Reading about the presidential search going on at Florida State University is quite interesting in light of the problems experienced during the recent University of Hawaii search.

Florida’s sunshine law applies to the search committee, and so the names of candidates are publicly disclosed. In fact, applications are publicly posted on the university’s website.

And when the news media found out that the search committee had voted to limit its interviews to a single prominent GOP state senator, the public reaction knocked the search process off track. The FSU faculty held a “no confidence” vote in the search consultant, who then promptly resigned.

From AP (“Florida Sen. John Thrasher now lone candidate for FSU top job“)

A top Republican state senator has emerged as the leading — and right now the only — candidate to become the next president of Florida State University.

In an unusual move, a FSU search committee voted Wednesday to interview John Thrasher, who is also chairman of Gov. Rick Scott’s re-election campaign, and then decide whether to offer him the job. FSU has been without a permanent president since Eric Barron left to take the same job at Penn State University.

The vote came after search committee members heard that FSU was having trouble attracting quality candidates because of the perception that Thrasher was going to get the job due to ongoing media reports.

From the MiamiHerald Blog (“FSU search committee cancels John Thrasher interview“)

A committee looking for a new president for Florida State University will now cast a net that extends beyond powerful state Sen. John Thrasher, the head of the panel announced late Tuesday.

Ed Burr, chairman of the FSU Presidential Search Advisory Committee, said an outpouring of interest in the position led to the decision to delay the conversation with Thrasher, which was scheduled for June 11. The St. Augustine Republican and rabid FSU alumnus has been considered the front-runner for the position, particularly after the committee voted last month to “pause” its process and interview only Thrasher before moving forward.

At the time, members of the committee said Thrasher’s desire for the position had kept other potential candidates from applying. But the move to limit the search upset students and faculty members, and a protest was planned for the day of the interview.

From WFSU.org (“FSU Board Chair Says University Integrity Is Intact, Calls Presidential Search A ‘Catch-22’“).

As Florida State University continues its search for a new president many faculty and observers are crying foul over the process.

Faculty union president Jennifer Proffitt says the search committee agreed on getting a president with strong academic credentials, but it is not panning out that way.

“Search committees/search firms set deadlines so that people know when they can apply by and that wasn’t done. And the criteria the search committee voted on in April wasn’t followed and that’s the big concern by the faculty,” she says.

There is no deadline for FSU’s search. ‘Strong academic credentials’ is listed among the “other” qualifications. Leadership, legislative experience and fundraising and even university “loyalty” are rated higher, leading to allegations the search has been rigged in Senator John Thrasher’s favor.

From the Tampa Bay Times (“Amid furor over John Thrasher and FSU, path from politics to academics well-traveled“)

Front and center for Thrasher critics: his lack of academic bona fides and his deeply conservative political record.

But many former politicians, from the right and the left, have survived similar doubts to win university presidencies and eventually win over some skeptics. Despite the controversy, Thrasher is still the front-runner for the FSU post and many believe the job is his to lose.

Especially at FSU, which is seeking to bolster its image as a research institution, there’s a strong argument for having a top-flight academic in charge. But in an era of spiraling costs and tightening budgets, the need for a leader who can raise money may prove stronger.

From the Tallahassee Democrat (“Blackburn: FSU’s search for president may be back on track“)

A series of actions earlier in the month dramatically transformed the search for FSU’s next president, which was on the verge of turning into a Sixties-like protest movement. What happened, you ask. In chronological order, Florida Supreme Court Justice Ricky Polston submitted an application; Trustee Ed Burr, chair of the search committee, canceled the plan to interview Thrasher on June 11; the Faculty Senate weighed in, approving a vote of no confidence in headhunter Bill Funk; and Funk abruptly resigned.

Funk has an impressive resume but he managed to alienate some faculty before his first in-person meeting with the search committee in April. Professors told me Funk didn’t seem to take too seriously their desire for a president with a strong academic background, and he further turned off some at the April meeting when he said that if the president of Ford Motor Co. was interested in being FSU’s next president, they needed to consider him. That, to paraphrase a Ford campaign, was not a better idea, and it did not go over well.

And an important column from the Orlando Sentinel (“Sunshine not the problem in FSU search“)

Columnist Beth Kassab argues that if the process had proceeded in secret, it would never have been known that a single well-connected state senator was the only person to be interviewed in person by the search committee, and he would likely have been announced as the committee’s “pick” for the job. Sunshine, she said, did its job. Then she goes on, and you really should read the whole column.

Politicians will tell you that university presidential searches should be secret because Florida will recruit better applicants. Quality candidates from elsewhere, they say, won’t have to fear their bosses will find out they applied for another job.

Baloney. Administrators love to be in demand because it can mean more money and perks in their current jobs.

Besides, if you believe this suggestion that good applicants don’t come forward in the Sunshine, then you have to believe that Eric Barron, who left FSU earlier this year to become president of Penn State, was a second-rate find.

Same goes for UCF’s John Hitt.

I would argue that if good candidates are passing up Florida, it’s for plenty of other reasons.

Try a Legislature and governor who slash budgets and then come up with loopy ideas like funding based on how much money graduates make.

After all, this is a state where the highest-paid public employees are football coaches.

Florida’s problem isn’t transparency. It’s screwed up priorities.