John C. Hitt (born December 7, 1940) is an American former professor and academic administrator, who served as the fourth president of the University of Central Florida in Orlando, Florida from 1992 to 2018. Hitt was named the Orlando Sentinel's Central Floridian of the Year in 2005, and has twice been ranked as Orlando's most powerful person by Orlando Magazine. Hitt was also the dean of Florida's university presidents, serving as the longest tenured president in the state.His reputation was materially tarnished by auditor findings that tens of millions of dollars were improperly spent on construction during his tenure as president. Former president Hitt acknowledged the spending and resigned from his compensated fund raising role. His successor Dale Whittaker and the university's chief f