Stop any unqualified politician from becoming President of Florida State University
Some interesting takes on the possible hire:
http://www.urbantallahassee.com/index.php/theforum/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=9166&p=28268#p28268
tricknole
April 2, 2014
"I hope to god Thrasher isn't our next president. An old politician with no academic background? What is this nonsense? The FSU Presidency isn't a lifetime achievement award for being a successful alumnus.
As Poonther said, much of the building that Wetherell "did" was already in place before he came onboard. He was also pretty awful at PR. I seem to recall a certain insensitive "Trail of Tears" remark he made to the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma, or how when the State was about to give financial control of the CoE to FSU, Wetherell publicly insulted FAMU that caused a stir and the Legislature rescinded the offer. He fired Dave Hart who was quickly snatched up by Alabama and then hired away by Tennessee and replaced him with a bum of an AD. I once emailed him about that condo project that was supposed to be going up across from the College of Music. He responded rudely that I should focus on my grades. Research under him was fairly stagnant. FSU Foundation fundraising was better under Barron, not Wetherell, despite Wetherell's best attribute supposedly being his fundraising capabilities. And most importantly, the faculty did NOT like him.
Let's just say he was a mediocre President (not great, not awful). He was much younger and much more qualified to be a university president than Thrasher. It really doesn't make me hopeful for what septuagenarian with no background can do. I think it'd also discourage highly qualified people from applying for the job in the future because this would be 3 straight presidents who had degrees from FSU, and 4-straight with strong ties to FSU. If we only hire alumni, we are creating a very inbred, good ol' boy candidate pool and excluding numerous qualified candidates, many of them likely being more qualified than the FSU alumni being considered."
POLL: Should FL state Sen. John Thrasher be selected FSU President? Reply
| Should state Sen. John Thrasher be selected as the next president of Florida State University? | ||
| Results (total votes = 142): | ||
| Yes | 26 / 18.31% |  |
| No | 96 / 67.61% | |
| Unsure/No opinion | 20 / 14.08% | |
DemocraticNole
3/26/2014
"From everything I have read, John Thrasher seems like a dedicated Seminole and someone who is an advocate for the university. However, in reviewing his employment background and accomplishments, I have to conclude that he is in no way qualified to be the president of a top fifty public university such as FSU. Mr. Thrasher has never worked for a university, does not have Ph.D., and has never been in charge of a massive bureaucracy on the scale of FSU. None of those things individually would be a disqualifier, but collectively paint a picture of someone who is not ready to lead a top fifty public university. It would be very disturbing if the trustees had selected an unqualified candidate before even conducting a full and vigorous search for an elite candidate. If you agree that John Thrasher, or any other unqualified candidate should not be selected as FSU president, I ask that you sign the following petition: http://www.thepetitionsite.com/401/871/110/stop-any-unqualified-politician-from-becoming-president-of-florida-state-university/#sign
This board has made a difference in the past to positively help Florida State University. Without Warchant, the University of Florida would likely be the state's sole flagship university. It's time to step up and help FSU again right a potentially wrong course.
Please post your comments and questions below and I or others will try to respond to them. "
Thrasher
BrickHouse
3/21/2014
"Originally posted by northvanole:
But Florida is a bit different. It is not exactly tiered by design - it seems to happen depending on the politics of the moment. UF constantly wants to get premier status, but its medical school alone makes them a big gorilla. Bottom line is that FSU looks like it needs a street fighter to be President because he doesn't so much need to raise money as much as he has to fight for it. Well, at least that is how it looks to me.
This is the best argument for Thrasher I've read on Warchant.
My question is, do we need a street fighter as President, or would we be better off with a street fighter as a lobbyist/politician?
The model of state funding for higher ed across the nation is dwindling. Our out of state competition (big public research universities) are NOT getting a bulk of their revenue from the state -- rather, it is typical for research 1 public schools to get 70-90% of their funding from other sources like tuition, research grants, endowment interest, and non-recurring donations. Florida is still stuck back in 1980s, which is hurting all of our universities -- FSU, for example, gets about 55% of its revenue (by my calculations of the 2013-2014 budget) from the state.
Now, keeping that stream in place is important. The preeminence bill helps with that a lot.
However, for FSU long term, we need to ween off the appropriations tit and become much more diversified in our revenue streams. Barron got this. Sandy got this. Thrasher might be able to protect the old streams better than others as president, but I'm afraid that it would be at the expense of all other revenue streams.
Want to attract world class faculty that will generate grant revenue for FSU? Thrasher would likely repel them, and undo all the positive momentum Barron instilled.
Want to raise tuition to competitive levels? Thrasher would likely look at it politically instead of economically.
Want to generate external donations? Thrasher would polarize the FSU base.
This is why experience in academia is so vital -- a career state politician is not going to understand the trends and the future of academia, and how moves today will effect FSU for decades, not just the next election cycle."
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