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

In a surprising move, Florida Atlantic University’s search for a new president was suspended last week just days after the institution announced its finalists. Ray Rodrigues, chancellor of the State University System of Florida, flagged concerns about the process, prompting FAU’s search firm to defend its practices and others to criticize the move as politically motivated.

On Friday, Rodrigues called for the search to be suspended in light of alleged “anomalies.”

For one, Rodrigues wrote in a letter to Brad Levine, chair of the university’s Board of Trustees, search committee members had been given a long list of candidates and asked to rank their top six preferences, which were then submitted to the search firm. The members’ selections “were not disclosed on the record,” Rodrigues wrote, “and there was no meaningful opportunity” for members to discuss candidates prior to the straw poll. Holding such a poll — one that is “tantamount to a written vote that is not disclosed” — may run afoul of Florida law, he wrote.

Rodrigues also said at least one candidate reported being asked improper questions. The candidate was asked to complete a questionnaire “and answer if his sexual orientation was ‘queer’ and whether he was a ‘male or transgender male.’” A “separate and required survey” asked the candidate “if his gender was ‘male, female or other’ and what his ‘preferred pronouns were.’” Rodrigues said the inquiries are “wholly irrelevant, inappropriate, and potentially illegal,” citing language from the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s website.

“Members of the search committee were not informed that these questions were being asked of candidates,” Rodrigues wrote. “This raises an additional concern about whether the search firm withheld material information from the search committee.”

The chancellor recommended the search be suspended so the Board of Governors’ staff can “obtain the facts around these concerns and other potential anomalies.”

In response, Levine, who also leads FAU’s presidential-search committee, told Rodrigues it did not “authorize” AGB Search, the executive-search firm, to send that questionnaire. “We do not think that such a questionnaire is warranted for a State University search in Florida,” Levine wrote Saturday in a letter to the chancellor. However, Levine maintained that the search process “has complied with all legal requirements and been conducted in a proper manner. We are anxious to provide you information that may clarify any misconceptions and allow you to reach a similar conclusion.”

Through a spokesperson, Roderick J. McDavis, managing principal of AGB Search, told The Chronicle in emails that the practices identified by Rodrigues are standard operating procedure.

The questionnaire flagged by Rodrigues is a “general, routine survey that is used in all our executive searches,” McDavis wrote. It’s voluntary, and no candidate is penalized for not filling it out, he said. Rather, “it’s for AGB Search’s benefit to ensure that our efforts continue to attract qualified candidates from all walks of life for our clients. Demographic information collected in the survey is provided in the aggregate if the client requests it,” he wrote.

He noted that the FAU search committee “was not aware of the survey questions and did not receive the collected demographic information, in aggregate form or otherwise.”

He also said that no other clients have questioned the use of the questionnaire.

The “separate and required survey” Rodrigues referenced is a form used by Mintz Global Screening, a background-check company, to request approval from semifinalists to perform such a check, McDavis said. “While the consent form is required, the section asking for personal pronouns is optional and is clearly labeled,” he wrote. “Both survey and consent form are common elements of executive searches and we have used them in our work across the country.”

McDavis also said that conducting a straw poll is “another industry standard practice.” The results, “in aggregate form,” were presented to the search committee, he said. “At that point, no candidates were ‘eliminated’ from consideration. In our searches, search committees often do select candidates to interview who ranked lower than the top results in the straw poll. It serves as guide only.”

In a letter sent to Rodrigues on Monday, Levine further defended the search process, offering specifics. The straw poll does not run afoul of Florida law and was “merely a tool that the committee used to expedite their conversation,” Levine wrote. In fact, at a meeting that was closed to the public but recorded, the Board of Governors’ representative on the presidential-search committee, Alan Levine, endorsed the idea, saying it’s “a best practice.” Alan Levine assured the committee, “This is exactly the right way to do it,” according to Brad Levine, the FAU board chair. (Alan Levine recently told the South Florida Sun Sentinel via text message that he has been “raising issues about straw polls and confidential voting during searches” since 2021, when he called for the presidential search at Florida State University to be paused.)

Brad Levine told Rodrigues that more than 20 applicants had been identified by at least one committee member during the poll. At the next meeting, the consultant presented that list but emphasized that committee members were free to discuss any applicant.

Levine also said the questionnaire is common in higher ed, a point he did not make in his Saturday letter when he wrote that such a survey is not “warranted” for a state university in Florida. “I am sure you are aware that such surveys are routinely administered to job applicants across industry, including at our state universities,” Levine wrote to Rodrigues on Monday. “Our consultant informs us that demographic surveys were sent to each applicant in the most recent presidential searches” at the University of Florida, Florida State, the University of South Florida, and the University of North Florida.

Levine also said that AGB Search has no way to track who responds to the questionnaire and that there is no way for the firm to associate a submitted response with an individual applicant. “Individual responses are never seen by the search consultants who assist the universities,” he wrote. FAU never requested or received the anonymous responses, he said, “and thus they played no role in the search committee’s selection of the semifinalists and finalists.”

He also said that the candidates’ responses to the background-check authorization form in which they can provide their preferred pronouns were never shared with FAU or the search committee, and therefore played no role in the committee’s decisions.

“FAU is anxious to resume our search process,” Levine wrote. “… We therefore respectfully ask that you authorize us to resume our process as soon as possible.”

Rodrigues’s recommendation that the search be suspended was issued just two days after FAU announced its finalists. They are Vice Adm. Sean Buck, superintendent of the United States Naval Academy, Michael Hartline, dean of the College of Business at Florida State University, and Jose Sartarelli, former chancellor of the University of North Carolina at Wilmington.

Noticeably absent from that list was Randy Fine, a Republican state representative who co-sponsored what became known as the Stop WOKE Act, a controversial bill that Gov. Ron DeSantis championed. Fine told the South Florida Sun Sentinel in March that the governor’s office had approached him about the FAU gig, and that he was considering it. A spokesperson for DeSantis said at the time, “We think he’d be a good candidate.”

It’s unclear if Fine applied for the job. Last year, DeSantis signed a bill into law that shields the names of applicants for public-college presidencies except for top contenders. A legislative aide told The Chronicle that Fine is vacationing in Europe with his family and is not available for comment. (A state representative was among a group of “highly qualified” candidates, Florida Atlantic’s student news outlet reported in June.)

Republican politicians have recently secured presidencies at three Florida institutions. Rodrigues himself held seats in the state’s House and Senate before ascending to the system chancellorship.

Andrew Gothard, president of United Faculty of Florida, a faculty union with chapters across the state, said in a statement that Rodrigues is “grasping at any meager, partisan straw he can find in order to gin up false cause to undermine a search process that — up until now — has been both fair and collaborative.”

“It is clear that the Chancellor only jumps when the Governor yanks his chain,” Gothard said, “not when laws are truly violated.” (Asked for comment, a system spokesperson said that Rodrigues’s letter “speaks for itself” and that the system does not comment on pending investigations.)

The executive committee of Florida Atlantic’s faculty union has urged professors to write to the Board of Governors and tell them to “keep their hands off our search!” The suspension “smacks of political meddling and sour grapes,” the committee wrote on a public Google Doc.

Florida Atlantic University “maintains that its search process complies with all legal requirements and has been conducted in a proper manner,” the university said in a statement.