Ronald L. Vaughn has served as the president of the University of Tampa for almost two decades. Since he first arrived at UT in 1985, Vaughn has improved the University in many ways.
Since 1995, the school’s annual budget has increased from $28 million to $200 million for the 2013-2014 academic year. This substantial growth has powered numerous advances for both academics and campus life.
The Minaret sat down with Vaughn to get his perspective and potential goals concerning the progress and future of UT.
Despite the broad range of management responsibilities and the expectations that come with being the public face of the university, Vaughn believes fundraising is one of the most challenging aspects of the job.
“It’s not just fundraising for the day-to-day activities and what’s required for your budget, but what’s required for scholarships for students, for new programs and for new projects,” Vaughn said. “The projects you see around campus don’t just materialize, and that’s because you’ve got various people and friends that make that happen.”
Vaughn has also conducted $350 million worth of hefty construction projects since 2000, including the building of the John Sykes Chapel that opened Dec. 10 2010. Vaughn said this project was the one he has been the most pleased with.
Whether it’s the expansion of the pool, the creation of the lacrosse field or the addition of West Kennedy Hall, UT has been under constant construction in recent years, something that Vaughn said will not stop any time soon.
“If you look around campus, there are actually some [buildings] that are former fairground buildings from the state fair. Those buildings will eventually be replaced,” Vaughn said.
The school is raising money for several new academic buildings to meet the needs of the UT’s academic programs, and, according to Vaughn, “there’s quite a bit more to do.”
The lack of parking is another on-campus factor Vaughn is planning to advance, since the school’s “parking issues” are needs that have not been met, Vaughn said.
“We have been very aware of parking issues right along with the development of the university,” Vaughn said. “We have expanded parking rather consistently, and we do have plans for further additions to parking.”
Last year, 250 parking spaces were added to campus and much of that is in use this semester.
These spaces included the surface parking near West Kennedy Hall and many additional spaces by the Edison building on North Boulevard.
“We continue to monitor how the entire space is being used throughout the year,” Vaughn said.
A new parking expansion is underway in the Thomas parking garage, which will begin after the semester is over. The expansion is expected to be ready some time next fall.
On the academic level, Vaughn is mainly focused on hiring more full-time faculty. Full-time professors have been hired every year of Vaughn’s presidency, and 16 full-time faculty members were hired before this fall semester began, which Vaughn said “is a big number.”
The number of undergraduate and graduate students has increased over recent years, and Vaughn’s goal is for that number to reach 7,800 before the end of the decade (compared to the current 7,200 undergraduate students admitted this fall).
Vaughn believes that, at this point, the graduate level may continue to grow while undergraduate statistics remain constant.
With 844 students, UT’s graduate school student population is up four percent from last year and is the highest enrollment in UT’s graduate school history.
In about a week, Vaughn will speak at the annual Minaret Society dinner, an event hosted for the school’s top donors. He says this is a time when he always reflects on UT’s heritage and what it means to others.
“The University of Tampa is incredibly important to [the Tampa Bay] community,” Vaughn said. “What we do has a huge impact. We have an annual economic impact of about $750 million.”
As president of UT, Vaughn enjoys the broad variety of management, interaction and constituency responsibilities, but his overall fulfillment is based around improvement.
“I like making progress,” Vaughn said. “It’s satisfying when our university, our academics and our students make great progress. That feels very worthwhile and fulfilling.”
Kirby Jay can be reached at kirby.jay@spartans.ut.edu