TALLAHASSEE – The Florida State University Board of Trustees rejected an effort to derail the search for a new university president.
One trustee alleged the search process violated sunshine laws and that it was unfair to some candidates.
A memo addressed to the FSU Board of Trustees from trustee Craig Mateer alleged secret votes and rules changes during the search violated the state’s open government laws.
Mateer made his concerns known to his colleagues before the final interviews with the top three candidates.
“You know the vote, you change the rules, now you’re changing the process,” said Mateer.
Virtually every step of the selection process has been subject to some level of controversy. Again, it was Florida Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran’s candidacy at issue.
Mateer’s support for Corcoran is well-known.
“My three points should undo what we’re going to do here today,” said Mateer.
But others on the board pushed back against Mateer’s claims.
“There was enough space for people to bring up the discussion about different candidates and there was simply not enough votes for it,” said Nastassia Janvier, FSU student body president.
Early in the process, FSU’s accreditation was threatened if Corcoran didn’t resign from the Board of Governors, which has the final say on university president hires.
Ultimately, the board moved forward with the interviews.
“It is simply not true that this was done in some type of secret backroom deal,” said Eric Silagy who sits on the Board of Governors and was brought in to respond to Mateer’s allegations.
Mathew Lata, president of the faculty union at FSU hopes the controversy around the search is over and done with.
“They acknowledge that they did everything by the book. You know, there’s really only one person who was claiming that it wasn’t done right,” said Lata.
But nothing is truly over until the final vote is taken by the Board of Governors.
The Board of Trustees on Monday selected Harvard University Vice Provost for Research Richard McCullough to succeed retiring FSU President John Thrasher.