When a big name applies for a college presidency, that person’s presence can cast a shadow over the entire search.
Candidates without household names shy away from going up against prominent figures out of a fear of being dwarfed by their well-known competitor, be it a politician or a former college-football coach. And when one person appears to have the inside track, the whole process can move so quickly that it raises concerns that a more-qualified candidate may not even have had enough time to apply.
Those questions are currently being raised at Florida State University, where a search committee voted this week to interview a lone presidential candidate, State Sen. John Thrasher, a Republican and Florida State alumnus who is known as an ardent supporter of the university.
He joins a club of big-name candidates who have applied for top jobs on campuses across the country, sparking debate at some institutions about which is valued more: hiring a well-known name that will give the university attention or giving the job to someone with an extensive résumé in academe.
For the Florida State job, just over 10 people have applied, said Bill Funk, president of R. William Funk & Associates, the firm that is leading the search.
With the state senator in the running, Mr. Funk said, most people his firm has called aren’t interested in applying.
Mr. Thrasher is scheduled to be interviewed on the campus by the search committee on June 11.
By interviewing Mr. Thrasher now, the university can either hire him or return to prospective applicants and tell them that the senator is no longer a candidate, attracting a stronger pool of names, Mr. Funk said. He estimated that Mr. Thrasher had a 50-50 shot of winning the committee’s recommendation for him to move on to meet with faculty members and students, which would be the next phase of the search process. Mr. Funk said applications were still being accepted for the Florida State presidency.
Faculty members at Florida State have disagreed with how the search has been carried out.
“Strong academic credentials"—a quality faculty members think is necessary in their next president—was omitted from requirements for the job listed in national advertisements, such as one that appeared in The Chronicle, said Jennifer M. Proffitt, president of the Florida State chapter of the United Faculty of Florida. Instead, she said, one requirement was “loyalty to Florida State University.”
“Even the appearance of favoritism and lack of objectivity is a problem,” Ms. Proffitt said. "… It demonstrates the lack of transparency and openness with the search. It’s political maneuvering.”
Senator Thrasher is “the ‘long shadow’ over the search process,” she added, “but they didn’t have enough time for people to apply.”
Political Dynamics
Well-connected and well-known candidates have affected presidential searches elsewhere.
At the College of Charleston this spring, faculty members and students asked the search committee to avoid playing into politics when choosing a new leader. South Carolina’s lieutenant governor was a finalist, along with two academics: a professor at Harvard University and the provost of the University of West Florida. In the end, the Board of Trustees selected the politician, Lt. Gov. Glenn McConnell, a Republican, a decision that was met with much anger from faculty members and students.
In Nebraska, Gov. Dave Heineman, a Republican, announced this week that he was “very seriously” considering applying for the presidency of the University of Nebraska system. His interest is likely to shift the dynamics of that university’s search.
Big names who apply for college presidencies oftentimes do scare away other candidates, said Jamie P. Ferrare, managing principal of AGB Search, who is familiar with conducting a search with a prominent name in the mix.
His firm worked on the hiring of a president at Youngstown State University, which decided on Jim Tressel, a former football coach at Ohio State University.
“The publicity around the search is so intense; they don’t want the public scrutiny,” Mr. Ferrare said of other potential candidates without household names. “They run the risk of going against a very popular name and not getting the job and returning to the home campus and having everyone say, ‘Gee, you’re committed to us.’”
Some potential candidates for the Youngstown State job waited until the deadline approached to see who had applied, then turned down the opportunity to add their name to the mix after noticing the lineup, Mr. Ferrare said.
The problem is magnified in states where public-records laws, often called sunshine laws, require public institutions to release the names of job applicants. Applying for a position in those states heightens the risk for sitting presidents and other top university officials. Because their names would be made public, the officials’ institutions would know that they were seeking employment elsewhere.
Searches in states that have “a very public figure” in them can have a dampening effect on other applicants, said Lucy Leske, managing partner and director of the higher-education practice at the executive-search firm Witt/Kieffer.
“It’s difficult enough to have really highly successful individuals apply, and in these searches they are exposed almost immediately,” she added. “A public figure among them affects who else is in the pool.”
