With Florida BOG approval, Rhea Law becomes first USF alum to serve as president

TAMPA, Fla. - The University of South Florida officially has a new president.

The Florida Board of Governors, which oversees the public universities, voted Wednesday to approve Rhea Law as the eighth president in the school's history. The vote was unanimous and comes after the Board of Trustees also unanimously selected her last week.

With that approval, Law becomes the first USF alum to fill the top role. She began serving as the interim president in August after former President Steven Currall stepped down two years into the job. She is one of the founding members of the USF Board of Trustees.

Law spent five years as vice-chair and four years as the first and only female chair. In 2018, she was inducted as an honorary member of the USF Chapter of the National Academy of Inventors in recognition of her support of research and innovation at USF. The new USF president also has a background in environmental law.

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Law previously said she wants to lift USF into the top 25 universities in the nation. It’s currently ranked 46th. She also supports what she calls "a bold plan" to build an on-campus football stadium.

"It’s bold because it's putting a stake in the ground on doing something we’ve talked about for decades but were unwilling to pull the trigger on," said Law.

Her salary will be between $700,000 and $1 million, still to be negotiated. That would put her around the middle in the range of salaries earned by Florida’s state university presidents.