Florida’s House speaker wants to end the secrecy in how the state picks university presidents.
Rep. Daniel Perez, R-Miami, took his case last week to the belly of the political beast—the Board of Governors (BOG), which oversees Florida’s 12 public universities. At the BOG’s meeting in Tallahassee, Perez called the current process “a spoils system for a select few.”
Those “select few” include former State Rep. Adam Hasner, who became Florida Atlantic University’s president last month. Others are former Speaker Richard Corcoran, now running New College, and former Lt. Gov. Jeanette Nunez, who became interim president of Florida International University last month and is expected to get the permanent job.
Under the current system, Perez said, the outcome too often turns on “who you know, not what you know.” That’s because in 2022, the Legislature allowed the names of presidential applications to remain secret unless they became finalists. The exemption allows insiders to control the process.
Perez spoke in support of House Bill 1321. Not only would it remove that exemption, the bill would seek to break up the entrenched leadership of the BOG by imposing term limits on the 17 members. HB 1321 also would impose term limits on members of the Board of Education and university trustees.
Since Perez, like almost all legislators, voted for that bill in 2022, what motivates this switch?
Through his appointments, Gov. Ron DeSantis has sought unprecedented control over higher education, especially the choice of presidents. Governors choose 14 of the 17 BOG members. Most trustees are appointed by the governor or the BOG. Under DeSantis, the BOG compounded the secrecy by requiring presidential search committee members to sign non-disclosure agreements and allowing the chairman—Brian Lamb, in this case— to review a committee’s list of unranked finalists and strike names without anyone knowing.
The supposed argument for the records exemption was that Florida could attract better candidates if they could hide their interest from current employers. Perez, though, told the BOG that it won’t matter if those stellar potential applications know that a political fix is in.
Notably, the Legislature created the exemption about six months after Florida State University hired Richard McCullough. That open search produced two other outstanding finalists. Like McCullough, they were high-ranking academics.
DeSantis, though, wanted Corcoran to get the job at New College, even though the ex-speaker had no higher education experience. The governor had arranged for Corcoran to be education commissioner after his time in Tallahassee. In 2023, DeSantis used the secrecy system to install Corcoran at New College, where he’s turning a small, liberal-arts campus into a school that focuses on sports and offers a course in “wokeness.”
Also notably, DeSantis wanted then-State Rep. Randy Fine—elected to Congress this week—to become president of FAU. When Fine didn’t become a finalist in July 2023, the university system halted and eventually nullified the search that had produced three qualified finalists, none of them Republican politicians from Florida.
“Transparency and accountability,” Perez said, “are reasonable and appropriate.” Both bills are moving and have bipartisan support. The changes wouldn’t apply to searches that are underway at the University of Florida and the University of South Florida. But they could apply to searches to replace those who benefited from the “spoils system.”
New bill would impose additional BOG requirements
HB 1321 also would require all BOG members to live in Florida. Lamb lives in New York. Alan Levine, the member attached to FAU’s first search, lives in Tennessee.
After former U.S. Sen. Ben Sasse became president of the University of Florida, it emerged that he had hired several out-of-state administrators—at salaries of up to $400,000—who didn’t intend to move to Florida. With Sasse having resigned, all those administrators also are gone.
Hasner’s first act was to hire a chief of staff for $300,000. FAU stressed that he would live in Palm Beach County.
The BOG-GOP connection
The pipeline from the Republican caucus in Tallahassee to positions of education power doesn’t just go to president’s offices. Ray Rodrigues, who stopped that FAU search, is a former GOP House and Senate member. So is Education Commissioner Manny Diaz, who also served on the BOG.
DOGE heads to Florida universities
I wrote recently that the state version of DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency) is coming for Florida cities. Now, it’s coming for universities.
Last week, each president and trustee chair got a letter from the “EOG (Executive Office of the Governor) DOGE Team.” The team, the letter said, will work with the BOG to “identify, review and report on unnecessary spending, programs, course, staff and any other inefficiencies” within the state university system. The goal is to “maximize the value to students.”
Team members will search “publicly available information over the coming weeks and months.” In addition, they want from universities, for now, budgets, “functions of administrative offices and administrator roles,” how much each facility is used, course information, “full details of all centers established on campus” and “closure and dissolution of DEI programs.”
BOG representatives and team members will conduct “site visits to ensure full compliance with this executive order, as well as existing Florida law.”
Boca Councilmember Andy Thomson to run for mayor
Boca Raton City Councilmember Andy Thomson will leave his seat early to run for mayor in March 2026.
Thomson filed his paperwork this week. His term doesn’t end until March 2027, so he must resign during qualifying, which runs from Nov. 3 to 12. Thomson also left the council previously to run unsuccessfully for the Florida House in 2022. He won his current term last March.
Mayor Scott Singer is term limited. The terms of Deputy Mayor Fran Nachlas and Councilman Marc Wigder do expire in 2026. Either could run for mayor and forgo a second term.
I’ll have more next week.
Boca to discuss item from downtown campus agreement
Speaking of Thomson, I reported previously that he questioned why the interim agreement with the city’s downtown developer—Terra/Frisbie—did not include a clause prohibiting the company from participating in city elections.
As Thomson noted, that clause has been standard in city contracts for nearly three decades. A Terra/Frisbie principal had signed an early version that contained the clause. But Singer, Nachlas, Wigder and Yvette Drucker disagreed. At the moment, the restriction is not in the agreement.
They offered various arguments. Mostly, though, they seemed annoyed that Thomson had waited until the approval vote on the agreement to raise the issue. So, at Monday’s workshop meeting the council will discuss what the staff memo calls the “Local Campaign Participant Policy.” I’ll have more after the meeting.
