Florida State University cannot be faulted for considering Sen. John Thrasher in its presidential search. It can, however, be faulted for making him the early front runner and now one of four finalists. And it would certainly be a major fault line through its credibility if it ultimately were to make him president.
While the majority of top jobs in academia still go to career academics, they have been increasingly going to non-traditional academics. There’s precedent in this state. Former FSU president “T.K.” Wetherell and the University of Miami’s Donna Shalala, while achieving high visibility in the political arena, both had prior higher ed experience.
Wetherell, the former Speaker of the Florida House, had been president of Tallahassee Community College. Shalala, the former HHS secretary under President Bill Clinton, once served as the chancellor of the University of Wisconsin. They both had Rolodexes to die for, but also had relevant educational experiences. Call it the best of both worlds.
And let’s not forget Betty Castor, USF president during the 1990s, who helped USF turn a much-needed influence corner in Tallahassee. She knew her way around the corridors of power, to be sure, but had also been the state’s commissioner of education. She was no higher ed rookie.
Thrasher, a former lobbyist, current chairman of Rick Scott’s re-election committee and erstwhile House Speaker who dismantled the Florida Board of Regents to expedite the orchestration of FSU’s medical school, represents all that we loathe about Tallahassee. This would be political payback–plus whoring out to a fund-raising maven.
John Thrasher is not T.K. Wetherell, Donna Shalala, Betty Castor–or Frank Brogan (FAU). Some things ought not to be for sale. Especially if the next governor is not Rick Scott.