President Saunders Resigns
Posted
#312157
(In Topic #42131)
Wise Owl
Member since 2007
Dear Faculty, Staff and Students,
Late yesterday, on behalf of the Florida Atlantic University Board of Trustees, I regretfully accepted FAU President Mary Jane Saunders’ resignation. The Board respects her desire to return to the faculty, a decision which she made in the best interest of the University.
Throughout her time as President, she has consistently demonstrated a genuine love for the university, its students and the community. She attended every athletic game, arts performance and FAU-sponsored event that she could. Few major community events were held without her involvement. President Saunders has been fully committed morning, day and night to the betterment of FAU.
The list of accomplishments she made during her three-year tenure is long. FAU, its students and the region benefited from the strong vision she had for the University’s future – a future she set in motion.
For example, President Saunders:
• Led the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) reaffirmation, which earned the University the highest possible overall evaluation and special praise for our Quality Enhancement Plan, “Distinction through Discovery.”
• Launched the Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine, including establishing preceptorships with 900 physicians, partnerships with eight hospitals for Med 3+4 clinical rotations, and a consortium with five hospitals for 340 new post-graduate residencies; more than 7,500 applications have been received over a three-year period, enabling the University to select nationally competitive students to fill the 64 slots that are available annually.
• Fostered major donations that total more than $50 million in three years. The FAU Foundation’s endowment was $187.6 million as of March 31, 2013 and assets of the HBOI Foundation currently total $58 million.
• Led the process of creating the 2012-17 Strategic Plan, which establishes FAU’s three signature themes: Marine and Coastal Issues, Biotechnology, and Contemporary Societal Issues.
• Doubled freshman applications from 12,000 to 24,000 in 2011. The incoming class in fall 2012 was the largest in FAU history and had highly competitive SAT and ACT scores. FAU has become the most selective institution in the State University System and the student body has grown to an all-time high of 30,000-plus.
• Balanced budgets of $600 million for three years, including FY 2012 with $24.7 million in E&G (Education and General) budget cuts and no PECO (Public Education Capital Outlay) funding for FYs 2011-13.
• Created the Center for eLearning to increase the University’s competitiveness in the rapidly expanding online education arena.
We are grateful for the contributions President Saunders made to help make a great University even stronger, and wish her much success and happiness in her future endeavors. We welcome her back to the faculty of the Charles E Schmidt College of Science.
I consulted with President Saunders, who is appointing Dennis Crudele, FAU’s senior vice president for finance and administration, as the Acting President, effective immediately.
Anthony K.G. Barbar
Chair, FAU’s Board of Trustees
Posted
Wise Owl
Member since 2012
Re: President Saunders Resigns
Posted
Wise Owl
Member since 2006
Re: President Saunders Resigns
My two favorite teams are FAU, and who ever is beating FIU!
Posted
VIP DONOR
Member since 2005
Re: President Saunders Resigns
I feel this was a long-time coming. Saunders was not approachable nor eloquent in her dealings with any FAU story that came up. This came back to haunt our prestigious university repeatedly.
Maybe we were spoiled by Brogan who was a gold-mine. But Saunders was a black hole…
Going forward, I hope they do a stringent search and find a suitable replacement to Brogan as Saunders was never a good replacement.
Also, I worked with her and her "friends" she brought on board at FAU so I have inside knowledge of her workings with FAU staff, students and the community and I regret to inform everyone that our school (my alma mater) deserves MUCH better!
This is good news - make no mistake - good news!
Posted
Wise Owl
Member since 2011
Re: President Saunders Resigns
President Saunders Resigns
Posted
Wise Owl
Member since 2003
Re: President Saunders Resigns
Still, she seems like a nice lady and I do feel bad for her. She did a lot of good things that will get overlooked.
Posted
VIP DONOR
Member since 2005
Re: President Saunders Resigns
The next move we make is a big one. Brogan 2.0 would be nice. Lets see if we can run this search better than the last
Posted
Wise Owl
Member since 2012
Re: President Saunders Resigns
Now if only we can we get the President up in DC to make the same decision ;)
Posted
Wise Owl
Member since 2003
Re: President Saunders Resigns
OwlBroker said
Not a huge shock, although it m sort of surprised it actually happened. As many have said, way to many issues and bad PR on her watch that outweigh the good things.
Now if only we can we get the President up in DC to make the same decision ;)
Ugh…Do some people really have to bring politics into EVERYTHING? I don't care what your political views are, but now this thread will just get derailed. There are other message boards for that.
Posted
VIP DONOR
Member since 2007
Re: President Saunders Resigns
fauowls44 said
Ugh…Do some people really have to bring politics into EVERYTHING? I don't care what your political views are, but now this thread will just get derailed. There's other message boards for that.
+1,000,000,000
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