A week after Florida Atlantic University’s first Presidential Search listening session on Aug. 29 — where students were noticeably sparse — the Buffkin/Baker search firm, which the search committee has hired to assist in the search for a new president, held the second listening session of the semester on Thursday.

Different FAU stakeholders brought up concerns about talent retention, academic freedom, housing concerns, low wages and more.

The damaged relationship between administration, faculty and staff caused concerns about academic freedom, said sociology professor Phillip Hough.

“A lot of dictates are coming down–political dictates from the Board of Governors [BOG] that are antithetical to what we’ve been trying to do at the university,” said Hough. “One [thing] like promote diversity, equity, and inclusion has been a really important and core value of what we’ve been trying to do.”

Kelly Roy, director for international enrollment services, said during the session that she and other staff members feel the university is a very “faculty-centric environment” and that faculty is more valued over staff. 

“It would be nice to have a president who showed their appreciation and support for staff as much as faculty,” said Roy. “Our salaries are not enough to live in Boca or even some of the surrounding cities.”

Roy continued to say that staff are not compensated well and that salaries are “very poor.”  

The problem of wages isn’t exclusive to faculty and staff. Aubrey Clark, who holds a bachelor’s and master’s degrees in biological sciences from FAU and is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in integrative biology, pointed out during the listening sessions that the stipends offered to teaching assistants are insufficient. 

“The general issue is just that departments are counting on graduate students to run a lot of the labs or teach things because there are just a ton of students, and they don’t hire that many professors,” Clark said.  “The stipend that I receive is not enough to cover the cost of living, especially in an area like Boca Raton where it’s so expensive.” 

Clark continued to say that with two degrees in this field, she feels like the university doesn’t respect her “time or expertise.”

The rising cost of living in Boca Raton was a recurring theme of the listening sessions.

Faculty and staff voiced their concern about FAU’s ability to retain and attract top talent, particularly in light of the university’s current housing crisis and Florida’s political landscape. 

“The political situation in Florida in regards to education scares the hell out of me,” said Laurie Nesbitt, a senior instructor in the business communications program. 

Stephen Wertheimer, former president of the Lifelong Learning Institute at FAU, emphasized the challenges the next president will face, particularly with retaining star faculty in the humanities and social sciences departments. 

“Their curriculum and syllabus design may be subject to very severe political pressure and criticism, and good faculty have opportunities that they can go to someplace else,” Wertheimer said. “As a mentor of mine once said… It takes a long time to build a good faculty. It takes no time at all to lose it.” 

Desiree George, a career coach at the College of Business, expanded on this point, noting that the political climate affects not only the university’s ability to attract and retain faculty but also limits the academic opportunities available to students. 

During the listening sessions, she expressed interest in pursuing a doctorate at FAU. However, George pointed out that a key course, which initially drew her to the program, is no longer offered “because of the political climate and the potential ramifications of what could happen if that class were taught.” This led her to reconsider enrolling in the program.

“Being able to navigate this political climate, but also keeping in mind that they are the president of this university, and so they’re representing all of the staff, faculty and students and not being afraid to speak up and say something sometimes,” George said. 

The sessions also reflected the need for a president with political experience and a strong understanding of student affairs. 

“I often feel like, in any institution in higher education, the student affairs staff and employees, they tend to be overlooked,” George said.

She stressed the importance of recognizing employees in that department, saying the president should make sure “we are being heard, we are being valued, we are getting the things that we need.”

George also believes the university lacks sufficient resources to effectively teach leadership skills. Besides LinkedIn Learning and a new system within Human Resources that contains different learning modules, there isn’t anything available, she said.

“I see or hear from others that people will go into leadership positions or they aspire for leadership positions, but they don’t actually have the training to be a leader. They don’t have the resources or maybe not even sometimes the support to be in that role,” George said.

The university has plans to become an (R1) Institution, which is the highest research classification for universities in the United States. Adriana Garriga-López, an anthropology professor, wants a president with a clear vision of how to get there.

“It’s very important to me to know what the future is going to [be] like for me as a researcher at FAU… I do not see that there is a very cohesive vision for that,” said Garriga-Lopez. 

The local housing crisis is particularly important to Annette LaRocco, a political science professor. She would like the next president to have a plan specifically to address the issue, especially for junior faculty.

“This is a major issue for retention of new faculty, but it is also speaking to the larger transition to R1,” said LaRocco. “Our wages do not match any R1 standard.” 

She hopes that the potential candidates plan to address the situation with “candidness and openness.”

Earnie Ellison, an FAU Board of Trustees and Presidential Search Committee member, addressed the growing divide between FAU’s campuses.

“I visited the north campus quite a few times, and I had a session with the students… and I think when you go back up there for a listening session, you’re going to hear more of the students mentioning a divide between the north campus and the south campus, even from sports activities and some classes…. They didn’t feel that they were as connected to the social college life as what they think is happening at the Boca campus,” he said.

Community member Numa Rais echoed a similar sentiment, stressing the importance of a president who can embrace campus life across all locations, not just Boca Raton. 

“There is, I think, historically the tendency to focus on the operation in Boca Raton, and master plans over the years have not addressed the huge potential of those facilities… I think there is an opportunity there for the next president that she or he may explore and put FAU on the map just as the [NCAA Tournament] Final Four did for us,” Rais said.

Rais also noted the commuter culture at FAU, where many students leave campus at the end of the day. 

“…. You don’t really have anything that keeps students on campus, so they come in the morning, and they leave in the evening; so I think there is also an opportunity in student life that maybe the master plan has not been addressing ,” Rais said 

He continued to elaborate on how FAU campuses, specifically Boca Raton and Jupiter, become ghost towns on weekends and in the afternoon. But, other universities have an abundant student life on campus, even while classes aren’t in session. 

Faculty and staff also highlighted some of the university’s assets that could attract potential presidential candidates, including Aryeh Lehrer, vice chair of FAU’s Alumni Association Board, who reflected on the university’s role in fostering diversity and economic mobility. 

Lehrer believes that FAU brings a certain “uniqueness” because of the great diversity in students and alumni. He said that there are many first-generation students, which plays into economic mobility. 

“There’s a story that’s very different there from the universities of Florida of the world, that for the right person is going to be a motivating factor and something that they’re going to be probably passionate about–maybe it mirrors their background a bit–but something that they can really engage with,” Lehrer said.

The next in-person listening session, scheduled for Monday, Sept. 9, will be held at all FAU campuses. The Boca Raton campus sessions will be held at the Schmidt Family Complex for Academic and Athletic Excellence in room 107, beginning at 8 a.m.

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

JD Delcastillo is the Managing Editor for the University Press. For information regarding this or other stories, email him at jd.delcastillo954@gmail.com, DM on Instagram @jd.delcastillo or on X (Twitter) @jd_delcastillo.