A Florida Presidential Search Was Halted Due to ‘Anomalies.’ The Board Chair Says Nothing’s Amiss.

In a shocking transfer, Florida Atlantic College’s seek for a brand new president was suspended final week simply days after the establishment introduced its finalists. Ray Rodrigues, chancellor of the State College System of Florida, flagged considerations concerning the course of, prompting FAU’s search agency to defend its practices and others to criticize the transfer as politically motivated.

On Friday, Rodrigues referred to as for the search to be suspended in gentle of alleged “anomalies.”

For one, Rodrigues wrote in a letter to Brad Levine, chair of the college’s Board of Trustees, search committee members had been given an extended checklist of candidates and requested to rank their prime six preferences, which had been then submitted to the search agency. The members’ choices “weren’t disclosed on the document,” Rodrigues wrote, “and there was no significant alternative” for members to debate candidates previous to the straw ballot. Holding such a ballot — one that’s “tantamount to a written vote that isn’t disclosed” — might run afoul of Florida regulation, he wrote.

Rodrigues additionally stated at the least one candidate reported being requested improper questions. The candidate was requested to finish a questionnaire “and reply if his sexual orientation was ‘queer’ and whether or not he was a ‘male or transgender male.’” A “separate and required survey” requested the candidate “if his gender was ‘male, feminine or different’ and what his ‘most popular pronouns had been.’” Rodrigues stated the inquiries are “wholly irrelevant, inappropriate, and doubtlessly unlawful,” citing language from the U.S. Equal Employment Alternative Fee’s web site.

“Members of the search committee weren’t knowledgeable that these questions had been being requested of candidates,” Rodrigues wrote. “This raises a further concern about whether or not the search agency withheld materials data from the search committee.”

The chancellor advisable the search be suspended so the Board of Governors’ workers can “get hold of the information round these considerations and different potential anomalies.”

In response, Levine, who additionally leads FAU’s presidential-search committee, advised Rodrigues it didn’t “authorize” AGB Search, the executive-search agency, to ship that questionnaire. “We don’t suppose that such a questionnaire is warranted for a State College search in Florida,” Levine wrote Saturday in a letter to the chancellor. Nevertheless, Levine maintained that the search course of “has complied with all authorized necessities and been performed in a correct method. We’re anxious to supply you data that will make clear any misconceptions and permit you to attain an analogous conclusion.”

By a spokesperson, Roderick J. McDavis, managing principal of AGB Search, advised The Chronicle in emails that the practices recognized by Rodrigues are commonplace working process.

The questionnaire flagged by Rodrigues is a “basic, routine survey that’s utilized in all our govt searches,” McDavis wrote. It’s voluntary, and no candidate is penalized for not filling it out, he stated. Slightly, “it’s for AGB Search’s profit to make sure that our efforts proceed to draw certified candidates from all walks of life for our purchasers. Demographic data collected within the survey is supplied within the combination if the consumer requests it,” he wrote.

He famous that the FAU search committee “was not conscious of the survey questions and didn’t obtain the collected demographic data, in combination kind or in any other case.”

He additionally stated that no different purchasers have questioned the usage of the questionnaire.

The “separate and required survey” Rodrigues referenced is a kind utilized by Mintz International Screening, a background-check firm, to request approval from semifinalists to carry out such a test, McDavis stated. “Whereas the consent kind is required, the part asking for private pronouns is optionally available and is clearly labeled,” he wrote. “Each survey and consent kind are widespread components of govt searches and we now have used them in our work throughout the nation.”

McDavis additionally stated that conducting a straw ballot is “one other business commonplace apply.” The outcomes, “in combination kind,” had been introduced to the search committee, he stated. “At that time, no candidates had been ‘eradicated’ from consideration. In our searches, search committees typically do choose candidates to interview who ranked decrease than the highest ends in the straw ballot. It serves as information solely.”

