Okay, I have to admit that I was a bit anxious before 2:00
yesterday. To request a faculty meeting on a Friday afternoon in the summer was,
to say the least, a bit ambitious, and we all know how much faculty members
enjoy faculty meetings. But I have to say that I am more hopeful than ever
before because (by two different colleagues’ counts) more than 80 faculty
members showed up to discuss the presidential search (and in a room that didn’t
have air conditioning for some reason). We had a dynamic, thoughtful,
and thought-provoking discussion about faculty responses to the presidential
search, and two themes emerged—and for some, these weren’t mutually exclusive. One,
the search process is unfair and highly problematic, lacking transparency, openness, and honesty.
Two, now that the only candidate being interviewed has finally applied for the
position, his materials suggest that he does not have the academic—including research
and teaching—experience nor the management experience to lead a large Research
I institution on its way to the top 25.
For some, it seems like an uphill battle when politicians
have hijacked the search (a term one of our colleagues used that seems so appropriate
here). But, that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t have our voices heard, even if it
doesn’t seem like anyone is listening. It’s like that picture with the frog in
the bird’s mouth: The frog is trying to strangle the bird as it is being
swallowed (and the caption reads, “never ever give up”). However, I’m not so sure
that no one is listening. We now have more than 1000 signatures on our
petition, which includes FSU faculty, students, staff, alumni, community
members, and Florida taxpayers, as well as colleagues from across the world,
who are saying we need a fair process for selecting our next president. I
should note that the vast majority of the signatures are people directly associated
with FSU or community members from Tallahassee or from Florida (an article in the Democrat suggested otherwise). It's clear that the discontent
is palpable.
*By the way, if you do not want to sign the petition because
you don’t want to give your email to moveon.org, which we only used due to the
ease of service and not for some sort of political (i.e., liberal or Democrat)
positioning, please feel free to:
Send me an email with your concerns about the process, or
Copy and paste our language into an email or a Word document
and sign it to send to me, or
Do the same and have people you know who haven’t signed the
online version sign a paper or electronic copy to send to me.
I will print these out for the Search Advisory Committee and
the Board of Trustees. Please indicate
in your note that this is what you’d like for me to do. My email address is president@uff-fsu.org.*
Now, I know not everyone agrees (or at least I received one email to this effect), and hey, you don't have to. But I’d like for someone to explain to me how
preferential treatment for a politician who had not yet applied is a fair and
open process? To make a decision without knowing if the person is even
qualified to run? Please tell me, how many of you got interviews based only on
a letter of recommendation? No resume, no CV, no credentials presented, just a
letter of recommendation from someone you’ve had political and personal
dealings with. And your letter was announced via the press when no one knew who
the other applicants were or whether they were qualified. I don't care what political party one is affiliated with, the process is simply wrong.
I was accused of being overtly political by
questioning the search process, but if that is a political stance, so be it. And I’m not
alone. I know this for a fact. Even the person who reportedly helped the sole candidate
write his letter--a person who is one of my colleagues in the School of Communication--suggested that the process was problematic.[1]
In fact, the notion that the “long shadow” of Senator
Thrasher would keep people from applying is obviously not true given House Rep.
Rehwinkel Vasilinda’s application[2] as well as the application of Florida Supreme Court Chief Justice Ricky Polston, who
applied today.[3] Of course, Polston was one of the justices who voted to
uphold the decision to cut our pay by mandating that we contribute 3 percent of
our salaries to retirement.[4]
The question is, has anyone else applied who we don’t know about? One who
meets the criterion “distinguished academic credentials”?
I encourage everyone who has an opinion about the search process
and how it is proceeding to contact the Search Advisory Committee Chair (email
in a previous post), the BOT (emails in a previous post), and the media through
letters to the editor. Or you can sign the petition at http://petitions.moveon.org/sign/creating-an-fsu-presidential if you agree that we need to reset the search, or send me a note as explained above. And hey:
