Moez Limayem

In this episode of Unreasonable, Josh Martino sits down with Moez Limayem, whose remarkable life journey began in a small town in Tunisia without running water or electricity and led to an esteemed academic career with leadership roles at universities around the world. Limayem reflects on the profound influence of his parents, who instilled in him the value of education, something that would ultimately open doors across the globe. He also shares his vision for the University of North Florida to become a Top 100 university in the United States, which he believes is entirely achievable. While Dr. Limayem has since taken on a new role as president of the University of South Florida, the momentum and legacy of his leadership have set UNF on a trajectory toward becoming a world-class institution. Throughout every chapter of his journey, Limayem returns to his guiding definition of what it means to be unreasonable: the biggest risk for most people is not setting high goals and failing to achieve them—the biggest risk is setting low goals and achieving them.

Full video on YouTube.com/@UnreasonableJacksonville

Host: Josh Martino

Video and Audio Production: Nimble Creative Services

Artwork: Basis

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:26

Interesting interviews from Jacksonville's most iconic entrepreneurs, CEOs, and wonderful success stories who do things that are unexpected, unreasonably, in order to make their own change. In each episode, you'll meet passionate change makers who are rewriting the rules and daring to dream bigger for their community and our city. My hope is that their stories ignite something in you, that you'll be inspired to reimagine what's possible and lead with purpose in your work, your life, and right here in Jacksonville, you're gonna really be inspired. Welcome to another episode of Unreasonable. I'm your host, Josh Martino, and a proud member of the Jacksonville Civic Council. Our guest today is Dr. Moez Lemayam, president of the University of North Florida and a member of the Civic Council as well. Moez, thanks for being with us today on Unreasonable. Josh, it's an honor to be with you. Thank you for having me. Absolutely. Well, let's dive right in. You've said that UNF should be a top 100 university in the U.S. Some might say that's an unreasonable goal. Tell us why you believe that is possible.

SPEAKER_00 1:30

Yeah, I I um honestly think um it is possible. And the reasons um I think uh it is possible because um the ranking that we are pursuing to be the US U.S. World News and Report um emphasized several metrics um like four-year graduation rate or six-year graduation rate, retentions, ratio of faculty to students. And these are um absolutely the uh measure of student success and faculty success that we are pursuing. And um usually the um reputation lags a little bit behind the um performance. Um we're gonna show our region, our state, and the country how wonderful and how good this university is, and um the extent to which we take good care of our students, our faculty and staff, and our community.

SPEAKER_02 2:21

Well, I believe it too. And and you are just and you and the university are crushing the statistics in the face of tumultuous times, uh, some would say for upper education. Um I believe you have the largest freshman class in UNF history. Tell us more about that and the retention rates. I mean, where you stack up against um your competition.

SPEAKER_00 2:41

Absolutely. Um you know everybody um worldwide actually is speaking, and especially in our country, speaking about the um demographic cliff um where the expectation is for um all enrollments at in higher education uh will decline. Well, we proved that wrong at um at UNF. And um, as you so well mentioned, um Josh, this fall we broke so many records, good records. Uh we have the highest enrollment in the history of UNF, undergraduate, graduate. We have the highest um or the largest incoming class uh in the history of UNF. With uh uh we're um 3,170 students stronger. Um also um we uh broke the history of um uh the transfer students transferring in uh to UNF from uh um state colleges and graduating in three years, at least three years. Uh that's another um uh record. But the record I'm most proud of um with my colleagues is the retention. A few years ago, um Josh, uh our retention was not where it should be. It was uh really in the low 70s, and we had to work really hard, and I'm just so thrilled now um to report that um our retention is at the highest level uh ever been at UNF, and uh we're about 86 percent. Wow. And that's incredible. That's really incredible when you see we are retaining in just a few years, um 86 compared to low 70. Um the faculty and staff and and the friends uh are just so doing something really right, and we're very proud of that.

SPEAKER_02 4:27

Absolutely, with a national average closer to 50 percent. Absolutely 86 percent is astounding. So there's obviously some secret sauce over at UNF that um incoming freshmen, people visiting the school, and then the current attendees, faculty, staff, administration all feel and have bought into to make it as successful as it is.

