Dive Brief:
- To no one’s surprise, Florida State University's trustees have chosen John Thrasher as the school’s president.
- Thrasher, a Republican state senator, has close personal and political ties to most of the university trustees, but no education experience.
- A survey conducted by the university’s presidential search consultant had 87% of respondents saying he was not fit to be president, the Tallahassee Democrat reported.
Dive Insight:
Thrasher says two of his top priorities will be improving faculty salaries and kick-starting the university’s $1 billion fundraising campaign. He also will have a lot of fence-mending to do with faculty and students, who filled nearly two hours of public comments at Tuesday’s Board of Trustees meeting with statements against Thrasher and in favor of the other three candidates The other candidates — Richard Marchase, Michael Martin and Michele Wheatly — all came from academic backgrounds. Trustees said they favored Thrasher because of his leadership skills, fundraising abilities, and ability to work with Florida legislators on issues like state funding for the university. The university’s Faculty Senate had voted unanimously on Friday for a resolution calling for the hiring of one of the three academic candidates as president.