FIU president Mark Rosenberg abruptly resigns, stunning colleagues and students
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FIU president resigns
Mark Rosenberg, Florida International University’s fifth president, installed in August 2009, abruptly resigned in January. He cited health issues for his departure after about 45 years of service. But he later acknowledged that he had “caused discomfort for a valued colleague.”
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Florida International University President Mark Rosenberg stunned students, friends and staff with his resignation on Friday, abruptly ending his 12-year tenure leading South Florida’s biggest public university.
The sudden resignation raised eyebrows, and Rosenberg quickly issued a statement saying his decision was prompted by his and his wife’s health issues.
His resignation led to an emergency meeting of the university’s board of trustees late Friday afternoon, who named Kenneth Jessell, 66, FIU’s chief financial officer and senior vice president of finance and administration since 2009, as interim president while FIU searches for a permanent successor.
“I am writing to share with you that I have accepted the resignation of President Mark B. Rosenberg,’’ Board of Trustees Chair Dean Colson wrote in a three-paragraph email he sent to the FIU community Friday evening. The only reference to Rosenberg was in that first sentence.
Rosenberg, 72, could not be reached for comment. He started his career at FIU as an assistant political science professor in 1976; the university was founded in 1972 and has since grown to the state’s second-largest public university and the nation’s fourth largest, with more than 56,000 students.
“It is with a sense of accomplishment and sadness that I share with you that I will be resigning as president of FIU effective this Friday, January 21, 2022,” Rosenberg wrote in an email to the university community late Friday afternoon. “I am stepping back so that I may give full attention to recurring personal health issues and to the deteriorating health of my wife, Rosalie.”
But in a Dec. 14 interview with the Herald, Rosenberg said he had no plans to retire.
“Ultimately I’m an academic, and I’ve got still three, maybe four, books left to write. My attitude is to go raging into that good night, whatever that looks like,” Rosenberg told the Herald at that time. “At some point I’ll step down, and we’ll get a new president, and I would expect them to pick up where I left off.”
He added he wanted to enjoy the university he helped build.
The Florida Board of Governors, which oversees the state’s 12 public universities, will need to approve Jessell as interim president.
Resignation surprised many
The news shocked many, including FIU alumni and people who have known Rosenberg for decades.
Mike Hernández, a political analyst for Telemundo 51, is the immediate past president of the FIU Alumni Association. He has known Rosenberg for most of his life and last spoke to him just a few days ago about an unrelated issue. He said Rosenberg didn’t give any indication that he would be resigning from his post.
“He had very very challenging professional and personal circumstances but the abruptness of the resignation caught everyone that I know by surprise,” said Hernández. “I have a personal relationship with Rosenberg. ... It’s very personal.”
Hernández, who served as president of the Alumni Association for two years until May 2021, said that while it was true that Rosenberg had health issues, both personal and related to his wife, Rosalie, he was always very private about it. Hernández also said Rosenberg’s departure is shocking because FIU just rose 17 spots in the U.S. News & World Report rankings, a fact that he said Gov. Ron DeSantis is quick to tout at press conferences.
“We all are just kind of processing this,” said Hernández. “It’s very disappointing that university volunteers that are so invested in this institution did not get a heads up.”
A source who has known Rosenberg for more than 25 years said he recently had lunch with him and Rosenberg had expressed interest in staying on for five more years, although he acknowledged it could be tough as his contract was on a year-to-year basis. After their initial five-year contract, state university presidents are required to go on a year-to-year contract.
Students shocked
FIU students were equally shocked to learn of Rosenberg’s departure.
“It will definitely be weird not having him be president when I graduate this spring,” said Alan Macaulay, an FIU senior. “However, when we’re alumni 10-20 years from now, he’ll be part of FIU history and we’ll be able to say we were here when he was our president.”
Macaulay, a sports fan who says he’s involved in different campus activities, says he always saw Rosenberg at games and hopes the next president will “keep that same energy and expand on it.”
Krista Schmidt, a second-year FIU law student, has known Rosenberg for several years now. She was the 2017-2018 president of the Student Government Association at the Modesto Maidique campus and now is the co-founder and co-chair of the FIU Young Alumni Network.
