The man hoping to be the University of North Florida’s next president has been on campus touting big changes ― but only changes UNF was already trying to achieve.
“It’s a good plan. It’s solid,” Michael P. Shannon said of a state-approved strategic plan for the school after meeting with students Thursday, September 10 for a question-and-answer session.
President of the University of North Georgia since 2023, Shannon told a small crowd, maybe 20 people, that Florida has "the best state university system in the country by every measure" and UNF is "the most exciting school in that system."
Shannon is scheduled to meet Wednesday, September 16 with UNF's board of trustees, who will vote on whether to forward his name to the university system's Board
of Governors for approval.
Shannon, 54, is seeking to succeed interim President Angela Garcia Falconetti, who took over after former President Moez Limayem was hired by the University of South Florida in 2025. He was the sole candidate recommended in August by a university search committee.
He spent two days in talks with UNF faculty, employees and other people with a stake in the school and told a reporter people in those meetings care deeply about UNF and its trajectory.
Often overshadowed by other colleges during its first half-century of operation, UNF set ambitious goals for enrollment growth and academic advancement in recent years and has enjoyed gains in reputation. In August, the school was ranked #58 among 210 public colleges and universities evaluated in TIME's first America's Best Colleges listings.
The school's enrollment reached about 18,500 students this year, 900 more than in 2025-26. It is considered an R2 school, counted as having high research spending and doctorate production, but short of the elite R1 classification that UNF's strategic plan aspires to reach.
Taking student questions, Shannon voiced enthusiasm for UNF's focus on experiential learning, often through internships, and talked about the value of clubs and social networks. "I love Greek life. I think it's awesome," he said, but added he knew the system of fraternities and sororities "isn't for everyone."
Asked about his view on college participation in the federal government's 287(g) program for carrying out immigration enforcement efforts, Shannon said he wasn't familiar with that and didn't think it was part of his current school's operation. He said he would have to learn about 287(g) before expressing any thoughts on it.
Asked about managing concerns for diversity on campus, he said "I care about everybody ... I realize everybody's interests and needs are different." Shannon said running the University of North Georgia's system of five campuses spread up to 120 miles apart reinforced the importance of connecting with people from different communities. He said his work life, split between serving in the U.S. Army and in research and education, has always involved interacting with people from vastly different backgrounds.
Shannon was a 20-year Army officer with assignments in infantry and Signal Corps who also had exposure to academia before retiring as a lieutenant colonel.
The 1995 engineering graduate of Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University earned his first master’s in aeronautical science in 1999, then a master’s in health physics from Georgia Tech in 2003 and a PhD in nuclear and radiological engineering from Georgia Tech in 2009.
Shannon became a physics department instructor at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point by 2003, then an assistant professor in 2005 and an affiliate scientist at two of the federal government’s national laboratories for nuclear research, at Los Alamos and Idaho.
By 2012 he was director of the National Science and Engineering Research Center at West Point and in 2015 he became a vice president for Hopewell Designs, a company that makes radiation shielding, calibration equipment and other material for the nuclear industry.
Between 2016 and 2023, he was a research engineer, adjunct assistant professor and interim chief business officer at Georgia Tech.
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: UNF presidential finalist touts school's plan for future
