The next president of Florida Atlantic University will not be required to have a college degree, according to search criteria approved by FAU trustees last month, Boca Magazine reported.
Board members who wanted to eliminate the degree requirement argued that it will allow FAU to cast a wider net for potential applicants, whereas requiring a degree might exclude Fortune 500 CEOs; they noted that some, such as Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg, dropped out of college to launch companies. Others noted it was unusual to waive a degree requirement for the position.
Many colleges require prospective presidents to have a degree at the doctoral level.
The decision to waive the degree requirement comes as FAU begins its presidential search anew. The last effort was halted by state officials due to alleged anomalies in the process, namely a straw poll used to rank candidates anonymously, which was found to have violated state sunshine law. However, critics have alleged the search was scuttled because the board did not choose state GOP lawmaker Randy Fine as one of the finalists announced last year. Fine told Inside Higher Ed that Republican governor Ron DeSantis had assured him he would “waltz right in” to the presidency.
The Florida Board of Governors has since given itself more oversight of presidential searches.
Florida has hired multiple Republican lawmakers into top education roles in recent years. Examples include Ray Rodrigues as chancellor of the State University System of Florida, Ben Sasse as president of the University of Florida and Richard Corcoran at New College of Florida. (Sasse resigned amid scrutiny over his spending after less than 18 months on the job.)
Others from the GOP political sphere include Fred Hawkins at South Florida State College, who was hired in 2023 after a failed search and after the board voted to drop a terminal degree requirement in its next search. Former Republican state lawmaker Mel Ponder was recently named president of Northwest Florida State College. Neither has higher education experience.
