Kevin Hyde soon will add some more responsibilities to his schedule, but that’s nothing new and he has a plan.
Hyde, partner at the Foley & Lardner law firm, will become interim president of Florida State College at Jacksonville on or about May 31 when President Cynthia Bioteau retires.
“It’s going to be fun,” he said. “When I was on City Council, people would ask me ‘what’s fun?.’ It’s a chance to be at the table. This is the same.”
A council member from 2003-11, and its president in 2005-06, Hyde, 55, also was chief administrative officer in 2011-12 for former Mayor Alvin Brown.
He’s chair of the University of North Florida’s board of trustees and past chairman of The Florida Bar Labor and Employment Section.
Hyde has identified his initial priorities as interim president.
Preparation of the largest post-secondary education institution in Northeast Florida’s annual budget – predicted to be about $140 million – will begin in April.
“To the extent that I can participate in helping that, I want to do that,” Hyde said.
He also will focus on maintaining the college’s financial aid support for students.
“Well over 80 percent of the students receive some sort of financial aid. If your customer base is that dependent upon financial aid, we need to make sure that service is being delivered in the most efficient and advantageous way,” Hyde said.
“We’ll be making sure that the college is matching the students with their ability to get financial aid in the best way possible,” he said.
The longer view takes into consideration the needs of the business community and how that fits with the college’s “historical role,” Hyde said.
“We work closely with the business community to be able to provide the educated workforce needed in terms of degree and certificate programs FSCJ should offer,” he said.
While he has for years been able to perform almost full-time service to the community while maintaining his law practice at Foley & Lardner, Hyde said any consideration of whether he might seek to remove “interim” from his title at FSCJ is premature. It would mean ending his legal career after 30 years with the firm.
“Ask me that after I’ve done this for a little while. It would be a big change in my life,” he said.