After an 11-month delay, FAU is rebooting its search for a new president

Editor's note: This story has been updated.

Florida Atlantic University’s leaders moved Tuesday, June 4, to relaunch their long-stalled search for a new president, agreeing to form a search committee nearly a year after their previous search was abruptly halted by the state.

The chairperson of the university’s board of trustees said he hopes the new committee can present a list of finalists for trustees to consider by January. If so, it would mark a full two years since the retirement of FAU’s last permanent president, John Kelly.

Chairperson Piero Bussani said he had appointed 15 people to the committee, including faculty members, trustees, alumni and others. The committee will be headed by Trustee Sherry Murphy, a sales executive and Jupiter resident, he said.

More: Florida university leaders censure FAU chair, escalating tensions over presidential search

“I firmly believe that this 15-member board reflects the broad voices across the FAU community,” he said.

Trustees on Tuesday gave Bussani authority to select a search firm to aid in the process. The search committee is expected to begin its work this summer but no date has been set for its first meeting.

In the nearly 1 ½ years since Kelly’s retirement, faculty leaders say the school has been hamstrung by the lack of a permanent leader.

Stacy Volnick, the school's chief operating officer, is serving as interim president, but faculty members say major strategic and hiring decisions have been postponed amid uncertainty about the school’s future leadership.

FAU trustees say they have been anxious to move forward. But the search has been on hold since July amid political rancor, debates about government-transparency laws and accusations of meddling by state university officials.

Search upended when conservative firebrand's name arose as a potential candidate

What is normally a straightforward presidential search process was upended last year by the emergence of state Rep. Randy Fine, a conservative firebrand from Brevard County, as a potential candidate for the job.

Fine received vocal backing from Gov. Ron DeSantis, leading to speculation that DeSantis might push to place Fine in the role as part of his effort to put more Republican officials in university leadership posts.

But when FAU’s search committee released a list of finalists in July, Fine was not among the names.

Two days later, the chancellor of the state university system halted the search process, citing concerns about whether the search committee had adhered to government-transparency rules.

More: A school employee said he got a doctorate from FAU to get extra pay. Now he owes $10K

Those concerns led to an investigation by the university system’s inspector general, who concluded in December that the committee’s decision to use an anonymous ballot to informally rank candidates violated state open-government rules.

Florida's Board of Governors decided the search needed to be redone. The search remained on hold for several more months as the university system updated its rules and procedures for presidential searches.

In February, FAU’s chairperson, Brad Levine stepped down as chair after the university system’s Board of Governors issued a vote of no confidence in him.

The committee members were officially announced Tuesday evening. They are:

• Craig Mateer, Board of Governors.

• Sherry Murphy, FAU trustee.

• Pablo Paez, FAU trustee.

• Ernie Ellison, FAU trustee.

• Kevin Wagner, FAU professor and associate dean.

• Stefan Andjelkovic, FAU Student Body president-elect.

• Brian Poulin, Chair, FAU Foundation Board.

• Roland Valdivieso, FAU alumnus.

• Jeff Joyner, FAU alumnus.

• Michelle Hagerty, philanthropist.

• Scott McClenaghan, executive vice president, SE Florida Pro CRE at First Horizon Bank.

• John Tolbert, senior vice president, Blackstone Real Estate Hotels & Resorts.

• Robert “Bobby” D’Angelo, FAU alumnus.

• Stephanie Toothaker, Esq., chairwoman and chief Strategist, Toothaker.org.

• Robert Allen, Esq., founding partner, Robert Allen Law.

Andrew Marra is a reporter at The Palm Beach Post. You can reach him at amarra@pbpost.com.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Florida Atlantic University restarts president search after delays