The politically tied New College of Florida alumnus who planted the seeds for an ideological overhaul of the public liberal-arts institution now sits on the presidential-search committee at another Florida public university.
That committee, at Florida Atlantic University, is making a second attempt to find a president. The first search crumbled last year over accusations of unethical political manipulation and illegal procedures.
Last month Florida Atlantic’s board announced a new search roster that included Robert N. Allen Jr., a South Florida lawyer who graduated from New College in 1978 and later served as a trustee there. Allen, who has longstanding relationships with Republican state lawmakers in Florida, said he informed the administration of Gov. Ron DeSantis about trustee vacancies at New College, leading to the appointment of half a dozen conservatives, mostly educators or activists.
New College’s board has spent the last 18 months trying to reshape the college, moving away from what one trustee, Christopher Rufo, called “suffocating left-wing orthodoxy.” The existing president was quickly fired, and Richard Corcoran, a former Republican speaker of the Florida House, became New College’s interim leader. Allen served on the presidential-search committee that selected Corcoran for the permanent role.
Allen told The Chronicle he’s not interested in turning New College or FAU into a Florida version of Hillsdale College, a conservative Christian institution in Michigan that the DeSantis administration has referenced when discussing its higher-ed plans. Still, Allen said he is concerned about a lack of conservative professors at Florida’s public universities and what he sees as an over-prioritization of academic programs in gender studies.
Allen’s involvement with FAU’s presidential search comes amid persistent tensions across Florida’s public colleges over DeSantis’s vision for higher ed and the involvement of Republican politicians and their allies in leadership decisions. The state’s political climate has troubled many faculty members, prompting some to quit. A handful of administrators have moved on, too.
Allen told The Chronicle that faculty concerns about Republican-connected individuals getting involved in higher education were a “potshot from the cheap seats,” saying that Florida higher education is crowded with well-connected Democrats.
“They don’t like what they call ‘interference,’ but that is a misnomer, as it is based on the false premise that, in effect, their university belongs to them,” Allen wrote. “But they don’t own anything.”
FAU’s Failed Search
FAU has been without a permanent president since the start of 2023. The first search for a replacement was paused a year ago.
Randy Fine, a Republican state representative, told The Chronicle earlier this year that DeSantis had told him he was a shoo-in for the job, but he was not listed among the three finalists.
Two days after the finalists were announced, Fine reached out to Ray Rodrigues, chancellor of the State University System of Florida, expressing concerns about how the search was conducted. Fine specifically flagged questions he was asked about his sexual orientation and gender identity; the search firm leading the process said the questions were standard for all candidates. Shortly after, Rodrigues sent a letter to the chair of the initial presidential search committee recommending the search be suspended. Hours later, it was.
The Florida Board of Governors, which oversees all of the state’s public universities, then instructed FAU to redo its search after an investigation found that the search proceedings violated the state’s open-government law.
Critics condemned the decision to restart the search, alleging political influence. Concerned faculty and students argued that there were no issues with the search’s procedures and that it was called off because Fine was not selected as a finalist.
Now there’s a new search committee that includes Allen. Allen said his experience with the New College presidential search and an earlier three-term tenure as a New College trustee make him a good fit to help FAU find its next leader.
In addition to suggesting to the DeSantis administration that they appoint new trustees at New College, Allen has written newspaper opinion essays on the institution’s transformation and encouraged other conservatives to become involved.
Eddie Speir, a rejected DeSantis appointee to the New College Board of Trustees and owner of a religious secondary school, said that Allen had contacted him about joining New College’s board. Last year, Allen emailed Corcoran about recruiting Bruce Abramson to New College’s faculty. Abramson founded the American Restoration Institute, which has published several negative posts about “progressivism.” Abramson had previously reached out to Allen regarding potential academic courses at New College and his interest in joining the university. Abramson later became the executive director of new students and graduate admissions at the college.
Allen, people in his law firm, or their families have supported Republican candidates. Disclosure documents show donations of approximately $35,000 to Republican lawmakers, conservative political-action committees, and the Republican Party in 2024 naming his firm, Robert Allen Law. Allen is also chair of the Palm Beach Freedom Institute, a conservative education-policy group.
During the early months of the New College overhaul, Allen was accused of being aggressive toward others in an alumni Facebook group who opposed the college’s takeover.
Nicole Morse, former director of FAU’s Center for Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, left the university this past spring; Morse said they felt pressured to resign over their involvement in pro-Palestinian demonstrations on campus. Morse believes Allen’s appointment to the new search committee serves as a warning to FAU to align with DeSantis’s vision for higher education.
“The fact that Allen has that New College connection — it’s not a great leap of the imagination to think that he might be involved in an overhaul of FAU,” Morse said.
Dawn Rothe, president of the FAU chapter of United Faculty of Florida, said her main issue with the new search committee is that it includes just one FAU faculty member. Though she declined to comment on specific members of the committee, she said she does have concerns about the increasing influence of politics on higher education in Florida.
“I am hopeful that what is better for FAU will take precedence,” Rothe said. “However, I am a realist, and I understand the political environment and the potential that that may have on FAU’s search.”
FAU’s New Search
Allen said he has an “open mind” going into the FAU presidential search. He said he doesn’t know if he would recommend another DeSantis ally, like Corcoran, for the role at this time. However, he said he is interested in candidates with “pre-existing relationships with key constituencies at the state level.”
His primary focus is to recruit presidential candidates who have ideas on how to help FAU’s academic programs climb national rankings and attract out-of-state students to the university, he added.
The 15-member search committee includes three FAU trustees, a Florida Board of Governors member, a handful of FAU alumni, the current student-body president, several local business leaders, and a philanthropist.
In the coming months, the committee will be seeking a new search firm to collaborate with. AGB Search, which assisted with the previous search, will not be involved. That decision is likely related to the diversity questionnaire and background-check form that Fine took issue with in his letter to Rodrigues.
A consultant working on higher-education searches, who asked not to be named so he could speak freely about recent hiring dynamics, told The Chronicle that the controversy surrounding the first search will likely carry over into FAU’s new attempt. He believes that candidates with traditional academic backgrounds may have been discouraged from applying, which could result in the selection being limited to politicians.
The consultant noted that with state legislatures reducing financial support for public universities, trustees in higher education have been looking to hire individuals with political backgrounds as college presidents. This is seen as a way to improve communication and collaboration between higher-education institutions and state governments. However, trustees typically do not openly communicate that intention to search firms.
“That dynamic certainly plays out very often, and we’ve seen it play out in Florida a lot of times,” the consultant said.
At a Florida Board of Governors meeting on June 28, Piero Bussani, FAU’s board chair, promised to keep the board updated on the search’s progress.
“We will run a transparent and thorough process,” Bussani said. “We will get this right.” (The Chronicle requested comment from FAU’s Board of Trustees and the chair of the search committee through a university spokesperson, but did not get a response.)
Depending on how Florida’s political climate toward higher education evolves, the consultant said that his organization is uncertain whether it will conduct another college presidential search in the state.
In terms of FAU, the consultant said, “I wouldn’t touch that search.”
