By definition, first impressions don’t allow for do-overs. They matter that much. By all accounts, new USF President Steve Currall nailed his formal USF debut. It was a lot more than an engaging smile and a green-and-gold tie. Given USF’s varied priorities and unique campus composition, he maxed out.
His early-morning, first-day email and press availability emphasized service to USF’s student-faculty-alumni constituency and stewardship and leadership of a major, urban research university that has a catalytic role regionally and globally. “My mission now is to increase the slope of the trajectory of the university and take it forward,” he stressed. His analogy of USF and Tampa Bay to Stanford and Silicon Valley underscored a philosophy of thinking big. His first official order of business was a meeting with faculty, which always appreciates such a symbolic priority.
Then he literally made the rounds via a “listening tour” of the university’s three campuses, noting that his No. 1 job was to “knit together” all three locations. That remains a formidable challenge, one that he may well be up to if first impressions are any indication.