“When you think of FIU, you think of Roary and Rosenberg. He’s the face of it,” said Schmidt, referring to Roary, the school’s mascot. “So that’s definitely going to be a shift for everybody.”
Rosenberg’s office empty
A Herald reporter knocked on Rosenberg’s residence Friday evening at the Modesto A. Maidique Main Campus, the Ronald W. Reagan Presidential House. Nobody responded. FIU’s main campus is at Southwest Eighth Street and 107th Avenue; it opened in 1972 on the site of the former Tamiami Airport.
Nor was Rosenberg at his office at Primera Casa on the Maidique campus. Two FIU employees confirmed Friday evening that his office had been emptied already and he hadn’t been in all day.
A Herald reporter also knocked on a Westchester house listed as Rosenberg’s home, according to public records. A woman opened the front door and said the president wasn’t there. A neighbor confirmed Rosenberg lives there.
UF, USF and UNF gear up for presidential searches
Rosenberg’s resignation comes as the University of Florida, the University of North Florida and the University of South Florida are gearing up to search for a new leader.
It also comes as Florida lawmakers consider legislation that would shield the early phases of university presidential searches from the public eye. The concept has gained little traction in the Legislature in recent years but it is getting renewed attention this year.
Sen. Jeff Brandes, the sponsor of Senate Bill 520, says the intent is to attract the best pool of applicants. Candidates who hold jobs at the time of their application could fear backlash from their employer if their names were leaked during the search process, he said.
But critics worry the move could prevent the proper vetting of candidates and impact fairness in the process.
Shalala, Carvalho praise Rosenberg
“Mark has done a wonderful job,” said Donna Shalala, the former Democratic member of Congress whose tenure as University of Miami president overlapped with Rosenberg’s time as FIU president. “He had an ability to work all of the constituencies on his campus, and to work with the Legislature. Basically to build consensus. And he was a really good member of the community. He was a leader of higher education in the community.”
Miami-Dade Schools Superintendent Alberto Carvalho, who was named superintendent a year before Rosenberg became FIU president and who is leaving the district in a few weeks to become head of the Los Angeles school district, echoed Shalala.
“President Rosenberg’s contribution to our community has been unparalleled,’’ he said. “His visionary leadership allowed us to forge countless partnerships that have resulted in significant accomplishments for both Florida International University and Miami-Dade County Public Schools.
“For many years, we have traveled this path side-by-side, and together, we are closing a chapter in our educational journey,” Carvalho noted.
Rosenberg had a keen interest in Latin America and founded FIU’s highly regarded Latin American and Caribbean Center in 1979. When he was named president in 2009, he was the first FIU president who rose from the faculty.
Before being named president, Rosenberg was the chancellor of the State University System of Florida, which oversees the state’s 12 public universities.
‘Champion of the student’
Rosenberg was a popular president, one who was a “champion of the student,” said FIU Police Chief Alexander Casas, who has worked at the university for 11 years.
Casas said Rosenberg was a detail-oriented president who always “wanted to ensure the outcome of everything that we were involved in was nothing but the best.”
He experienced that whenever FIU police worked with administrators to prepare for large-scale events such as graduations, presidential visits, conferences and natural disasters like hurricanes.
“When we opened up the shelter for the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico, he didn’t just say, ‘Go open a shelter.’ He said, ‘I want to see it before you do it,’ ” Casas said.
And when the pedestrian footbridge that FIU had championed collapsed in March 2018, killing six people, including an 18-year-old FIU student, Alexa Duran, Alexa’s father, Orlando Duran, said it was only FIU who stepped up to acknowledge their heartbreaking sorrow.
“From all of the companies involved in the bridge collapse, none of the companies offered apologies other than FIU,’’ he told the Herald recently. “FIU accepted responsibility for it and offered their apologies.”
For Willie Ruff, a senior studying liberal arts with a minor in computer science, his first thought on Friday was disbelief about Rosenberg’s resignation: “It’s crazy because I felt like he would always be here.”
Miami Herald reporters Sommer Brugal, Devoun Cetoute and Michelle Marchante contributed to this story.
This story was originally published January 21, 2022 at 3:42 PM.
