To: FSU Board of Trustees

Creating an FSU Presidential Search Process that is Open, Fair, and Inclusive

We, the undersigned members of the Florida State University community, including faculty, students, staff, alumni, supporters and taxpayers, believe that the current search process for Florida State University’s next President is flawed and call on the FSU Board of Trustees to do the following:
• Hire a new search firm or conduct the search internally.
• Reconstitute the Presidential Search Committee, adding additional faculty and student members.
• Suspend the search process until the above measures are enacted.

Why is this important?

Earlier this year, Florida State University began a search to choose FSU’s next President. We, the FSU community, deserve a process that is open, fair, inclusive and representative of the highest ethical standards so that when completed, we can all move forward together knowing that the process was thorough and fair and can be supportive of the new President. The fact that the search committee, contrary to its many claims, has made a single presumptive front runner (a powerful politician in the Florida Senate) seem ever more like its inevitable choice, reflects a process that is neither fair, nor inclusive, nor representative of the highest ethical standards. This petition is not focused on the presumptive front runner, but on a flawed search process that will lead to divisiveness that is not in the best interests of our university community as a whole and Florida’s taxpayers. For a complete account of the search process thus far, see presidentsandpolitics.blogspot.com.