“We are asking for an academic president, we are asking for
someone that is qualified,” said Sydney Norris, one of the FSU students who
participated in the demonstration.
Thrasher has no experience as a senior administrator at an
institution of higher education. He is a lawyer who went to serve as speaker of
the Florida House of Representatives and later a member of the Florida Senate.
The BOG unanimously voted to confirm Thrasher’s appointment
at its Wednesday meeting at Florida Atlantic University. It also confirmed Kent
Fuchs to serve as the president of the University of Florida.
Back during this year’s legislative session, Thrasher led an
unsuccessful effort to split the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering and give FSU
$13M to begin the process of creating a separate college. He declined to offer
FAMU the $5M in new recurring dollars that would be necessary to replace all of
the FSU faculty who would leave or the $100M that would be required to build a
new engineering school building on FAMU’s main campus.