FSU president search panel finally sets deadline

FSU president search panel finally sets deadline


"Three months after its first meeting, Florida State University's topsy-turvy presidential search advisory committee, sharply criticized by the Board of Governors Thursday, essentially started over on Friday with a new head hunter and a Sept. 2 deadline for accepting applications.
If all goes according to the fast-paced timeline presented by new search consultant Alberto Pimentel – and approved by the committee – FSU could hire a new president by Sept. 22.
The search committee, led by Trustee Ed Burr, is expected to identify and interview top candidates Sept. 8-9, invite the finalists for campus visits Sept. 15-18 and offer two to three individuals to the Board of Trustees at their Sept. 22 meeting. The board is responsible for hiring the university's president.
The timeline is dependent, Pimentel cautioned, on being able to lure top-quality candidates.
"We can only move as quickly as the quality of the pool dictates," Pimentel said, addressing the committee by speaker phone. "If you're not happy with the pool, if the candidates do not excite you, we have to slow down a bit."
FSU was forced to begin looking for a new leader when highly regarded Eric Barron stunned FSU on Feb. 17 by accepting the presidency at Penn State – a top 10 university where he was a rising faculty member from 1986-2006. Provost Garnett Stokes has served as interim president since Barron's departure, but she has yet to apply for the permanent position.
Powerful Republican state Sen. John Thrasher, a longtime FSU supporter, has been considered the front-runner for the position since the moment Barron's hire was announced – an unusual situation that in no small way contributed to the search getting off track.
The original search consultant, William Funk, told the committee in May that the best candidates refused to apply because they believed Thrasher would be getting the job. He urged the search committee to interview Thrasher and decided one way or the other on his candidacy – which the committee initially agreed to do at its June 11 meeting.
Before that meeting, however, Florida Supreme Court Chief Justice Ricky Polston submitted his application and FSU's Faculty Senate condemned Funk with a vote of no confidence – prompting Funk to step down two days before the June 11 meeting.
FSU faculty and students have been adamant at search committee meetings that they want "another Eric Barron" for their president; an individual from academia with strong leadership experience. Thrasher has never worked at a university and Polston's primary tie to academia is as an adjunct at FSU's law school.
While there appears to be some relief among faculty and students that the search is returning to a more normal process, the committee heard in no uncertain terms during Friday's public comment portion that the 27-member search panel needs more than four professors and three students.
"I think there is a fundamental question to be asked here: is this truly a university or is it a multifaceted corporation that happens to teach some classes?" FSU communication professor Jennifer Proffitt, president of the faculty union, said. "If it is truly a university, and I think we all agree it should be, there is nothing more fundamental to a university than faculty to teach and to research and students to teach and to research, and these two groups remain woefully underrepresented."
Al Lawson, a former, longtime state politician and a member of the search committee, said he was disappointed that he had not heard from black students or black staff and faculty.
"I think it's very important, with black student enrollment going down, and no black individuals in the administration," he said.
The search committee did not address comments made Thursday by Dean Colson, a member of the Board of Governors and former chairman of the body that oversees Florida's 12 public universities. Speaking at BOG's summer meeting, he said FSU's search to date has "tarnished FSU's national reputation."