Special to Historic City News
The search for the next president of Florida State University, widely believed to be lined up in favor of influential state Sen. John Thrasher, drew applications before a Tuesday deadline from a number of academics with extensive resumes.
The university’s 27-member Presidential Advisory Search Committee will have 39 resumes to weed through during a meeting Friday, as it prepares to call back a shorter list of candidates next week for a first round of interviews. Among the applicants is Florida State’s interim President Garnett Stokes.
Some student and faculty groups have repeatedly criticized the search process, raising concerns about Thrasher and pushing for more representation on the search committee. But a timeline remains for a president to be named Sept. 23 by the university’s Board of Trustees.
Trustee Ed Burr, the chairman of the search committee, said he had yet to review all the resumes but expressed confidence Wednesday that an impressive pool of finalists will be asked to return next week for the initial interviews.
“It’s hard when just looking at the resumes, but some of them look very qualified,” Burr said.
As expected, the number of applications grew during the past week from 22, as last-minute interest came from academics.
Among those whose applications were posted Tuesday and Wednesday on the search committee’s webpage were Colorado State University System Chancellor Michael Martin; former Vermont University President Daniel Fogel; University of South Carolina Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs Michael Amiridis; and former West Virginia University Provost Michele Wheatly.
Thrasher, a former House speaker who is chairman of Gov. Rick Scott’s re-election campaign, said Wednesday he’s refrained from personally speaking with members of the committee and didn’t go to the FSU football team’s season opener Saturday in Texas because he thought it would have been inappropriate while the search is underway.
“I’ve hung in there this long, I’m going to hang in until they tell me I’m not a candidate anymore,” Thrasher, R-St. Augustine, said. “I’m at peace. I’ve been through a lot of these things, elections and that kind of stuff, but what happens, happens. I’m going to give it my best and let the chips fall where they may.”
Thrasher, who holds bachelor’s and law degrees from the university, has been a major supporter of FSU in the Legislature, including helping the university establish a medical school.
While the latest batch of resumes drew a number of applicants from major universities, something that was missing in initial submissions this spring, not all of the recent applicants have lofty academic resumes.
One of the newer applicants is a former substitute teacher who works in residential contracting. Another applicant noted she is “working as a school bus driver while conducting research about the impact of administrator attitude toward bus drivers on academic achievement.”
Still, the entry by Stokes and other academic professionals adds some additional pressure on the committee, which has envisioned the next president to be able to enhance the university’s academic reputation, to be an “energetic fundraiser,” to project optimism for the school’s future, and to provide “leadership for a highly successful intercollegiate athletics program.”
Stokes said Wednesday applying for the position wasn’t her intent when she moved into the “interim” job in March, after former President Eric Barron, an academic with a track record in fundraising, accepted the position of president at Penn State University.
“I came here to be a provost and (have) enjoyed that,” Stokes said Wednesday. “I had started thinking about the fact that I would want to be a president. That was in the back of my mind, something I wanted to do. Whether or not I would apply at FSU wasn’t immediately apparent.”
Stokes has been provost and executive vice president for academic affairs at FSU since 2011.
She credited search consultant Alberto Pimentel for being able to bring about an impressive pool of applicants.
The search was highly criticized after the prior search consultant, Bill Funk, advised the committee to pause the process in May. Funk at the time warned the committee that Thrasher was casting a “long-shadow,” keeping other qualified candidates from wanting to apply for the job.
But that created an outcry from faculty and students and ultimately led to the Funk’s resignation and a reopening of the application process a month later.
The springtime pause drew Florida Supreme Court Justice Ricky Polston and state Rep. Michelle Rehwinkel Vasilinda, D-Tallahassee, to apply.
Rehwinkel Vasilinda, an attorney who has taught at Tallahassee Community College since 1989, said she was glad to see the interest from people with academic backgrounds in the more recent resumes, something considered missing when the process was shut down.
However, she continues to consider experience with Florida’s Legislature as a high priority for those seeking the position.
“If Thrasher is still in, I’m in,” Rehwinkel Vasilinda said Wednesday. “Whether you’re president of Vermont or a provost in Virginia, the thing to understand is the need to have a relationship with the Legislature. The Florida Legislature really gets their hands deep into higher education, which is unlike other places. And that is a skill set that can’t be overlooked.”
The whittled-down pool will be asked to come to Tallahassee for interviews Monday and Tuesday.
A smaller group of finalists would be asked back for additional interviews the week of Sept. 15, during which time the finalists would also meet with groups on campus.
The committee is scheduled to make a recommendation to the board of trustees on Sept. 22.
The trustees, which would still have to forward the final choice to the university system’s Board of Governors, are scheduled to meet Sept. 23.
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