HARRISBURG, Pa.—The president of a state university in Florida will be the next chief executive of Pennsylvania's 14 state-owned universities.

John Cavanaugh was selected unanimously Monday by the State System of Higher Education's board of governors to become the third chancellor in the system's 25-year history. He starts his new job July 1.

Cavanaugh, 54, is president of the University of West Florida in Pensacola, where his annual salary is $295,000. He has led the 10,500-student university since 2002.

Details of his compensation package for the Pennsylvania job were still being worked out Monday morning, system spokesman Kenn Marshall said. Cavanaugh's predecessor was one of the highest paid state employees.

Cavanaugh said he was looking forward to leading "one of the premier systems in the country."

"What excites me is that it serves a population that is very much the kind of students I've worked with—a lot of first in family (to attend college), a lot of people for whom education is a way up," Cavanaugh said in a telephone interview.

He said his first priority will be talking with the system's leadership team to learn more about how the nation's fifth-largest system works.

"To do otherwise would be a little bit presumptuous," he said.

Born in Terre Haute, Ind., and raised in Wilmington, Del., Cavanaugh said he found the Pennsylvania system job attractive for both personal and professional reasons. He noted

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that he and wife have relatives within a two- to-three-hour drive of Harrisburg.

Cavanaugh previously was a faculty member and administrator at Bowling Green State University, the Medical College of Ohio, the University of Delaware and the University of North Carolina at Wilmington.

He also was a visiting professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology.

On the lighter side, his official University of West Florida biography describes him as an "avowed chocoholic."

Cavanaugh will replace Chancellor Judy Hample, who will take a new job in July as president of the University of Mary Washington in Virginia. Hample is paid $327,718 annually, eclipsing Gov. Ed Rendell's $170,150-a-year salary.

The system's board had narrowed its search to three finalists, but University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh chancellor Richard Wells withdrew his name from consideration earlier this month.

Cavanaugh was chosen over Jack Warner, commissioner of the Rhode Island Board of Governors for Higher Education.

All three candidates met with groups of students, faculty and trustees of the individual universities before having their final interviews with the board.

The system's faculty union had been concerned that none of the finalists had managed a large a university system, but appreciated Cavanaugh's energy and his experience in lobbying Florida lawmakers for state funding, union president Pat Heilman said.

"That's a positive, because we certainly need to do some advocacy work in Pennsylvania," Heilman said.

During a board meeting conducted by telephone, chairman Ken Jarin said the finalists were winnowed down from a pool of several hundred applicants. Cavanaugh stood out in part because of his leadership in several national higher-education organizations, Jarin said.

"Dr. Cavanaugh is a national leader in public higher education," he said.

The 14 state universities are Kutztown, Bloomsburg, California, Cheyney, Clarion, East Stroudsburg, Edinboro, Indiana, Lock Haven, Mansfield, Millersville, Shippensburg, Slippery Rock and West Chester. They enroll more than 110,000 students.

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On the Net:

State System of Higher Education: http://www.passhe.edu

University of West Florida: http://www.uwf.edu

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Martha Raffaele covers education for The Associated Press in Harrisburg.