ORLANDO, Fla. – Marcos Marchena stepped down Thursday as University of Central Florida Board of Directors chairman. The decision comes after an independent review of what led up $38 million being misspent by the university to construct a new building on campus.
Marchena said in a statement he was stepping down as chairman to "show the seriousness with which I have approached this matter." A UCF spokesperson said Marchena will remain on the board as a trustee.
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I’m in this for the long haul and am committed to fixing the problems of the past. UCF is an incredible institution, and as president, I will lead us to a better future for our students, community and state. https://t.co/lTY91lCbdP
— Dale Whittaker (@DaleWhittaker) January 31, 2019
In September, Bill Merck, UCF's vice president and chief financial officer, was removed from his position.
His resignation came after then Florida House Speaker Richard Corcoran launched an investigation into UCF spending of education and general funds after the state audit found $38 million was misspent to build Trevor Colbourn Hall.
The university hired an outside law firm to conduct an investigation into how much money was used improperly and who was aware of the issue.
UCF recently released the findings from that three-month-long independent study. The report found that in addition to $51.8 million of education and general funding misused to build Trevor Colbourn Hall and other university construction projects, an additional $32.7 million of education and general funds were budgeted for construction projects but never spent. UCF officials said that money has now been removed for those facilities.
The study also cleared UCF President Dale Whittaker, who was not president when the funds were misappropriated, and determined the Board of Trustees did not have knowledge about the misuse of spending.
"The investigation report made it very clear that our Board did not know that we were being asked to approve expending funds in a way that was inappropriate – and in fact the report finds that we were unaware because it was concealed from us," Marchena said.