Former Ohio State President Karen A. Holbrook will be the University of South Florida’s interim vice president of research and innovation, South Florida school officials announced recently.
Holbrook, 64, will start Dec. 3 at South Florida, a school with more than 45,000 students and campuses in Tampa, St. Petersburg, Sarasota-Manatee and Lakeland, Fla.
Holbrook retired from OSU in late June after spending five years as the university’s president. In her tenure at OSU, Holbrook saw an NCAA football championship in 2003 and drew sharp criticism for cracking down on tailgating as a response to riots after the OSU vs. Michigan game in 2002.
She also oversaw the creation of Metro High School and was quick to tout each year’s “best academically prepared” classes.
More recently, the former president raised controversy while in the final round of interviews for a job as president of Florida Gulf Coast University, when video of her was released that showed her criticizing OSU.
“They think it’s fun to flip cars, to really have absolute drunken orgies … I don’t want to be at a place that has this kind of culture as a norm,” The Columbus Dispatch reported Holbrook said.
Holbrook’s job at OSU was filled by interim president Joseph Alutto until current President E. Gordon Gee was hired earlier this month.
Holbrook now lives in Longboat Key, near Sarasota, Fla.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