SPEAKER_00 4:46

Absolutely. And and you know, um Josh, something that I'm really, really even prouder of is um the population that we attract to UNF. So I I just mentioned uh 3, um 170 students. 39% of them, almost 40%, are Pell Grant eligible. What does that mean? To be Pell Grant eligible, you have to be at the poverty level or below. For probably many of our listeners do not um know what is the uh poverty level. That's 15,000 approximately per year for one person income. That's about 21,000 for a family of two. That's the students we attract. These are our students. They come to UNF with very unfavorable uh financial um conditions, and you know what? They graduate, and they graduate with jobs, with competitive salaries, so that they change their lives, the lives of their families, and they become great um members of this great community. That's what really makes us going every single morning. Another similar um uh statistic is um about 35 percent of these students are exactly like me, first generation college students. What does that mean? It means no one in their immediate family has a college degree. No parents, no sibling has a college degree. They are the first. Means no one in their immediate family they can go to for incise advice on curriculum, on advice on career, or even sometimes just simple early adulthood challenges. No one in their immediate family to help them. You know who is that family? That's UNN. UNF. That's us, and that's uh uh something that we don't take lightly, something that we're very proud of.

SPEAKER_02 6:47

Aaron Ross Powell Well, you seem like the right person at the right time to lead this charge because you definitely have experience with world-class universities. What led you on your journey from Tunisia to Canada, Hong Kong, Switzerland, Tampa, all building up to landing here in Jacksonville?

SPEAKER_00 7:04

It's a it's a long journey. It's a long journey, and I'm very proud of this journey. So, as uh you mentioned, Josh, um uh born um and spent my early years in uh Tunisia, that's in North Africa, uh to um amazing parents and forced yeah, I lost them uh a couple of years ago, um, and uh seven other siblings, so big, big family. Um, my uh mother um was probably one of the smartest people um you'll ever uh meet, and uh but she never went to school. Um her job was to raise us and take good care of us. My father um was um elementary school um teacher, and then he was uh assigned to uh to be the principal for an elementary school in a very poor um city um in the um center of uh of the country in Tunisia. And I um remember vividly, um Josh, when I was uh what about three, four years old. Uh of course, um it was a very poor city. We did not have um running water, we did not have uh electricity. Um when I tell that to my kids that we did not have Netflix and Wi-Fi, they don't understand what that means what that uh means, but uh it really was so um we um we had um um one um oil lamp uh and and candles. That's how we spent our nights. And and I remember um very vividly, my father every school night will take the only oil lamp that we have and to uh give um at the end of the day um uh pro bono tutoring to the sixth grader uh to prepare them for a national exam that will determine if they go and move on their studies or they stop there. And and of course, um, as young as I was, naive, I always um told my father, why why are you taking our oil lamp and leaving us with candles? And and he um repeatedly, consistently said the same thing. These um students, these kids um need it more than we do. They need it so that they can move on with their education, so that they can change their lives, the lives of their families, and be great citizens uh uh in their community. So what uh what he was teaching me at a very young age, the um the value of education in changing lives, the importance of being student centers, the importance of student success. So for me it's a family affair. I grew up with this and fast forward um went to college in the capital, Tunis, for undergraduate, um at the uh college called Institut Supérieur de Gestion, which is a premier business school in the country. And um I um also remember the very first day, the very first day, um orientation, the dean came to us and said, I have some good news and I have some bad news. Which one do you want to hear first? Everybody said, give us the good news. So I said, good news is we have um a scholarship to the US for graduate um studies, full ride, everything paid for, including the airplane tickets, the school, the stipends everything. It's like, wow. It's like okay, what is the bad news here? It's only one. And we were about 3,500 freshmen. So um I I uh looked at my friend, right, I just met, and they said, I'm I'm gonna work for this, for a scholarship. Luckily, I got the scholarship. Wow. Um, still had fun, uh, enjoyed my my years, but uh at the scholarship came to the US, University of Minnesota. That's where um uh got my MBA PhD, but uh Minnesota was not cold enough for me, so uh went to Quebec for my first job. And uh few years in Quebec, um became um at a very young age um a department chair, probably the youngest department chair in Canada at that time. Then um met my wife and got married and moved to Hong Kong. Uh Hong Kong was a great experience. Our son was born in Hong Kong, he uh still have his um t-shirts at made in China. And I keep telling him now he's costing us more money because of the terror. But we had great years uh in Hong Kong, discovered uh Asia and then moved to Switzerland, always in academic leadership, spent a few years in um in Switzerland, and now I hope our listeners would not laugh because from Switzerland we moved to Arkansas. So uh uh we spent a few years and five years in Arkansas. Our daughter Sarah was born in uh in Arkansas and we did the studies there, and what we found is that um when uh we were three, uh, my wife, uh our son, and uh we became uh four because Sarah was born. We did some uh research, and what we found is that when Sarah was born, the Tunisian community in Arkansas increased by 40%. We were three, we became four. So five years in Arkansas, then moved to uh USF, Tampa, for 10 years uh as a dean of the College of Business, and uh August 1st, 2022, landed at this great university, wonderful community as the president of UNF. So sorry, it's a long story. No, but it's a wonderful story.

