Lake Wauburg saw a step-down and a breakdown at the UF Board of Trustees retreat Thursday and Friday.
The step-down came when President Bernie Machen announced Win Phillips, UF senior vice president and chief operating officer, will leave his position in December.
Phillips has spent more than 20 years at UF, serving in roles like College of Engineering dean and vice president for research. His wife, Betty, is due to start work as the executive director of UF Online (formerly known as eCampus) on Jan. 1.
Phillips said a university is made up of its students, and it is the faculty’s job to enrich their education. He will stay at UF as a professor of mechanical and biomedical engineering.
“I started out of as a professor, I’m going to end as a professor,” Phillips said.
Trustees also saw a numerical breakdown of the expected results from UF Online.
UF Provost Joe Glover said in 10 years, the program hopes to have about 24,100 students. By Fall 2018, UF Online wants to offer 30 fully online degree programs. Five new degrees will be added each year, Glover said.
“This is aspirational, but it’s goal-setting, also,” said Associate Provost for Teaching and Technology Andy McCollough.
UF Online will start with business administration, sports management, criminology and law, health education and environmental management.
The next year, it will add biology, mechanical engineering, psychology, telecommunications and nursing, according to a draft of the comprehensive business plan presented to the legislative task force Aug. 30. Other degrees to be added include chemistry, economics and political science.
UF Online applicants, Glover reminded the board, will be subjected to the same admissions standards as regular students.
Still, Glover made it clear the purpose of the program is not for UF Online students to transition to campus.
“When you reach the 24,000 students, you do not want them all descending on Gainesville,” he said.
A version of this story ran on page 5 on 9/23/2013 under the headline "UF VP of research stepping down"
This story has been updated to reflect a correction. It previously, wrongly stated that Phillips was VP for research. He is a senior vice president.
