Three public Florida universities have openings for a new school president.
The University of Florida, Florida A&M and Florida Atlantic University are conducting searches after they were left without a president for different circumstances.
UF is searching for a new president after Ben Sasse resigned in July, citing his wife's health. Former President Kent Fuchs is now serving as interim president.
UF came under scrutiny for its lack of transparency when it hired Sasse 17 months ago.
Jeff Brandes, a former state senator who sponsored the legislation changing the process of searching for university presidents, spoke Friday with Matthew Peddie on The Florida Roundup .
He said the law was not being used as he intended when Sasse was hired.
The law exempted applicants as public records until the end of the search when only finalists were revealed. UF was criticized for revealing only one finalist: Sasse.
“This law was designed to allow them to vet those candidates, come down to a final group of applicants and then that final group would be released to the public for at least 21 days,” Brandes said. “So that people could ask questions, interview them and have a conversation with this final group of applicants.”
Brandes said the law was initially created to help boost applicants who were once reluctant to apply in fear of their current employers finding out.
With UF once again facing the challenge of hiring a new president, Brandes hopes they will present a group of finalists instead of just one candidate.
“I don’t think anybody cares about who is the 275th applicant to be the University of Florida president. But I do think they care about who’s in that final group of applicants and I think that should be available for the public for vetting,” Brandes said. “I do not believe that we should have a political process that selects one and puts one person in the final group.”
While the selection of Sasse was seen as a political move, Gov. Ron DeSantis said he would stay out of UF’s search that he wasn’t “involved necessarily” when Sasse was selected.
However Brandes said the selection of university presidents at “top tier” universities like UF are always somewhat political.
“I think Ben Sasse was a great candidate and a great individual to lead the University of Florida. I think the process that selected Ben Sasse was terrible,” Brandes said.
Meanwhile, Larry Robinson resigned as president of FAMU last month.
Although Robinson did not give any reasoning in his resignation letter, the decision came after a questionable donation just a few months prior.
A $237 million donation was not properly checked for legitimacy and was put on pause just days after its announcement, officials said. The donation was ultimately rejected after concluding it was not legitimate.
Robinson took full responsibility for the donation.
Deveron Gibbons, a member of the FAMU Board of Trustees, spoke with Peddie about the presidential search.
Gibbons said that despite the donation, Robinson should be remembered as a great president at FAMU.
“This guy has taken us a long way. He's a very quality leader, good man and a great public servant,” Gibbons said. “He thought it was about time for him to spend some time with his family and we wish him well.”
FAMU has faced other criticisms apart from the donation. The Florida Board of Governors has raised questions about low pass rates for nursing, law, pharmacy, and physical therapy.
Gibbons said that while the new president will have issues they will need to tackle, FAMU is going to be transparent in its search for a new president.
“I think that we will have a process that will include our alumni faculty, it will also include the community and the Rattler community across the country as well as the general public,” Gibbons said. “I see it looking something like a process where we’ll go across the state and across some other areas to get feedback on what the alum and other folks will want to see in our president.”
With both UF and FAMU looking for their next president and FAU’s search still ongoing since January, the process is going to be a challenging and competitive one, Gibbons said.
“So there’s a talent vacuum that we’re all pulling from, and it’s limited,” Gibbons said.