SPEAKER_02 12:25

You know, something that stands out to me is the impact your father's experience as an educator had on you and your ability to your credit at a young age to let that impact sink in and to say to yourself, this is something I would like to emulate, this is something I would even like to improve upon or turn my career into. There's a lot of people where that knowledge maybe stays latent until later in their life, and then they pursue it. But it sounds like you made it your life's mission because of an admiration for your father's commitment. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 12:54

Yeah, he's uh probably the person um that impacted me the most in my life, and uh um the passion he has for education, the passion he had for his students, the integrity with which he um uh conducted himself in the classroom, outside the classroom, as a father, as a teacher, um and and and just his beliefs uh about the value um of education changing lives. That really impacted me. And I really knew very earlier on that education is my calling. I my mother told me that uh when uh when the kids in the neighborhood actually we used to go out and play in the neighborhood, uh she said the kids would be uh will be um interested in more playing, you know, soccer, different things. But uh I was always insisting them and putting them in circles and lecturing to them. They hated it, but I liked it. So uh so that's uh you're absolutely right, Josh. Um the um uh education, the value of education, being student-centered is something I grew up with and impacted me a lot from my father.

SPEAKER_02 14:00

Like some of your predecessors at UNF, you're deeply engaged in the community, serving as a board member of the Civic Council and a Chamber of Commerce trustee. Why is civic engagement important to you and in your capacity at UNF?

SPEAKER_00 14:14

Oh, that's uh thank you. That's a great question. I think it's it's uh crucial. Uh it's so important um for our university and for our community. And uh and I want to really stress it's not a random thought. We were we made when um I landed here more than three years ago, we uh developed, and I insist on, we um uh a great vision and a strategic plan for our universities, and we had many strategic pillars and priorities. Um community engagement and community partnership is one of them, and one of the most important strategic priorities. And and going back to what exactly what we said earlier is that um our city to be vibrant needs this vibrant university. We are an incredible resource for the universities, but if we're not present at the highest level, president and VPs, we're we're not there. And in our world, we all say if you're not around the table, you're part of the menu. So we don't want to be that relates very well to we don't want to be part of the menu, we want to really be um a great partner for our community to make it better. The best compliment that my friends in Jackson will give me is like when they say Moez, we see you everywhere. That's really my best compliment because that means that we are doing something right. I instructed every member of my cabinet, all the VPs, to be involved in at least one or two um boards, nonprofit in our community to help the community be better.

SPEAKER_02 15:51

Well, that's a great segue to really the title of this podcast, Unreasonable. Um, we always ask, you know, our guests what's something that you've had to do or a strategy that you've had for the university or yourself or your staff or students that's been unreasonable in order to get some of these things accomplished that have been uh, you know uh barricades in the past, right? That you've been blocked off from achieving these goals. So tell us how you've been unreasonable.

SPEAKER_00 16:18

Yeah, and and I love I love the uh the the title of the podcast, the theme is being unreasonable because you know most human beings um are afraid of being un and unreasonable. Uh they're afraid to get um out of that comfort zone. But I can assure our listeners nothing good will come out of a comfort zone. No, going back um to um my own personal life, uh setting a very unreasonable mind thing, my peop most people would think crazy to get one scholarship out of 3,500. And then when you get it, you go. English was my fourth-fifth language. Go there with a graduate to start graduate school with native uh speakers in a brutal uh uh climate, very cold, that was very unreasonable. Um the way I managed my own life, and I um I really um recommend this for um all our uh young listeners um who hopefully will be very successful leaders, is to always set an unreasonable goal for five years. Like, okay, in five years, what will be my unreasonable goal and work hard, and I you would be surprised you will get it. And I always had this. Why do you think um a kid um who grew up without electricity and running water and now the president of uh just one of the best universities in the country? It is because of these unreasonable goals that I set for myself. Same thing for UNF. We are setting unreasonable, audacious goals. We want to grow to 25,000. We are when we started barely 16,000. We want to be um uh have a retention of 90 percent, one of the best in the country, while we started at 70 percent. That's unreasonable. You know, we were at um I think 160, and we want to break to top 100. That's unreasonable. I uh when I um had to present our um strategic goals and strategic plan to the board of governors that oversees all state universities, I started with a quote and I always repeat, I love this quote. And uh this quote is illustrated what it means to be unreasonable, and uh what it says is that um the biggest risk for most people is not to set high goals and not uh achieve them. But the biggest risk is to set low goals and achieve them. So um that's what being unreasonable for is setting these uh unreasonable goals and doing everything you can to get them. And you know what? If you cannot achieve your unreasonable goals, don't change the goals. Change the strategy how you get there. That's very important.

