FGCU’s third president, Wilson Bradshaw, announced his retirement Thursday, after sending Robbie Roepstorff, chairwoman of the FGCU Board of Trustees, a two-page letter detailing his decision once his contract ends on June 30, 2017.
Bradshaw, who was selected to become the university’s third president by the Board of Trustees on Aug. 25, 2007, made the decision to retire two months after the board gave him a satisfactory job evaluation. Following the positive evaluation, the Board granted Bradshaw a raise of 5 percent, increasing his salary to over $415,000.
“I remain enthusiastic about what I do, but you know I am not getting younger,” Bradshaw said in an interview with The News-Press. “I am in good health and good spirits, and I want to enjoy my life as I move out of the presidency here at Florida Gulf Coast University,” Bradshaw said to The News-Press.
Bradshaw piloted several significant changes for the university over the course of his presidency, including the increasing of the number of applications to 40 percent in 2014, with out-of-state applications raised up around 60 percent.
Bradshaw previously worked at Metropolitan State University in St. Paul, Minnesota where he served as the president for almost eight years. Bradshaw’s other previous positions include provost and vice president for Academic Affairs at Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania, the vice president and dean of Graduate Studies and Research at Georgia Southern University, and the dean of Graduate Studies at Florida Atlantic University.