Graduate student steps down from FSU president search panel

Graduate student steps down from FSU president search panel


"One of three student members on the Florida State University Presidential Search Advisory committee has resigned, and the graduate students union is asking that she be replaced with 13 students in order that students make up one-third of the committee.
Kerr Ballenger, president of United Faculty of Florida-Florida State University-Graduate Students United, said Friday he is “cautiously optimistic” that Allan Bense, chairman of FSU’s trustees, will add more students to the committee.
“The committee keeps talking about how important it is to hear from FSU stakeholders. We think students are the most important stakeholders, and it doesn’t make sense to have only three representing 41,000 students,” Ballenger said.
Bense could not be reached for comment but it does not seem likely that he would dramatically alter the search committee, now with 26 members. The committee was formed in March in the aftermath of Eric Barron’s decision to leave FSU to be president at Penn State University. Provost Garnett Stokes has been serving as interim president, and the search committee is on track to begin selecting finalists for FSU’s top job when it meets on Sept. 2. There are four faculty members on the committee and one member of the administration, College of Education Dean Marci Driscoll.
Saxner was an undergraduate when she was appointed to the search committee, but is now in graduate school. Ballenger said he did not know why Saxner resigned from the committee, but he believes she sent a letter to Bense in late June and has not heard back from him."