University of Florida associate provost Brian Harfe is the third provost candidate to visit Florida Atlantic University and speak with faculty and staff in a Q&A forum.

FAU held its third and final open forum on Thursday, moderated by Valery Forbes, dean of the Charles E. Schmidt College of Science. In regard to the next steps of this search, university spokesperson Joshua Glanzer wrote in an email to the University Press: “Faculty and staff have been encouraged to provide feedback on the candidates via an electronic form sent out with the open forum invites. This will be shared with the search committee and the president before the president makes his decision.”

FAU hosted the first two candidates, Scott Beaulier on Oct. 20 and Sandra Richtermeyer on Oct. 22, in a similar Q&A style forum moderated by Forbes.

The University Press reached out to media relations about President Hasner’s timeline on appointing the new provost, but did not receive an answer in time for publication.

During the Q&A, faculty and staff brought up concerns over preserving FAU’s R1 designation and metrics, keeping up with artificial intelligence, and advocating for the faculty in the midst of headwinds.

Harfe serves as the associate provost in the Office of the Provost at UF. Beforehand, he served as the associate dean in the UF College of Liberal Arts and Sciences for 11 years.

Jeanette Wyneken, FAU biological sciences professor, asked Harfe why he left his career in research to be an administrator. Harfe explained that he wants to serve students on a larger scale to be successful, and FAU is the place to do that.

As an advocate for embracing and learning how to coexist with AI, Harfe was asked about how higher education is keeping up with generative AI. “If a student can answer an assignment using generative AI, then they should. The faculty member has to design a better assignment if they don’t want the student to use generative AI,” said Harfe.

Harfe continued by saying that faculty need to be trained on how to use generative AI as well as what the detectors are. “It’s not fair to tell the faculty, ‘Go use generative AI’ and understand what it is, that is not fair and not the right way to do it,” said Harfe.

William Trapani is currently an associate professor in the School of Communication in the College of Arts and Letters and has been elected as the Faculty Senate President.

Trapani asked Harfe, “What are some FAU-specific challenges you anticipate we will be facing in the near future, and how would you, as provost, help?”

“A challenge right now is FAU is not doing well, it’s just not,” said Harfe in reference to metrics such as FAU’s two-year retention rate and four-year graduation rate.

“Improving those metrics, get more money, feed it back into the university,” said Harfe.

To improve FAU’s four-year graduate rate, he explained that a method would be to create more available courses for students and cater to their schedules. He emphasized the importance of accommodating students’ responsibilities and commitments outside of school, and the importance of teaching the modality that best fits their schedule.

Harfe took the floor to ask the faculty and staff in attendance one question, “What’s not working?”

Gary Perry, a neuroscience professor and the director of the Center for Complex Systems, alongside Wyneken and Trapani, expressed faculty frustration over online formats such as Canvas and Interfolio.

“I sympathize with some of those aspects and I’m going to point at your faculty senate to take care of everything,” Harfe jokingly said in response to “administrative burden.”

Ava Hilton is the Copy Desk Chief for the University Press. For information regarding this or other stories, email ava.hilton13@gmail.com.