Alumni, students, and professors came together to give the committee in charge of picking Florida State University’s next president an earful.
They say the committee is playing favorites with Republican state Senator John Thrasher.
So far, Thrasher has been the only person nominated for the job. He might have been confirmed Wednesday if not for a flood of public complaints.
Instead, the committees voting to start over, hire a consultant and delay making what FSU student Zachary Schultz says is a monumental decision.
“We do not need a bunch of businessmen, politicians, choosing our president for us,” said Schultz. “The president should be chosen entirely by the students and faculty. This is a completely corrupt process that I am sick of and the students are sick of and the faculty are sick of, also.
The school’s kicking off a campaign to become a top 25 public university and students say it’ll take an academic, not a politician like Thrasher, to make that goal a reality.
Some committee members agree the process was being rushed.
“I feel like if we rush forward, even in September, that we're making a mistake,” said Jill Quadagno, FSU Presidential Search Committee. “What I would like to see us do is reset the search on a different time schedule.”
Right now there isn’t a time schedule for when Florida State’s next leader will be named.