with you they both brought WAY MORE GOOD to UF than the few slip ups that caused us embarrassement or pain. I just wish Lombardi had been allowed to stay and finish his plans. I knew you wanted to know my opinion! Lombardi did some fine things for UF during his first four or five years, especially in terms of PR. And, despite being awfully arrogant, he seemed like a pretty decent guy. The problems were really in his last few years, and I'm not referring to any of his public gaffes--those I could live with and forgive. The things that concerned me the most were these: 1. He brought an extremely adversarial climate to UF's relationship with the state legislature. Rather than play politics, he thought he'd "stand up to" the idiots in the legislature. This was admirable on the surface, stupid in reality. The suffering (in the form of inadequate funding, punitive rules, etc.) produced as a result of the climate Lombardi created will continue for years to come. Contrast his style with D'Alemberte's style at FSU, and you'll see a huge reason why FSU's funding has gone through the roof in comparison with UF's during the past decade. 2. The "UF Bank"--Lombardi's internal accountability system--created a climate of divisiveness and a vacuum of scholarship. So much was riding on how well programs met just a few criteria that departments made judgments about programs that hurt students and, ultimately, the departments and the university. Rather than driving programs to improve, his plan forced departments to compete with each other for student credit hours. Turf wars among programs got ugly. Some of the barriers to excellent scholarship created during the Bank era have yet to fall and continue to harm students and the university. 3. Lombardi was obsessed with making the University of Florida the biggest university in the country. I heard him say one time that 60,000 student would be a reasonable goal! During his tenure, we increased enrollment by nearly 10,000 students, with no end in sight. Neither UF nor the City of Gainesville had the infrastructure in place to handle this growth. Ask any faculty member and almost any student, and they'll tell you that UF is too big. The quality of education, especially for undergraduate students has suffered substantially. Although Lombardi did much to raise the stature and prestige of UF during his early years, his presidency might have ruined UF had it been allowed to continue much longer. He had become too power-hungry, arrogant, and narrow-minded to be effective.