The controversy it has caused may be intense, but State Sen. John E. Thrasher’s appointment as president of Florida State University has a very familiar ring to it. Florida State’s Board of Trustees voted on Tuesday to name the Republican lawmaker as president despite the concerns of many faculty members and students, who said he was unqualified to lead the institution and who argued that his appointment smacked of partisan favoritism.
A similar scene played out earlier this year, when Glenn F. McConnell, South Carolina’s lieutenant governor, was named president of the College of Charleston, sparking concerns that his interest in Confederate memorabilia was antithetical to the college’s mission.
Another controversy arose last year, when Janet Napolitano was chosen to lead the University of California system, and some students protested the immigration policies she had enforced as secretary of homeland security. And at Purdue University, faculty members opposed the appointment of Gov. Mitchell E. Daniels Jr. as president, saying the research university needed a leader who understood academe.
In recent years, college presidencies—especially those at public institutions—have become regular landing places for former politicians. It’s not hard to see why. Governing boards are looking to improve their institutions’ relationships with state and federal governments, not to mention their appropriations, and elected officials offer appealing experience in those areas.
But several of those appointments have sparked protest, often because politicians lack the academic experience and credentials that are so highly valued by faculty members. In other cases, an elected official’s record often contains policy positions and statements that are easy fodder for opponents.
The good news is that most former politicians shed their partisanship and put their advocacy skills to work in support of the college, said William A. Sederburg, interim chancellor of the University of North Carolina at Wilmington.
Mr. Sederburg has some experience in this vein: He was a Republican state senator in Michigan for 12 years before he became president of Ferris State University. Though there was some opposition at first, his position in the Legislature sealed the deal.
“I had chaired the appropriations committee,” he said. “There’s no getting around the fact that that was a big plus—they were willing to take a chance on me because of my connections.”
Statehouse Ties
In Florida there is a well-worn path from the state Capitol to the university system.
In 2002, Florida State’s board voted to appoint T.K. Wetherell, a former state representative, as president of the institution. One trustee who voted for Mr. Wetherell was Mr. Thrasher, who served on Florida State’s board from 2001 to 2006.
Mr. Wetherell, who was president until 2010, succeeded Talbot (Sandy) D’Alemberte, another former state legislator who had been president of Florida State since 1993. Earlier this year Mr. D’Alemberte nominated Senator Thrasher to lead the university.
Another state lawmaker who moved onto a Florida campus was Frank T. Brogan, elected twice as lieutenant governor under Gov. Jeb Bush. Shortly after being sworn in for his second term, in 2003, Mr. Brogan, who has a master’s degree in educational administration, accepted the presidency of Florida Atlantic University. In 2009 the Board of Governors for the state’s university system chose Mr. Brogan as chancellor.
“Frank Brogan has something that is very important,” Sheila M. McDevitt, who was then chairwoman of the Board of Governors, said at the time. “Knowledge of the system and knowledge of the players in the state.”
At the time, the board was embroiled in a lawsuit over tuition-setting authority. Mr. Brogan brokered a deal to drop out of the suit in exchange for more latitude to set tuition.
Senator Thrasher’s supporters expressed similarly high expectations for the longtime lawmaker, but his appointment has, so far, drawn quite a different reaction from faculty members and students at Florida State.
Two factors help explain why Senator Thrasher’s appointment has been controversial. For one, he has no experience running a college and no advanced degrees. Both Mr. D’Alemberte and Mr. Wetherell had gained some experience in higher education before becoming president of Florida State, and Mr. Wetherell had earned a doctoral degree. At the time, there were widespread concerns that Mr. Wetherell, a former football player, would focus more of his efforts on the university’s athletic prowess than on its academic reputation.
The other factor: Florida’s political climate has changed drastically in the past decade, with deep partisan rifts forming over issues such as academic freedom, tenure, the validity of scientific discovery, and the value of the humanities. Gov. Rick Scott, a Republican, caused an outcry, for example, when he declared in 2011 that the state had too many anthropologists.
Students recently heckled Senator Thrasher when he gave inconclusive answers to a faculty question about whether he believed that human activity was the cause of global climate change.
There have also been concerns on the campus about a $1.5-million donation from the libertarian Koch Foundation to Florida State’s economics department. Faculty members have questioned how much control the university has over a program to study political economy and free enterprise.
Relationship Building
Faculty members across the country have similar worries about partisan ideology infecting the academic environment. In North Carolina, Mr. Sederburg said, there are concerns over the influence of conservative think tanks such as the John Locke Foundation and the John William Pope Center for Higher Education, which was involved in promoting a freeze on using tuition for financial aid within the university system.
But nationwide there is little evidence that politicians are bringing their ideology into the president’s office, he said. “Most of the people that have made that transition have become incredible advocates for higher education,” he said. “They know the people, they know the language and how it all works.”
Far from dismantling their institutions, the highest-profile politicians to take over campuses have often become powerful forces for change both within their university and even in the state. For example, Hank Brown, the former Republican U.S. senator, stepped in to lead the University of Colorado in 2005, when the institution was engulfed in numerous scandals and investigations and had a fractious relationship with state lawmakers. Beyond his efforts to rescue the campus and restore faculty morale, Mr. Brown campaigned for a ballot measure to loosen the state’s spending limits, which had contributed to a 20-percent cut in state money for higher education.
A less-dramatic example of that pattern is Mr. Daniels at Purdue. Despite some early missteps, the former Indiana governor and budget director for President George W. Bush has become known as a pragmatic reformer, a strong supporter of the university’s research, and a successful fund raiser.
In the meantime, though, Senator Thrasher can’t simply point to recent history; he has a skeptical campus to assuage. The former lawmaker should use his political experience to “forge a compact between the state leadership and the campus,” Mr. Sederburg said.
The new president can quell concerns, Mr. Sederburg said, by doing what politicians do best: working the crowd, pressing the flesh. “Take the time to understand your campus and the people on your campus,” he said.
