Florida State University President Richard McCullough delivered his fifth annual State of the University Address on Wednesday, December 3. He told his audience that, with federal and even state funding in question for higher education, it seemed many institutions were experiencing tough times. FSU, however, was certainly not among that group.
"There's a list of about 30 or 40 universities that have frozen hiring," he remarked. "We continue to hire 200 faculty members a year the last 3 years. So we've got our foot up on the gas because somebody has to do it."
McCullough had much to say about the aggressive building program going on at FSU. One of the new buildings is a medical research and teaching facility right next door to Tallahassee Memorial Hospital. The proposed takeover of the hospital by the university has engendered much public debate and even outright opposition. McCullough didn't reference that, but he did have this to say about joining forces with the hospital:
"We're doing these things because we want to improve health care in Tallahassee and in the Panhandle. We also want to grow biomedical research at Florida State University, improve our research reputation and funding in this area."
When it comes to FSU's research efforts, McCullough also noted that the school has been setting new records in the amount of funding it's been attracting for those efforts.
