John Volin, one of three finalists for Florida Atlantic University’s current presidential search, presented his vision for the institution during a series of public forums on Feb. 6. If elected, he would become FAU’s eighth president. 

Volin, the current executive vice president and provost at the University of Maine, addressed topics about academic freedom, artificial intelligence and student success during the forums. These question-and-answer sessions were divided into three categories: One for Faculty, another for Students and then Staff, Donors and Community Members across three FAU campuses. 

Volin started his academic career at FAU, joining as an assistant professor of botany in late 1995 after completing his doctorate and postdoctoral work at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. 

During his early years at FAU, he received the Broward Alliance’s first Educator of the Year Award and FAU’s 2001 Researcher of the Year Award for his research in the Florida Everglades.

“What I really liked about FAU was the entrepreneurial and innovative culture,” Volin said during the Faculty forum. 

That familiarity with FAU came into play when questioned about his ability to lead a large university with six campuses and around 30,000 students. Volin pointed to his experience at similarly sized institutions. 

“I’ve been working 25 years at universities this size,” he said, citing his 13 years at the University of Connecticut (UConn) — which has about 32,000 students — and his 12-year tenure at FAU. 

Since his time at FAU, he said that his administrative credentials include serving as department head of UConn’s Department of Natural Resources and the Environment for nearly a decade. 

In his current role at the University of Maine, he is leading the UMS TRANSFORMS Student Success and Retention Initiative, a $45 million grant-funded program designed to facilitate a student success culture across seven universities in the Maine System.

Volin also oversees personnel decisions, including hiring eight deans, two associate provosts, the vice president for enrollment management and an athletic director. 

With FAU currently operating under Interim Provost Russ Ivy’s leadership, faculty members were particularly interested in how Volin would approach selecting a permanent provost. He said he would conduct a national search for one if elected president.

“You need to empower the provost. You don’t need to micromanage the provost,” he said. “I’m in constant communication with my president every day through text, email and phone calls.”

The conversation turned to pressing campus concerns, with faculty members raising issues about academic freedom in Florida’s current political climate. 

“FAU is pretty unique in terms of having a really diverse student body…” said a film studies professor. “Academic freedom is this really abstract concept, but in some ways, we’re talking about marginalizing the identities of our students here on campus. All this anti-DEI, anti-black history stuff, anti-LGBTQ+ is directly impacting our students who only have a finite amount of time in college, which I worry about.” 

The Florida Legislature signed Senate Bill 266 into law in July 2023, restricting diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives in higher education. 

Under this law, the Board of Governors can remove courses they determine to be based on “theories that systemic racism, sexism, oppression, and privilege are inherent in the institutions of the United States and were created to maintain social, political, and economic inequalities.”

“An us against them approach is not going to work,” Volin said, referring to the Florida Legislature. “Politicians, the adults in this country, the communities, businesses, they all want students to be successful.”

But the film studies professor wasn’t convinced. 

“Students only have this certain amount of time to discover their voices, discover their community, see things that they haven’t seen before in K-12,” he said. 

The University Press attended the forums remotely, with the student session held without recording. 

“Our students, our faculty, our staff should all feel that they have a place here, that they belong… and they should expect to have their voices heard and they should expect to be seen and valued as community members,” Volin said. 

Besides campus politics, Volin expressed particular concern about the perception of higher education. 

“Right now, close to 7 in 10 adults in the U.S. don’t think college and higher ed is worth the cost anymore,” he said, referencing a Gallup study. “We’ve lost the public trust; that’s a problem to me.”

Volin also outlined his plan to modernize the university’s approach to technology. He said he would make Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools more accessible to students, faculty and staff if elected president. 

“There’s the free version out there that’s great, but if you pay for it, it’s a much higher level, and some students can’t afford it… That’s an unfair advantage,” Volin said. “The university has to make that an equal playing field.”

However, the need for technological updates extends beyond AI. 

“Our information systems are atrociously outdated,” one faculty member said. “It shocks me that I can’t pull up a list of my own students… It feels like a lot of our systems come from the 80s and the 90s.”

Financial challenges also emerged as a key theme of the forums, especially regarding graduate teaching assistant support. With current compensation at $12,169 per year for teaching two courses each term, faculty members expressed concern about student retention, given Boca Raton’s cost of living. 

“[Students] can’t afford to live here. They have to live really far away and they try to figure out ways to commute. Some of them drop out of programs,” one professor said. 

Volin’s forums followed fellow finalist Michael Hartline’s forums on Feb. 3. Adam Hasner is scheduled to appear next on Feb. 7. 

The university community has until midnight on Feb. 7 to submit feedback on the candidates through an online survey before the Board of Trustees makes its final decision on Feb. 10.

Laurie Mermet is the News Editor for the University Press. For information regarding this or other stories, email lmermet2022@fau.edu or DM laurie.mmt on Instagram.