSU’s rank as one of the Top 20 public research universities in the nation. His goal is for FSU to achieve membership in the prestigious Association of American Universities, a group of 66 universities that have advanced research programs. 

McCullough says their research programs, like the High Magnetic Field Laboratory housing the world’s most powerful magnets, has brought a tremendous amount of funding already. Last year, FSU received more than $275 million from federal, state, and other sources.

But, McCullough said that is nowhere near enough.

“We ought to be $500 million, not $275 million,” McCullough told the gathering at the University Center Club at Doak Campbell Stadium. “If you look at Ohio State University, they bring in $684 million in research. The University of Pittsburgh, $850 million in research. So, we ought to be at $500 million.”

A reason for this, he says, is the lack of faculty. The number of students at the university continues to increase, but the amount of faculty lags. McCollough has begun to rectify this issue by authorizing 150 new faculty searches, the “largest number that we've ever had.” He believes this will further help his goal of bringing more research dollars to campus.

Fostering entrepreneurship in students and faculty

His other goal is building on FSU's strong success in promoting entrepreneurship. In 2015, FSU received $100 million from Jan Moran and the Jim Moran Foundation to create the Jim Moran College of Entrepreneurship. Now in its fifth year, it was ranked No. 1 in Florida, and No. 19 in the nation in terms of education and entrepreneurship by the Princeton Review.

He proudly told attendees that FSU won the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities 2021 Degree Completion award a couple of weeks ago. The award is recognized as one of the most prominent student success awards in the country. He also said there has been a 75% increase in applications this year and that the school has no equity gaps.