Thrasher era begins at FSU

Empty suit.


Thrasher era begins at FSU

"John Thrasher’s first official act Monday as president of Florida State University was to meet with his harshest critics, leaders of the left-leaning student organization Progress Coalition.
Thrasher spent almost an hour beginning at 8 a.m. with the three dozen or so students, many of whom had protested on the front steps of the Westcott Building on Thursday while Thrasher was being confirmed by the Board of Governors in Boca Raton. The students presented Thrasher with a list of nine demands, asking him to admit that he had accepted funding from Koch Industries and that he “lied to students about his Koch funding on Sept. 15, 2014.”
“Honestly, it didn’t go real well,” Thrasher said later Monday morning during a series of photo sessions in his new office on Westcott’s second floor.
“I get it. Their concerns are, let’s not make universities beholding to corporations. But the truth is, we get gifts from corporations all the time, sometimes from corporations started by our former students.
“We need to be diligent,” Thrasher added, “and make sure they’re not compromising the integrity of our faculty or anybody else.”
Thrasher, 70, was a controversial selection when FSU’s trustees chose a sitting state senator over three academics on Sept. 23. Thrasher, with two degrees from FSU, has steered hundreds of millions of dollars to his alma mater from his position in the Legislature. He officially resigned the Senate seat on Sunday that he was reelected to last week in preparation for his first day as FSU’s president.
He met with his cabinet, the university’s vice presidents, for 90 minutes Monday morning. He also started working the phones, calling newly elected Congresswoman Gwen Graham, the Democrat from Tallahassee who unseated Steve Southerland last week and is now representing North Florida in Washington, D.C.
Thrasher and his wife, Jean, began moving into the FSU President’s House on Thursday following his confirmation by BOG, and they were busy representing FSU Friday and Saturday during homecoming festivities.
And on Sunday, Thrasher decided to call FSU soccer coach Mark Krikorian to congratulate him after the Seminoles defeated Virginia 1-0 to capture the Atlantic Coast Conference championship.
“It was going to send him a text and then decided to call instead. It was hilarious,” Thrasher said.
“I said, ‘Mark, it’s John Thrasher.’ He said, ‘Who?’ We ended up having a great conversation.”
Jerry Funt, co-president of the Progress Coalition, said he was disappointed Thrasher wasn’t better prepared to address the students’ issues.
“Eventually the conversation got tense because it became very clear that no matter what was asked he wasn’t going to give a straight answer,” Funt said. “We asked him to admit to lying to students when he came to the campus forum on Sept. 15. He said he wasn’t sure what he had said.”
Thrasher believed it was important for him to hear what the students had to say. He noted that on a campus with 42,000 students, the three dozen he met with Monday represent a vocal but minute fraction.
Allan Bense, chairman of the FSU board, applauded Thrasher for Monday morning’s meeting.
“I didn’t tell him to meet with them, but as a leader you do that. You listen to what they have to say,” Bense said. “I hope they understand that he won’t be able to agree to all of the things they want, but he’s listening. I hope the community understands he’s listening.”