Florida Atlantic University must restart its presidential search — but not yet
Florida Atlantic University will have to start its tumultuous search for a new president over again, but not quite yet, a state board decided Thursday.
The Board of Governors for the State University System said it first wants to make changes to its regulations on how presidential searches are conducted.
These rules may include prohibiting the chair of a university’s board of trustees from leading a search committee, outlining how search committee votes must be taken and allowing a Board of Governors representative on the search committee to have more authority to intervene if the process goes awry.
The discussion came following a review of the FAU search by Julie Leftheris, inspector general for the Board of Governors, who said FAU violated several state laws and Board of Governors regulations.
It’s unclear how long until the search can restart. The Board of Governors plans to discuss new regulations at a Jan. 24 meeting, but they generally have to go through a review period for public input that can take months.
FAU had selected three finalists for the presidential job: Vice Admiral Sean Buck, who recently retired as superintendent of the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis; Michael Hartline, dean of the College of Business at Florida State University in Tallahassee; and Jose Sartarelli, former chancellor of the University of North Carolina Wilmington.
They will need to reapply if they are still interested once the search resumes.
“The reality is that the process didn’t work right, and even if it produced good candidates, that could be fruit from a poison tree, and it’s not something that we should ever entertain,” said Alan Levine, a member of the Board of Governors who raised questions about an anonymous voting system used to narrow candidates that State Attorney General Ashley Moody later said violates state law.
The inspector general’s report dismissed allegations that state leaders were trying to pressure the university to hire State Rep. Randy Fine, of Palm Bay, for the job. Gov. Ron DeSantis’s office publicly endorsed Fine for the job, and Fine told the Sun Sentinel in October that DeSantis’ office had assured him he’d be a shoo-in for the job.
“This has been widely reported that we paused this process or the chancellor pause this process for the purpose of helping a specific candidate,” Levine said. “Ascribing that motive to our chancellor was unfair. It was wrong.”
This is a developing story. Check back for more information.