The bill calls for making all personal identifying information of candidates for college presidencies unavailable to the public until 21 days before finalists are chosen.
Florida has been the site of several controversial university presidential searches recently. Richard Corcoran, a former Speaker of the Florida House of Representatives and now the state's education commissioner, failed to advance as a candidate for the Florida State University presidency after the institution publicly released a list of hopefuls.
The Southern Association of Schools and College's, FSU’s accreditor, had flagged a potential conflict of interest because Corcoran served on the governing board that approves public college presidents.
About the same time the bill was passing the Legislature, Corcoran announced his intent to step down as state education secretary. Oddly enough, or not, his resignation comes just as four of the state’s largest public colleges — the Universities of Florida, North Florida, and South Florida, and Florida International University — begin their searches for new leaders. Initially, the bill would have taken effect on July 1. It would now take effect immediately after the Governor signs it into law.
The Florida Legislature passed another Corcoran backed bill that require all of the state’s public colleges and universities to change accreditors within the next decade. The bill quickly drew a warning from the U.S. Department of Education which warned state officials, in a letter sent on last Thursday, that forcing the state’s public universities/colleges could mean losing access to federal student loans, Pell Grants, and other forms of financial aid.