UF Official Receives Fond Farewell

by LYNDSEY LEWISAlligator Staff Writer

UF bade farewell to a seasoned official Friday afternoon at a reception that featured goodbye speeches, an array of gifts and a kitschy Village People revival.

Mike Rollo, a longtime associate vice president for student affairs, was honored in the Reitz Union Grand Ballroom by about 150 of his friends and colleagues. Their affair kicked off with footage of a "Y.M.C.A." dance number, featuring Rollo as the self-described "motorcycle guy" of the Village People.

"The Dazzlers taught us the routine, and we still couldn't get it right," Rollo later told a crowd of laughing guests.

The reception's guest list included a retinue of UF heavyweights, who spoke highly of Rollo's 37 years as a Gator and his upcoming role at Florida Gulf Coast University in Fort Myers.

"He's really the person that held Student Affairs together over the past five to seven years," UF President Bernie Machen said before the ceremony began. "He deserves to be a vice president."
While UF passed him over for that position, Rollo will become vice president for student affairs at FGCU this July.

He held the job of interim vice president for two years at UF before officials selected Patricia Telles-Irvin as his successor.

The brothers of Sigma Phi Epsilon Fraternity, meanwhile, had a different sort of gift for their outgoing alumnus.

After giving him a copy of the organization's brother book, Student Body Treasurer and Sigma Phi Epsilon President Ryan Moseley presented Rollo with the fraternity's trademark symbol: a bottle of hair gel.

"I sure got about as much as you can get out of the University of Florida," Rollo later told the crowd.