Florida Atlantic University campus via FAU
Florida Atlantic University trustees emphasized a desire to extract more money from the Legislature plus individual and corporate donors Monday in unanimously selecting a former GOP lawmaker as the new college president.
Adam Hasner’s background is in politics, as opposed to the two other finalists, a college dean and a university provost. While concerns about his lack of higher education experience lingered, more loudly heard during a trustees’ meeting was a call for Tallahassee connections and an ability to fundraise.
“Vast changes are coming, we know it. We are either going to be left behind or we’ll be ahead. That requires out-of-the box thinking, somebody that’s different, somebody who can energize and communicate strongly, effectively,” Board of Trustees Chair Piero Bussani said, confirming Hasner would receive unanimous support from the board.
Bussani emphasized a need for FAU, which has an annual operating budget of $1.2 billion, to get “its fair share of dollars from Tallahassee,” a concern still echoing from a meeting on Friday when Florida International University trustees named Lt. Gov. Jeanette Nuñez its interim president.
University leaders, while trying to raise the institution’s profile, are working to offset the absence of tuition increases, a changing college athletics landscape, and growing maintenance costs for aging campus infrastructure, to name a few money squeezes.
Former U.S. Sen. Ben Sasse’s brief run as president at University of Florida, former Florida House Speaker Richard Corcoran serving as president at New College of Florida, and, most recently, the Nuñez hiring at FIU show the trend of influential GOP figures taking the reins of Florida public institutions of higher education.
FAU trustees referenced “the times that we’re in,” “all these challenges that are coming out way,” and “the right person at the right time,” in justifying the politician over the academics.
‘Hit the ground running’
“I can tell you, it is so important to be able to hit the ground running on Day One, because if you’re coming from the outside and you’re trying to get to know the Florida legislative process or the regulatory process of Florida, it’s going to take somebody years to be able to do that,” Hasner said.
“So, I can go out from Day One and be that brand ambassador, be the chief evangelist for this university in the donor community, as well.”
Sen. Gayle Harrell, chair of the Senate Higher Education Appropriations Committee, said political experience can help a president, but is not everything.
“They have the be the complete package. That’s one aspect [a history in politics], and that may give you a leg up, but it’s only one aspect of all the credentials that you have to present,” Harrell told the Phoenix on Monday.
“There are insights gained from having legislative experience or administrative experience in Tallahassee that perhaps someone coming from out of state or from another university system might not understand,” Harrell said.
Hasner is set to make between $1 million and $1.5 million per year in salary and benefits as president, trustees decided in January, the South Florida Sun Sentinel reported.
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Who is Hasner?
Hasner served in the Florida House for eight years (2002-2010), including as majority leader from 2007-2010. Though he had hoped to move his way up in Florida politics, that didn’t happen.
In 2011 he announced his candidacy in the Republican U.S. Senate primary in 2012. He ran as a self-described Tea Party candidate and fierce conservative, opposing same-sex marriage. His platform was considered to the right of the other Republicans in the race — George LeMieux and Connie Mack IV — and by the time he dropped out of the race, he was getting only 2% support in polls.
He pivoted to running in the South Florida Congressional District 22 race that year. He raised more than $3 million but lost by 10 points that fall to Democrat Lois Frankel.
Hasner announced in January 2014 that he would not challenge Democrat Patrick Murphy in the Congressional District 18 seat, effectively ending his political career.
While in the House, Hasner helped establish FAU’s College of Medicine in 2011.
The Florida State University law school graduate serves on the FAU College of Business advisory board and on the board of trustees for Boca Raton Regional Hospital.
The former politician has been serving as public policy director with GEO Group, a private prison company based in Boca Raton, which students participating in the search process criticized for its controversial history. Hasner replied that inserting GEO into the conversation was a “red herring.”
Hasner beat two other finalists for the FAU spot: Michael Hartline, dean of the Florida State University College of Business, and John Volin, provost at University of Maine. The names of non-finalist candidates are protected by state law.
Boards of trustees at Florida universities comprise six appointees from the governor and five from the Board of Governors of the State University System. Also serving are the local Faculty Senate president and student body president. In December, DeSantis appointed Jonathan Satter, a previous member of his administration, and Tina Vidal-Duart to the board.
Trustee Pablo Paez, who voted for Hasner, is vice president for corporate relations for GEO, the same company Hasner works for.
Trustee Brad Levine, appointed to the board by former Gov. Rick Scott and reappointed by DeSantis, mentioned that he previously worked for one of Hasner’s campaigns while voicing support for the former politician.
The vote is subject to confirmation by the State University System Board of Governors.
Opposition
FAU Democrats protested Hasner’s candidacy as a political move, citing his lack of educational background and his role working for private prisons as disqualifying.
“Mr. Hasner, your record speaks far louder than your platitudes ever could. Trustees, please know the FAU student body needs a president, not a politician. We want a selection, not a coronation. You are here not because you are a worthy finalist, but because of your allies in Tallahassee and on the Board of Governors. The FAU student body has one thing to say to you: Goodbye Adam Hasner,” FAU Democrats President Nicholas Ostheimer said during a campus forum Friday before a group of students left the room.
Hasner said it was “disappointing” and “unfortunate” that students used the forum “to make a statement and walk out.”
“But I do hope that if I am the next president of this university, that we have an opportunity for constructive engagement and that we have an opportunity for a constructive dialogue,” Hasner said.
“When I step onto this campus, if I were to be the eighth president of this university, my commitment to you, sir, and my commitment to this board and my commitment to this entire university community is that I am not involved in partisan politics,” Hasner told trustees. “I do not believe that it is politically red or politically blue to be a university president.”
Ostheimer told the Phoenix be believes Hasner is “really only under consideration because he is a political ally of Gov. Ron DeSantis, who wants to make FAU the next battleground of his culture war.”
Hasner said his “mission, singularly” is advancing FAU and a welcoming environment that “respects diverse viewpoints.”
“We really don’t want a partisan, ideological right-wing candidate to be in charge of our university, because they don’t have the requisite skillset necessary to administer it effectively and competently,” Ostheimer said.
Student Body President Stefan Andjelkovic, a trustee, insisted that Hasner “is someone that the students can trust.”
“As all parents tell their kids, ‘You should look up to somebody, you should look up to the president of like the United States.’ I think the honorable Adam Hasner is someone that the students will look up to,” Andjelkovic said.
Filling the spot
The search had been open since John Kelly stepped down as president and Stacy Volnick was named interim president in September 2022.
The university, with its main campus in Boca Raton, previously conducted a search to fill the role of president, but that search was called off after a Board of Governors investigation determined the search committee violated Florida’s Sunshine Law and state regulations.
Problems found by the State University System inspector general included an anonymous survey by the search committee to identify candidates, the questionnaire administered to candidates, and the vetting of applicants. The questionnaire asked about their personal pronouns, although it was found the information was not passed on to the search committee and there was no legal bar to collecting that information.
Previously, as reported by The Chronicle of Higher Education, state Rep. Randy Fine, a Broward County Republican, said he was told by DeSantis that he was a “shoo-in” for the FAU presidency, and days after Fine wasn’t named as a finalist, the search was suspended.
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Phoenix reporters Mitch Perry and Christine Sexton contributed to this report