SPEAKER_02 19:17

Absolutely. Well, you know, with such a journey, you know, behind you now and plenty of runway left, there had to have been a time where, you know, you may have lost hope or you were challenged or frustrated or scared even um of what was next or what would be. Um, you know, I think it's important for people to hear that, you know, after all the success you've had, you know, and people who see you where you are today, to understand that it didn't come without its challenges. So um tell our listeners, you know, maybe uh uh an example or two of some of those moments along the way.

SPEAKER_00 19:51

Absolutely. I I um really um remember very well, just something that I will never forget. Um Minnesota. Now remember, Tunisia is Mediterranean weather, um, very like Florida, second and I didn't know what to expect, went with just light jackets and and everything. And I remember um I had to um walk and across what we call the 10th uh Avenue Bridge to get to campus in uh uh in uh Minneapolis. And um one night I was going back um from um studying to my apartment. It was so cold I really did not think I can cross that bridge. It was so bad and I didn't have the clothes. That night I said I'm done. I'm going to my apartment, getting my suitcase. This is not for me, I cannot make it. But then remember the unreasonable. I remember also uh Josh being in um my MBA class, and especially the first few weeks, the the the professor will be talking, and I don't understand a word. The professor will um will um say a joke, everybody will be laughing. I just laugh um not to appear stupid. I remember once um he said something I really thought it was um very funny. I laughed very hard. I was the only one laughing. So these are really moments that you say, you know what, what am I doing here? But this is where the unreasonable should um always prevail, and having that goal and persistence and not changing the goals, changing the strategy is really important. The same thing, you know, when um when uh uh we collectively at UN. And came and said our retention should be 90%. And that is probably top three, four percent in the country. Well, the average is fifty percent. People really thought I was crazy, honestly. Some told me I was crazy. Many thought it, but did not say it. But uh but you know what? I'm reminding the team now. Imagine we were reasonable and we put our um our goal for retention at 85%. We'll be done now. And we would be stuck there. Right. We'll be celebrating there. That's where um I think being unreasonable. And it's not easy, I have to admit. Really is not easy. It's um there are so many, I call them bozos and clowns that will come to you and say, hey, you're crazy. Don't do, don't listen to them. Don't listen to them. Continue to be unreasonable. Get out of your comfort zone. Have that unreasonable goal for four or five years. That you set it for yourself. It's not for your parents, for your partners, or for your friends. Set your own unreasonable goal and do everything you can to achieve it. And look at me. I went through four different continents to achieve my unreasonable goal to be a president of a great university. The the um um the road is not always a straight line. The most important thing is to achieve your unreasonable goal. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 23:31

So five years from now, you wake up, you walk to the end of your driveway, you pick up the Florida Times Union, and UNF is on the main headline. What does it what does it say?

SPEAKER_00 23:45

It would say UNF is the destination of choice. And then the article says it's a destination of choice for students from different backgrounds. They go to UNF before they even think about other universities. A destination of choice for faculty and staff, the best, so that we can retain them, we can attract. The destination of choice for employers from all over the region, the state, the country. They come to UNF before they go, anywhere in different disciplines. Destination of choice for philanthropists, where they go and they invest their um uh wealth and and their philanthropy in UNF, and they see the best return of investment on their philanthropy. And last but not least, the destination of choice for our legislators. And a state university want to be a destination of choice where our legislators continue investing in this great university and see the best return investment.

SPEAKER_02 24:45

Well, I hope to get a copy of that uh that paper in five years from the time. We'll be in high demand. That's right. Well, I just want to say thank you. Thank you for joining us on this episode of Unreasonable. Thank you for your commitment to young people, to education, to this city. Um, you're doing the work and the people you lead feel it with your enthusiasm, your efforts. And uh, we're grateful to have you in the Jacksonville community. So thank you and thank you for being here.

SPEAKER_00 25:14

Thank you, Josh. You you really are uh um an amazing leader in our community. You make uh these podcasts incredible for not just uh the people you're interviewing, but also for all the listeners. And uh, you know, we talk about all these records and how wonderful um UNF is, and I tell you it's not the president, it's a great team of faculty, staff, and great friends like you and many other leaders who believe in this university that make things happen. So thank you for having me. Oh well, thank you.

SPEAKER_02 25:43

And thank you everyone for tuning into this episode of Unreasonable. We hope you enjoyed it, and we'll see you at the next one. Thanks for joining us on Unreasonable. Look for us online, follow us on social media, and wherever you get your favorite podcast.