You know that feeling you get when you think you may have found that perfect someone?

Someone who makes you feel all cozy and safe, so when you go to bed at night you know you’re going to wake up to a better tomorrow?

Well, we think President John Hitt has found that special someone. After a nationwide search and sifting through 93 applicants, Hitt, along with some UCF faculty, have chosen Tony Waldrop as the new provost to replace Terry Hickey.

Welcome to the family, Waldrop.

We think a better climax would have been to make the selection process a Rock of Love-esque reality show, but that’s beside the point.

Waldrop may prove to be one of the better decisions UCF has made, and we have high hopes for this new relationship between him and the school.
For Hitt, this decision was critical, and the reasons for it can be traced with a timeline of events.

First he had to make UCF big — low admission standards, high acceptance rates, lots of transfer students and before you know it, we are nearly 54,000 strong, the third largest school in the nation.

That is tuition money being pumped into the UCF machine nearly 54,000 times.

Next, Hitt needed quality to go along with the quantity. What better way to do that than to make UCF a research-based school?

And thus, the UCF medical school was born.

To help that cause, we have Henry Daniell, a trustee chair and the coordinator of the biotechnology graduate program. Daniell is pretty much the Rembrandt of medical research.

So, now that all is said and done, the university’s decision comes as no surprise.

Waldrop served as vice chancellor for research and economic development at the University of North Carolina. While there, he was responsible for 12 university-wide research support offices and 15 research centers. That job required him to improve UNC’s research development.

He was also a professor of cellular and molecular biology.

Waldrop’s educational background isn’t too shabby.

He earned his bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degree from UNC.

Waldrop then worked at the University of Illinois for 14 years as an assistant professor before becoming vice chancellor for research. He then returned to his old stamping ground at UNC.

With his research and medical experience powers combined, Waldrop became the chosen one.

Waldrop represents the natural direction UCF wants to take as we become one of the big dogs.

Where he may lack in direct administrative experience, he makes up for elsewhere but it is clear that he is precisely what the university wants.

Hopefully, he is also what we need, and we are not just blinded by the beginning of a relationship where everything is so new and pretty.

Waldrop’s new position doesn’t start until Aug. 1, so as of right now all we can ask of him is this: don’t break our hearts.