By Kiley Petracek
The University of Tampa (UT)’s President, Dr. Ronald Vaughn, is concluding his 29-year term in his role as the Spring 2024 semester comes to an end.
In his three decade tenure, President Vaughn has been the face of UT’s rapidly growing enrollment, expansions on campus, and developing reputation.
“I’m always thinking ahead about doing things, and it’s hard for me to not do that,” said Vaughn.
Vaughn was employed at UT in June of 1989, and worked as the Dean of the College of Business, the Dean of Graduate Studies and the Co-Chief Academic Officer. He began as president at the beginning of 1995.
Within his first year of his promotion, he helped produce the university’s first master plan, freshmen enrollment increased by 46%, and UT reached its highest enrollment statistic in the previous ten years, according to the Tampa Bay Times. In 1995, the university had 2,529 students. In 2024, UT now has 11,054 students.
The growth of UT’s campus, student body, and reputation, can be accredited to the exponential planning from President Vaughn’s perspective. “I have mixed feelings about coming to this stage. To me, that’s the way it should be. You want to transition while you’re still enjoying things, and I certainly am.”
Despite the consistent growth in the past three decades, President Vaughn has made a commitment to maintain what was enjoyed about being relatively small. One of the most important aspects of ensuring the small-university spirit was to maintain the 17:1 faculty to student ratio, with an average class size of 21.
“It’s about meeting teaching needs and trying to hire enough faculty to support all of the initiatives that we’re pursuing every single year,” Vaughn said. “It’s the first budgeting decision I make every year.” UT has grown from its puny number of employees to 1,750 faculty and staff members in 2024.
UT’s campus expansions have been difficult to ignore with three new buildings, renovations on two existing ones, and the addition of The Susan and John Sykes Ars Sonora since 2019.
Even though Plant Hall is currently undergoing renovations, “I feel like our minarets, in a way, are the beating heart of our community. It’s part of the campus, no doubt about it, but to me, it’s almost a spiritual thing,” said Vaughn.
The State Fair of Florida took place where Pepin Stadium and West Parking Garage now stand until 1973, and upon the start of his presidency, UT was localized surrounding Plant Hall. The Fair buildings surrounding where the Jenkins Health and Technology Building occupies now, then had dirt floors.
“We converted those into education facilities but they’re not what we truly need, so we embarked on this rebuilding of the entire campus with facilities and residence halls that were purposefully built for learning and a working environment for a university,” said Vaughn.
“From the beginning, it was about developing academic excellence, and an excellent educational experience… You learn a lot in class, of course, but you learn a lot in the other activities as well,” said Vaughn. “Part of our job is to build a rich variety of those kinds of learning opportunities that help everyone grow and do things they didn’t think would be possible.”
Vaughn’s career has been focused on learning, which has looked different every year. Professionally, he has taken courses educating himself in cybersecurity, AI, and community research upon the COVID-19 pandemic. Personally, Vaughn has endured life changes in the past three decades such as UT’s first lady Martha Vaughn passing in January 2007.
After spending a significant portion of his life employed at UT, “There’s so many friends and people right here, this is the place to be.” President Vaughn intends to stay local upon retirement. “I certainly will miss the daily interactions with the people here; the students, the faculty and staff. I’ll have a gaping hole there I guess.”
Teresa Abi-Nader Dahlberg will step in President Vaughn’s shoes as the eleventh president of UT at the beginning of June 2024. Dahlberg was Texas Christian University’s chief academic officer, and has over 20 years of experience in higher education.
“UT’s upward trajectory and transformation over the past three decades is an impressive and exciting story, and today the University is well-positioned to become an elite, world-renowned university,” Dahlberg said. “The prospect of building an even stronger and more impactful UT is a challenge that I embrace.”
“UT is a place that I love, and always will. It’s a special place, and easily becomes part of your heart,” Vaughn says. “I’m proud of our students and what they do. I have no doubt that they’re going to go on to great success.”
“We have a tremendous love of the university. I know that sounds kind of crazy, but we love our students and faculty,” President Vaughn’s wife, Renée Vaughn, said to the Tampa Bay Times. “People treat each other like family. And so it’s really it’s been our family for the last 15 years.”
“The dream is very much alive. It’s not over,” said President Vaughn. “That’s now the dream for Teresa Abi-Nader Dahlberg to come in with.”