SOS MDC UPDATES:
- Rebooted Miami Dade College presidential search yields tiny candidate pool;
- United Faculty of Miami Dade submits public records request for presidential search documents;
- Tallahassee moves toward excluding college searches from Sunshine Law requirements
New MDC Trustees’ Presidential Search Falters, Alienating Faculty, Students, and Community
After conducting a comprehensive and transparent search last spring that included a search committee made up of business leaders, stakeholders, academics and students and that resulted in four highly qualified finalists, the Board of Trustees disbanded the committee, dismissed 3 of 4 finalists and opted to start over. Six months later, the future looks bleak and hazy. With little or no information readily available to the community about the steps that have been taken to undo this mess, the search firm has barely been able to muster up 14 applicants as of mid-February. Not surprising. Who would want to take the job after the fiasco that unraveled for all the world to see?
So, what now? The community deserves answers and in the spirit of transparency and integrity, the United Faculty of Miami Dade College has submitted a public records request to the Board of Trustees and Interim President Rolando Montoya.
Shade in the Sunshine - Two proposals moving forward in the Florida Legislature would make the process of selecting presidents at public colleges and universities more secretive. The House State Affairs Committee on Thursday approved a leadership-backed bill (PCB SAC 20-04) that would create a public-records and public-meetings exemption for information related to presidential searches. In the Senate, an identical bill (SB 774) passed its first committee last week, with Democratic Sen. Lori Berman of Lantana casting the lone dissenting vote.
The State Affairs Committee approved the House version in a 16-6 vote.