University of Florida President Bernie Machen announced Friday that the school is ending its law school dean search for the year without making a hire. We may never know the full back story, but it appears that the law faculty overhwelmingly voted against hiring FIU Dean Alex Acosta. The dean search committee then sent forward the names of the remaining three candidates (David Brennan, David Huebner, and Sam Donaldson) to the President. According to the Gainesville Sun, the committee had been told that if all four names were not sent forward, it risked a failed search.
After much sturm and drang about the effects of Florida's open records law, which required disclosure of even the first cut of dean candidates, the entire search turned out to be for naught. Next time around, all potential candidates will presumably understand that their applications are not confidential. It will be interesting to see whether that fact, which some claim the consultant failed to disclose this time around, will have an impact on the candidate pool.
How common is a public statement like "many felt Donaldson lacked gravitas"? That statement from the article seemed uncalled for and as something that should have stayed in the faculty conference room. The article was also pretty harsh on Dean Acosta. While public rejection of candidates in the dean search process is common, I don't think I have seen the vote break-down published before. Couple this with the publication of the applicant's cover letters, and I think UF might have a hard time finding top-level candidates the next time around.
Florida fell behind Florida State in US News this year, according to million press releases from Florida State. Acosta has Florida International moving up fast. Imagine the press releases Florida International's Dean will be releasing if they, too, pass Florida.
Remind us again who the search firm was (who failed to notify candidates of FL's right to know law) so we know which firms to avoid…
One of the applicants, who had been a dean at another school and his candidacy publicly revealed, suddenly stepped down from the deanship. Connection or coincidence?
The President met with the faculty this week and explained his decision. I did not agree with the outcome but his explanation was not unreasonable. The problem is that what he is looking for is probably not available for a school at Florida's level. Because one of the leading candidates was African American (my first choice) the cries of racism and homophobia (the other leading candidate was openly gay) have already been heard. In this case, any finger pointing at the law school itself would be terribly unfair since the faculty vote was overwhelmingly positive for both those candidates. In my view those complaints border on cheap shots at the President. Yes, having an African American or openly gay dean would have meant great things and would have put a smile on my face but if the President did not think the candidates were acceptable it took courage to say no. His record on diversity is spotless as some of those now complaining personally know. I do not believe diversity played a role except a positive one which evidently was not enough to overcome other concerns. I personally disagree with the outcome but am disappointed at how quickly the racism trigger was pulled. Maybe the biggest cheap shot is "lacked gravitas" not because it was published but because it was uttered knowing it would be published. What does it even mean when you can get gravitas two for one at the local grocery store?