Virginia Tech will host a “Beyond Boundaries Presidential Conversation” between university President Tim Sands and Kent Fuchs, the president of the University of Florida on Sunday, Sept. 18 at 7:30 p.m. in the Donaldson-Brown Graduate Life Center (155 Otey St.).

Sands and Fuchs will discuss the opportunities and challenges each has faced at their institutions, past and present. A focus of the conversation will be on how land-grant institutions meet the evolving needs of society and prepare students to thrive in a globally connected world.

The event is free and open to the public. It will be live-streamed for remote audiences, and a video of the conversation will be posted after the event. (Watch the live video). That information will be shared through Virginia Tech News.  

Fuchs became the 12th president of the University of Florida in 2015. Under his leadership, the university has developed shared goals for the decade ahead and aspires to be a premier comprehensive university that the state, nation and world look to for leadership.

Prior to his tenure at Florida, Fuchs spent six years as provost of Cornell University. He was appointed provost after serving as Cornell’s Joseph Silbert Dean of Engineering from 2002 to 2008. He joined Cornell from Purdue University, where he headed the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering from 1996 to 2002.

Sands became the 16th president of Virginia Tech in 2014. A scientist, educator and inventor, he has dedicated much of his career to advancing the impact of research and innovation in public education.

As president, he engaged the university community in a visionary plan to advance Virginia Tech’s role as a global land grant institution, confronting the commonwealth’s, the country’s and the world’s most challenging problems.

The initiative, called “Beyond Boundaries,” seeks to define Virginia Tech’s role a generation into the future, and align the educational experience with the needs and opportunities that will be created by changing world economies and the evolving landscape of higher education.  

Share this story