Awaiting response from the Board of Trustees after UCF President offers his resignation
ORLANDO, Fla. (FOX 35 WOFL) - On Tuesday afternoon, UCF President Dale Whittaker offered his resignation to the UCF Board of Trustuees. The decision came after improper spending at the school was revealed earlier this month.
The university previously stated that the newly-build Trevor Colbourn Hall was "created with themes of collaboration, flexibility, sustainability and beauty in mind." State lawmakers, however, argued that it was built with nearly $40 million that was never meant for putting new buildings on campus.
Following this discovery, lawmakers toyed with the idea of punishing UCF. They considered plucking the school’s state-funded building projects or even shutting it down. UCF students agreed that there should be consequences.
In Whittaker's offer to resign, which was posted as a letter online, he addressed the issues surrounding the Trevor Colbourn Hall scandal. He said that the right thing to do is "find the problems. Fix them. And, in all things, tell the truth."
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Whittaker also confirmed that "aggressive and far-reaching changes" have been made to fix the problems revealed by Trevor Colbourn Hall.
Despite this, Whittaker said that he believes that "it has been made clear to me that for UCF to succeed with our state leaders in the future, new leadership is required." He expanded on this by adressing the relationship between the school and the Legislature, stating that "a healthy relationship is necessary for the university to serve our more than 68,000 students in one of the fastest-growing, most diverse regions in the United States."
The shake up at UCF has a lot of students in shock. Many are wondering what will happen next since the Board of Trustees has not accepted his resignation yet. Whittaker remains UCF President until the Board responds.
The Board of Trustees will hold a special meeting on the offer to resign, but a date has not yet been set.