As FAMU embarks on the process of selecting its 13th permanent president, it faces a daunting task. Attracting a high-caliber leader willing to navigate the highly politicized environment of Florida will be difficult, especially as the state's public universities contend with ongoing ideological pressures and limited resources.
Being a public university president in a red state is widely regarded as one of the toughest jobs in higher education today. Public universities in politically charged environments are under siege, facing constant pressure from state legislators and navigating the financial fallout from years of underfunding.
The attacks on public higher education go beyond budgetary concerns or management issues.
Politicians are attempting to dismantle universities through various means, including efforts to reduce tenure protections, enact anti-Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) legislation, and impose restrictions on what can be taught. These actions are part of a broader effort to strip public universities of their autonomy and diminish their influence and authority.
The goal of these attacks is clear: to undermine the critical role that public universities play in shaping a well-informed and educated workforce and citizenry. As public universities struggle with political and financial crises, private universities are seizing the opportunity to attract top faculty and administrators by offering better resources and less political interference.
The opening act of what may be in store was the FAMU Trustees' tomfoolery taking three meetings just to select a search firm.
To compound the challenges, the Florida Board of Governors (BOG) last September approved a measure giving it more say in presidential searches at the state’s public institutions. The new policy requires the BOG chair to sign off on a list of finalists before the candidates are submitted to individual university boards of trustees. This additional layer of oversight could further complicate FAMU's efforts to find a suitable leader.
Artis Hampshire-Cowan, a higher education consultant who advises FAMU's board of trustees, shared her perspective on a successful search with FAMU trustees during a virtual meeting last summer. Hampshire-Cowan emphasized the need for a business-executive mindset in university leadership.
“Presidents have to be business executives to be successful and effective; they have to be really good at relationship building and influence — not by authority, but by influence. And so, personality is a factor, and tenacity,” Hampshire-Cowan said.
In Hampshire-Cowan’s experience, qualified academic candidates are increasingly passing on the opportunity to serve as university presidents “because they don’t see it as an opportunity anymore.”
“Some of the complications as we’ve talked to a lot of people who would make great presidents but are declining the opportunity really has to do with the complexity of the work now,” she said. She emphasized a candidate should be innovative, creative, able to motivate, a believer in strong accountability, and able to manage risk.
Being a great academic and “sort of okay” manager used to be enough, but now the complexity of university finances, the scramble for resources, and retaining talent pose larger challenges.
“We really need to lean into looking for diverse candidates, not just in terms of race but in terms of experience,” she said. “You know, we typically look for that traditional Ph.D., having come up through the higher ed system, but the new thinking is the skillset now for higher ed is really no different than recruiting for a Fortune 100 company.”
FAMU is ranked as the country’s top HBCU by U.S. News & World Report and also a top 100 public university. In a normal climate this would be a jewel of a job, but given Florida's politics many outstanding potential candidates may choose to sit this one out.