Tim Moore

I was in my last year with Indian River State College — Dr. Timothy Moore was in his first (2020-21) as its president — when I approached our retiring chief financial officer for routine approval to replace a staff position on the Pruitt Campus. The exasperated expression on his face, augmented by the genuine tone of alarm, was one I had never witnessed before:

“There’s a train wreck coming and I’m not going to be here to handle it!”

Of course, train wreck was a metaphor for the imminent budget crisis the college was on a collision course to face barring a major course correction.

Welcome to IRSC, Dr. Moore!

What caused the train wreck?

The college’s two major sources of revenue are tuition, paid by students, and reimbursement from the state based on full-time equivalent (FTE) hours. While tuition and FTE revenue have been frozen and declining respectively for over a decade, operating costs have not.

The annual tuition of $2,760 a student paid in 2025 buys only a fraction of what it did in 2015 due to the corrosive effects of inflation. The reduction in purchasing power of every tuition and FTE-generated dollar has only exacerbated the fiscal challenge.

The slow decline in revenue and purchasing power is manageable as long as enrollment is increasing, but when that revenue lifeline declines, too, the college has no other choice but to tap its rainy-day contingency fund to cover the revenue shortfall.

Regrettably, you can only go to that well so many times before the painful and traumatic cost-cutting decisions can no longer be postponed — and with the budget alarm blaring, inaction wasn’t a luxury the new president was afforded.

On the heels of inheriting the budget crisis, Moore also inherited the $45 million endowment from the McKenzie Scott Foundation to cover the revenue shortfall and make the imperative course correction. Coming from the outside, he didn’t have the college and community connections like an internal candidate, so he proceeded much like a newly hired corporate CEO charged with saving the firm from bankruptcy would.

Since long-term employees are among the highest paid, and personnel costs constitute the largest expense, the new president’s first cost-cutting initiative was offering retirement-eligible employees an early-retirement incentive.

A year since allegations of fiscal mismanagement

Other budget-driven actions included closing the old Coast Guard station, creating the tuition-free Promise Program, expanding the nursing program and replacing the four campus presidents with their onsite campus directors (which alone will save the college almost $800,000) annually).

The college's board has subsequently rewarded the president with a salary increase and contract extension for resolving the budget crisis, replenishing the rainy-day contingency fund and for increasing enrollment via the Promise Program.

After decades of employment security the college and community had come to expect, the abrupt payroll-reduction actions sent shockwaves of fear and distrust throughout the campus as evidenced by the numerous opinion pieces quoting disgruntled employees who aired their grievances and accusations publicly — the most damning of which was based on an interview with the short-lived CFO.

December 2025 marked a year since the allegation of gross financial mismanagement was made public. What’s the shelf life of such a “where there’s smoke there’s fire” reputation-tarnishing accusation? Until proven otherwise, my full trust and confidence resides with the Gov. Ron DeSantis-appointed board of college trustees and its chair, Crista Luna, whose external investigation cleared Moore of the “alleged” financial misconduct. Ditto my faith in the current CFO, Edith Pacacha, who was mentored by the college’s most venerated CFO and business department namesake, Barry Keim.

Colleges forced to evolve, innovate

I have always wished every president the maximum of success, because when they are successful, the college and community prosper. Has the president’s vision for the tuition-free Promise Program and/or doubling the capacity of the nursing program permanently reversed the enrollment trend? Will his vision for a hospitality center, convention center complex, data processing center, master’s degree in health administration, medical school, or healthcare charter school ever come to fruition? Only time will tell.

But just as the transfer portal and NIL have changed the way college football coaches run their programs, so the transition from a state-supported to a state-subsidized institution has changed the way college presidents have to approach funding. If additional revenue veins can’t be tapped, then cost cutting will remain the only option available for correcting future budget imbalances, and that won’t bode well for the future.

However, the board’s acceptance of Audubon Development’s proposal to convert the aging Coast Guard station into a revenue-generating hospitality center and the president’s pursuit of a medical school with the Edward Via College of Osteopathic Medicine are both aligned with the board’s objective of selecting a president with an entrepreneurial mindset.

In a sidebar conversation with the Pruitt Campus namesake, former Florida Senate President Ken Pruitt, we both agreed that given the financial challenge, the board had selected the right candidate to lead the college forward.

Throttle up! Full speed ahead, Dr. Moore!