In a letter despatched to Rodrigues on Monday, Levine additional defended the search course of, providing specifics. The straw ballot doesn’t run afoul of Florida regulation and was “merely a instrument that the committee used to expedite their dialog,” Levine wrote. In truth, at a gathering that was closed to the general public however recorded, the Board of Governors’ consultant on the presidential-search committee, Alan Levine, endorsed the thought, saying it’s “a greatest apply.” Alan Levine assured the committee, “That is precisely the fitting technique to do it,” in line with Brad Levine, the FAU board chair. (Alan Levine just lately advised the South Florida Solar Sentinel by way of textual content message that he has been “elevating points about straw polls and confidential voting throughout searches” since 2021, when he referred to as for the presidential search at Florida State College to be paused.)

Brad Levine advised Rodrigues that greater than 20 candidates had been recognized by at the least one committee member through the ballot. On the subsequent assembly, the marketing consultant introduced that checklist however emphasised that committee members had been free to debate any applicant.

Levine additionally stated the questionnaire is widespread in increased ed, some extent he didn’t make in his Saturday letter when he wrote that such a survey isn’t “warranted” for a state college in Florida. “I’m positive you’re conscious that such surveys are routinely administered to job candidates throughout business, together with at our state universities,” Levine wrote to Rodrigues on Monday. “Our marketing consultant informs us that demographic surveys had been despatched to every applicant in the newest presidential searches” on the College of Florida, Florida State, the College of South Florida, and the College of North Florida.

Levine additionally stated that AGB Search has no technique to observe who responds to the questionnaire and that there isn’t any manner for the agency to affiliate a submitted response with a person applicant. “Particular person responses are by no means seen by the search consultants who help the colleges,” he wrote. FAU by no means requested or obtained the nameless responses, he stated, “and thus they performed no function within the search committee’s choice of the semifinalists and finalists.”

He additionally stated that the candidates’ responses to the background-check authorization kind by which they’ll present their most popular pronouns had been by no means shared with FAU or the search committee, and subsequently performed no function within the committee’s selections.

“FAU is anxious to renew our search course of,” Levine wrote. “… We subsequently respectfully ask that you simply authorize us to renew our course of as quickly as doable.”

Rodrigues’s suggestion that the search be suspended was issued simply two days after FAU introduced its finalists. They’re Vice Adm. Sean Buck, superintendent of the US Naval Academy, Michael Hartline, dean of the School of Enterprise at Florida State College, and Jose Sartarelli, former chancellor of the College of North Carolina at Wilmington.

Noticeably absent from that checklist was Randy Tremendous, a Republican state consultant who co-sponsored what turned often known as the Cease WOKE Act, a controversial invoice that Gov. Ron DeSantis championed. Tremendous advised the South Florida Solar Sentinel in March that the governor’s workplace had approached him concerning the FAU gig, and that he was contemplating it. A spokesperson for DeSantis stated on the time, “We expect he’d be a very good candidate.”

It’s unclear if Tremendous utilized for the job. Final 12 months, DeSantis signed a invoice into regulation that shields the names of candidates for public-college presidencies aside from prime contenders. A legislative aide advised The Chronicle that Tremendous is vacationing in Europe together with his household and isn’t obtainable for remark. (A state consultant was amongst a bunch of “extremely certified” candidates, Florida Atlantic’s pupil information outlet reported in June.)

Republican politicians have just lately secured presidencies at three Florida establishments. Rodrigues himself held seats within the state’s Home and Senate earlier than ascending to the system chancellorship.

Andrew Gothard, president of United School of Florida, a college union with chapters throughout the state, stated in a press release that Rodrigues is “greedy at any meager, partisan straw he can discover in an effort to gin up false trigger to undermine a search course of that — up till now — has been each honest and collaborative.”

“It’s clear that the Chancellor solely jumps when the Governor yanks his chain,” Gothard stated, “not when legal guidelines are really violated.” (Requested for remark, a system spokesperson stated that Rodrigues’s letter “speaks for itself” and that the system doesn’t touch upon pending investigations.)

The manager committee of Florida Atlantic’s school union has urged professors to put in writing to the Board of Governors and inform them to “maintain their fingers off our search!” The suspension “smacks of political meddling and bitter grapes,” the committee wrote on a public Google Doc.

Florida Atlantic College “maintains that its search course of complies with all authorized necessities and has been performed in a correct method,” the college stated in a press release.