Staff Survey Declares Machen Aloof, Gruff

A new survey of people working closely with President Bernie Machen provides little in the way of surprises, unless your name is Bernie Machen. The Gainesville Sun provided a list of concerns, including:

• Gruff demeanor at times; arrogant; aloof; rigid; test
• Not really "there" for students: Invisible, unknown ...
• Some professors are indeed unhappy
• Has issues with UF's board of trustees
• Isolation from real counsel. Going it alone ...

The article also touched on some positive aspects of Machen's tenure, so if you're interested in that, read it for yourself. If you prefer, the full survey in Word format is also on the Sun website.

Jake Fuller Editorial... From 2005

As relevant as ever!

Machen's pay tops list of Florida university presidents

From the Alligator.org:

There's a powerful man roaming campus.

He's given thousands of dollars each year for the upkeep of his Audi. He makes more money than the governor.

The Chronicle of Higher Education recently released the salaries of every university president in the nation.

Guess who tops the list in Florida.

UF President Bernie Machen's base salary is $411,037, according to the Chronicle's report.

On top of that, he gets a $7,888 allowance for his car, $22,924 for retirement pay, a $75,000 annual bonus and a $210,000 retention bonus.

...more...

Should a University that has such low salaries for faculty and staff and that is suffering from a budget crunch have a President that gets paid more than university leaders from the California system? It's important to note that this President has added more bureaucracy which costs Florida taxpayers more and makes him responsible for less work...

Machen Pulls Top Ten Bucks While Faculty, Staff Remains Underpaid

From the SunSentinel.com:

Three of the top 10, highest-paid public university chief executives in the country work in Florida, according to a report released today by The Chronicle of Higher Education.

University of Florida President Bernard Machen received $726,849 in pay and benefits, placing him sixth on the list. Florida State University's T.K. Wetherell followed at seventh, with $702,127. President John Hitt, of the University of Central Florida, ranked ninth, collecting $684,708 last year.

...

In comparison, most university faculty in Florida are paid less than $100,000 a year.

"There seems to be a disproportion there," said Tom Auxter, a philosophy professor at UF and president of the 18,000-member United Faculty of Florida, which represents faculty at colleges and universities. "Faculty salaries [in Florida] are $10,000 to $20,000 behind their [national] counterparts."

This cost is just the tip of the iceberg for UF, as Machen has added additional layers of bureaucracy in the form of a Chief Operating Officer. This person will in essence be running the University, leaving Machen to... um... I'm not sure. What DOES Machen do for his salary? It ha a motivator of faculty? Do they trust his leadership? Take a look at the Faculty Survey and decide for yourself...

Rankings Game

From the UF newspaper, the Alligator:

Rankings Game

Drop in rank not devastating to UF

By Editorial Board

As the fall semester begins and visions of football dance in your head, you can give yourself a pat on the back for getting into the No. 17 public university in the country, according to the U.S News and World Report. You may not realize this, wide-eyed freshmen, but that's four spots lower on the list than last year, when UF was ranked No. 13. Why the sudden drop? Our fearless leader, UF President Bernie Machen, says it's because the four schools we tied with last year "spread out." But all four of those schools finished ahead of us this year — what gives? We've heard plenty of reasons: not enough money, too few teachers, too drunk (we're ranked the No. 4 party school by The Princeton Review), the dog ate our term papers causing us all to get really bad grades, etc.

Look, we've heard it all before, and those excuses aren't going to work anymore. Machen says it's not about the rankings anymore, but about making UF "the best public university (it) can be." We've heard that one before, too. He started saying that after he was railed for insisting, almost to the point of absurdity, that UF was worthless without a spot in the Top 10. So Bernie's serenity and calm regarding this blow to our ranking has really nudged our auras. Are we to believe numbers are no longer such a big deal? Or maybe it's just that the battle for the tuition differential fee has been won, so Bernie can sit back in his plush leather (we're assuming) desk chair in Tigert Hall and relax for a few months. We sure hope he stops worrying about rankings for a good, long time. They are nothing more than university presidents subjectively compiling their opinions on "up to 15 indicators of academic quality" for 262 universities, 164 of them public. The indicators are things like SAT scores, student-faculty ratio, and the alumni giving rate. Many of these indicators are arbitrary, especially the three listed above. Why is the alumni giving rate such a big deal? Wouldn't a better indicator be the percentage of graduates who apply to and are accepted to graduate school? Or the percentage of students with grade point averages above 3.0? We can't imagine why the predicted graduation rate — yes, predicted — is so important. That's why we encourage UF to lay off the rankings race. On June 19, 80 liberal arts college presidents met to discuss a possible boycott of the rankings report. Lloyd Thacker, executive director of The Education Conservancy, said "rankings have reduced students to consumers, education to product, and gaining admission into college a high-priced game that has to be played." But UF doesn't need a ranking to know it's great and neither do most of the schools at the top of the list. We definitely don't need it to recruit great students. So now it's time for us to look away from the lists and look at our campus. No ranking will tell us exactly what we need to fix. We already know what will make our already great university even greater: more advisers, more professors, more courses and more great students — oh wait, we've got that one covered. Welcome to UF.

