FSU trustees extend president's contract
Speaking highly of Florida State University President Richard McCullough, FSU trustees approved a contract extension to keep him in office for three more years.
The three-year contract extension approval came following a unanimous vote during the FSU Board of Trustees’ Feb. 25 meeting at the Herbert Wertheim Center for Business on campus.
During McCullough’s time as FSU president so far, achievements have included record retention and graduation rates, an FSU Health initiative launched in 2022 – which most recently includes plans for a $1.7 billion agreement with the city for FSU’s acquisition of Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare amid an ongoing deal – and the opening of the Herbert Wertheim Center for Business Excellence as the FSU College of Business’s new home.
Thankfully the rumor floated below was wrong.
Political whispers swirl as FSU faces leadership crossroads.
The smartest people around Ron DeSantis are doing math.
They’re calculating the odds of him ever becoming President of the United States. And they don’t love what they’re seeing.
So, they’re floating a different presidency: Florida State University.
It sounds far-fetched until you start talking to people who would know.
Multiple sources say senior advisers in DeSantis’ orbit have quietly gamed out the possibility of him landing at FSU as a high-profile power perch — instead of chasing a national comeback that looks, at least for now, like a steep climb.
Federal research funding has tightened nationally. Every university feels it. But schools with steady leadership and strong political footing tend to navigate federal turbulence better than institutions already fielding internal doubts.
FSU has said it lost more than $53 million in 54 federal grants that were canceled as of May 23, 2025. POLITICO reported potential exposure of up to $65 million.
That’s not catastrophic. But...
Calls for the building began back in 2002.
Senate and House lawmakers agreed last year to apportion $40 million for the design and construction of a 164,000-square-foot engineering building at the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering.
This year, they’re nearly twice that sum apart on how much more to provide to the project.
In its budget proposal for Fiscal Year 2026-27, released Thursday, the House is recommending $91.975 million more for the planned building, which would add engineering research labs and classroom space to support enrollment growth and reduce overcrowding at the joint campus.
That’s exactly the amount Tallahassee Republican Sen. Corey Simon and Merritt Island Republican Rep. Tyler Sirois sought in matching appropriation requests.
The Senate’s offer? A comparatively paltry $20 million.
That $72 million funding gap is among the largest, if not the largest, appropriation differences in line items that appear in both budgets. And it suggests that while the House is eager to fund most or all the project immediately, the Senate is keener on funding it in phases.
Calls for a new building at the Tallahassee campus, dubbed “Building C,” began in 2002, but declining enrollment and project costs at the time led to it gaining little traction.
In 2017, then-Dean J. Murray Gibson again pitched the project to the Board of Governors, citing the school’s 2,550 students and expectations of further growth in the coming years.
An education grant survey for the Board of Governors that year found that, based on the college’s enrollment then, its 117,089 usable square feet met just 53% of its current student body’s needs.
More than eight years later, the school still doesn’t have the building, and its population has grown to more than 3,700 students, following 48% and 22% increases in graduate and undergraduate enrollment, respectively, since 2021.
FSU's Board of Trustees has unanimously voted to extend Peter Collins' term as Chair for another two years. Bob Sasser also continues as Vice-Chair for the same term.
— Ira Schoffel (@IraSchoffel) June 15, 2023
The Collins extension is significant for FSU Athletics. He has been a strong advocate for Norvell, Alford, etc.
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