A proposed policy change from the Board of Governors could give the largely governor-appointed state board greater control over presidential searches at each of Florida’s 12 public universities.
The change, which supporters say would provide guardrails in light of new confidentiality laws, would allow the Board of Governors to select an additional person to serve on any university’s 15-member search committee, which already requires one person to be a member of the board.
It would also require the board’s chairperson to have prior review and approval over the list of unranked finalists that are made public.
The proposed change follows several high-profile presidential transitions, including Ben Sasse’s controversial arrival and departure at UF, former Florida House Speaker Richard Corcoran’s hiring amid sweeping changes at New College of Florida, and a state investigation into search and hiring procedures at Florida Atlantic.
UF, Florida Atlantic and Florida A&M University all have open searches.
Board member Eric Silagy, who voted against advancing the change as is, asked if the new rule would allow a board chair to veto a list of candidates if they were unhappy and ask to start over the search.
Board member Alan Levine said he didn’t think the policy was designed to do that but instead saw it as a “safety valve” in case search processes went awry under new laws that keep candidates who apply for president exempt from public record laws until they are named finalists.
The only people privy to applicants’ names are those on the search committees, which are put together by universities’ boards of trustees. Search committee members are required by the Board of Governors to sign nondisclosure agreements.
Levine quipped he was still recovering from the last search committee he served on at Florida Atlantic University, where three finalists were named before the search was quashed by state university system Chancellor Ray Rodrigues, citing anomalies in the process, and forced to start over. He said he was unable to raise concerns until candidates were made public.
Levine said the new rule would allow other members of the board to get involved earlier in the process if there were issues and offer greater protection to candidates before they were made part of a “public spectacle.”
Board of Governors member Tim Cerio said it could add a layer of transparency, when searches tend to have an implied, but not discussed, understanding that a Board of Governors member may be unhappy with a list of finalists.
Others raised concerns.
Florida State University Board of Trustees chairperson Peter Collins pointed out that 14 of the 17 members of the Board of Governors are appointed by the governor. The other three members are the commissioner of education as well as one faculty and one student representative. On boards of trustees, six out of 13 members are appointed by the governor and five by the Board of Governors.
Finding people to serve on boards of trustees, who all do soas volunteers, could be more difficult, he said.
“It seems more and more that the board of trustees is not being trusted to make decisions,” said Collins, who was appointed by the governor. “And it’s going to be harder and harder to get good people to serve on those boards. We’ve got good people serving on all these boards of trustees, and we’re telling them more and more that, ‘We trust you, but we want to verify.’”
Silagy said that if 30,000 people had voted for someone other than Gov. Ron DeSantis in 2018, the board would likely look very different.
“‘I’m just trying to make sure that we’re being thoughtful about the rules in place that will survive administrations because I’m not worried about the current chair,” he said.
Board of Governors chairperson Brian Lamb said the new rule was designed to give the board chair more access to the process under new laws.
“You will be able to have conversations in a way where there should be no surprises,” he said. “The candidates are clear. Everyone has a feel kind of what the bar is.”
Lamb said he didn’t see the new rule as an overreach or eroding trustees’ power.
“We are spending a lot of time as a board trying to deregulate and provide more autonomy, more empowerment to the presidents and the board,” he said. “I don’t think it’s unreasonable for probably the most important decision, for someone who happens to be the board chair here, to get closer to the sun on these decisions.”
The public has 14 days to comment on the proposed change on the Board of Governors’ website. The policy will come before the board for a final vote in October. If the rule is passed, it will be applied to both active and future searches.