Saturday, August 23, 2014

New UF Update

Several folks forwarded to me an email sent yesterday from the UF Presidential Search Chair to faculty, students, and staff. For those of us who have been following the FSU search, this update seems so strange, like it’s from another planet. The Search Chair highlighted again the “importance” of hiring a president with “a distinguished academic career”? The Chair is actually soliciting feedback from faculty about “developing a framework for the campus visits later in the process” and about “potential subjects for candidate questions tied to the search criteria,” and is doing so months in advance? The Search Committee waited until faculty and students were back on campus so they could participate in the process? How very odd that faculty and students and staff would be consulted in this manner! And the Search Chair actually included information about the next Search Committee meeting two weeks ahead of time and noted its primary agenda rather than quietly posting this info on the search website at the last minute? How archaic!

My comments are somewhat sardonic, of course, but this update clearly demonstrates how extremely different the UF search is from the FSU search in terms of content, structure, and communication. Here we have two preeminent universities with seemingly different agendas—one wants a distinguished academic to move the university forward academically, the other wants another political president who is loyal to FSU and who supposedly has friends in the Legislature who will hand money over to FSU.  And UF is in the AAU. And UF is in the top 25 (#14 to be exact). And UF is at the top of the performance funding model and the top preeminent university in the state. See a pattern here?

You can read the UF Search Committee update here: http://presidentsearch.ufl.edu/about/chairman-updates/

Oh, and remind me, when was the last time the FSU Search Advisory Committee Chair sent an update?

Wednesday, August 13, 2014

BREAKING NEWS: September BOT Meeting Interviews

I just saw a message that was sent to Trustees today from BOT Chair Allan Bense that states:

"At its meeting on September 22, the Presidential Search Advisory Committee (PSAC) is expected to recommend three finalists for interview and consideration by the Board of Trustees (BOT). The BOT, prior to its regularly scheduled September 23rd 2:00 p.m. EDT meeting, will interview each candidate. These 90 minute interviews will take place in 208 Turnbull at 8:30 a.m., 10:15 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. EDT. The interviews and meeting will be webcast. Additional information regarding the September 23 interviews and meeting will be provided as available."

Curiously, this information hasn't been posted to the presidential search website yet (as of 10:30 pm 8/13).

This will be quite the whirlwind for the candidates--and for the faculty, students, and staff who would like to be involved in the interview processes--for the three candidates will presumably be brought to campus three times in three weeks:

*September 8 or 9 for the initial PSAC interviews;

*September 15, 16, 17, and/or 18 for the extensive on campus interviews; and,

*September 23 for the BOT interviews.

I'm not sure how the candidates will be able to get back to town by 8:30 am on September 23 if the PSAC's final recommendations will be made just the day before this, but I assume there's a plan, right?

It will be extremely important for faculty members to attend as many as these meetings as they can. I will continue to post information about the search as I receive it.

As a reminder, the schedule, as listed on the presidential search website, is as follows:

Sept. 2 – Application deadline

Sept. 5 – Presidential Search Advisory Committee (PSAC) conference call meeting to discuss candidates and select finalists.
10:00 am – 2:00 pm in room 108, Augustus B. Turnbull III Conference Center, 555 West Pensacola Street, Tallahassee, FL

Sept. 8 & 9 – PSAC conducts initial interviews with selected candidates

Sept. 15-18 – Campus hosts candidates for extensive on-campus interviews

Sept. 19 – Campus feedback due

Sept. 22 – PSAC meeting

And now, Sept. 23--BOT interviews and meeting