From The Desk of Bernie, Regarding Coach Donovan

Dear Alumni and Friends,

If you're like me, it was a something of a bittersweet moment when you heard that head basketball Coach Billy Donovan was leaving the Gators to take over as coach of the Orlando Magic.

But bitter certainly isn't an emotion I feel when I think of Billy. On the contrary, I couldn't be happier for him and the wonderful opportunity he has to coach in the NBA. When I think of what Billy accomplished for the University of Florida during his 11-season tenure, I'm amazed. A 261-103 record. Nine straight 20-win seasons. Nine consecutive NCAA Tournament berths. Three trips to the NCAA Championship game (2000, 2006, 2007).

And of course, there's the icing on the cake: A dream team that chalked up the Gators' first back-to-back NCAA Men's Division I Championships in 2006 and 2007. Billy will leave as UF's winningest coach.

Simply put, he did the job and he did it well. For that, we are grateful.

As Billy moves on to other challenges, we will begin the search for his successor (Notice I didn't say “replacement” – no one will ever replace Billy.) I have complete faith and confidence in Athletic Director Jeremy Foley's ability to scour the country and find yet another terrifically talented and qualified head basketball coach.

Please join me in wishing Billy Donovan and his family the best of luck in his future endeavors.

Go Gators!

Bernie.

Cross Your Fingers...

From The Chronicle:

SUNNY APPEAL: The University of Florida has been wooing Ohio State University's president, Karen A. Holbrook, but sources differ on why. Rumors have been circulating that she may be a candidate to succeed J. Bernard Machen as the university's next leader.

No such thing, says Ms. Holbrook, in an e-mail message. "The University of Florida has a great president, and there is absolutely no truth to any such rumor," she says. "This is one I have not heard."

A University of Florida spokesman confirms that "the president has been in talks with Dr. Holbrook about the possibility of her coming here," but he says it is not clear what type of position Ms. Holbrook would hold.

Ms. Holbrook, 64, who has announced she will retire from Ohio State in June, was formerly vice president for research at Florida and dean of the Graduate School.

University of Florida Denies Bush Honorary Degree

From TIME.COM

Jeb Bush Snubbed by U. of Florida

By AP

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Former Gov. Jeb Bush was snubbed for an honorary degree at the University of Florida — but he can still call himself an honorary alumnus.

The university's Alumni Association's Board of Directors passed a resolution Saturday to make Bush an honorary alumnus. The move came on the heels of a 38-28 Faculty Senate vote on Thursday to deny Bush an honorary degree.

The main difference between the awards is that the degree is given by the university and the alumni association decides who receives honorary alumni status, said Steve Orlando, a University of Florida spokesman. The association extends the honor to a handful of people each year.

"They might be in two different categories, but from the alumni perspective, we highly respect those that have been given or granted the status of honorary alumnus," said Leonard Spearman, president of the University of Florida Alumni Association.

In deciding not to give Bush an honorary degree, some faculty members cited concerns about Bush's educational record in respect to the university. Some said his approval of three new medical schools has diluted resources. He also has been criticized for his "One Florida" proposal, an initiative that ended race-based admissions programs at state universities.

But Spearman said the association selected Bush because he supported research at the University of Florida, and because of his efforts to provide funding for more faculty and create a statewide scholarship program. He said the association's selection had nothing to do with the faculty's vote.

"What we did was in our own rights, not in our reaction to the Senate," he said.

An e-mail sent to Bush on Saturday seeking comment was not immediately returned.

At the moment when UF should be receiving nothing but praise for the hard work of our wonderful basketball team, instead we have to deal with this embarrassment. The blame lies squarely on the shoulders of President Machen. Admittedly, the decision to deny by the Faculty Senate is bullheaded, the fact that Machen arrogantly thought that this would go through by force of will makes smacks of poor planning and an inflated sense of self. Had the situation been vetted months ago instead of waiting until the midnight hour, the Senate wouldn't have felt backed into a corner. Great job, Bernie!