UF’s presidential search committee was announced today. The 15 committee members are charged with hand selecting UF’s next president, and the Florida’s Board of Governors will ratify the decision.
Five are UF faculty members, two are members of the Florida Board of Governors and three are members of the UF Board of Trustees. There is one student body representative.
Rahul Patel, the Vice Chair of the UF Board of Trustees, was selected to be the Chair of the committee. The other members of the search committee are as follows:
- Charles Allison, UF Alumnus and IFAS Representative
- Douglas Band, UF Alumnus
- John Brinkman, UF Student Representative, UF Student Body President
- Timothy Cerio, UF Alumnus and member of the Board of Governors
- Shakira Henderson, Dean, College of Nursing
- Charles Lydecker, Board of Governors Representative
- Sarah Lynne, UF Faculty Representative, Faculty Senate Chair and Associate Professor in the Department of Family, Youth and Community Service
- Duane Mitchell, UF Faculty Representative, Phyllis Kottler Friedman Professor in the Department of Neurosurgery and Director of the UF Clinical Translational Science Institute
- Michael Okun, UF Faculty Representative, Professor, Department of Neurology and Director, Norman Fixel Institute for Neurological Diseases
- Marsha Powers, UF Trustee
- Jon Pritchett, Chair, UF Foundation Executive Board
- Robert Stilley, UF Alumnus
- Karen Unger, UF Alumnus
- Patrick Zalupski, UF Trustee
Every university in the state of Florida follows a similar presidential search process approved by the Florida Board of Governors. At UF, the search is initiated when the Chair of the UF Board of Trustees appoints a search committee of up to 15 members.
This committee must include one member from the Florida Board of Governors, at least three members from the UF Board of Trustees and representatives from UF’s faculty, student body and foundation board. Anyone who reports directly to the president is not eligible to become a committee member. The UF Board of Trustees Chairman selects the committee chair, and this person must be a member of the Board as well.
Once the search committee is established, the UF Board of Trustees must obtain an executive compensation analysis, which is a review that considers the compensation paid to the current president, presidents of peer institutions and other relevant factors, such as market trends that the committee will use to decide upon a compensation range. The range will be submitted to the UF Board of Trustees for approval and used in negotiating the employment contract with the final candidate.
The search committee will then work with a search firm or consultant to identify potential applicants, evaluate their experience and create a pool of qualified applicants. The applicant pool will then be narrowed down to 10-20 candidates for interviews through a thorough vetting process.
Following interviews, the candidates will have consultations with faculty, students and other UF stakeholders. The search committee will then present at least two qualified applicants to the UF Board of Trustees — if only one candidate emerges, the UF Board of Trustees will be informed of the reasons and decide whether or not to proceed, according to the Board of Governors’ website.
The Board of Trustees is expected to support the search committee by conducting preliminary background checks, selecting final candidates for interviews with UF’s stakeholders, drafting an employment contract and submitting an outline of the search to the Board of Governors. The Board is also responsible for choosing a final, qualified candidate for the role of president-elect and must recommend the candidate to the Board of Governors for confirmation.
During UF’s last presidential search in 2022, former UF president Ben Sasse was publicly announced as the previous search committee’s sole finalist.
Mori Hosseini, the Chair of the Board of Trustees, said in today’s announcement the committee’s responsibilities and committee members’ biographies will be made public online.
The link to the website will be shared soon, according to an email announcement from UF. A timeline for the presidential search’s completion is unknown, but interim UF President Kent Fuchs previously said he expects a president to be selected by mid-2025.
Contact Annie Wang at awang@alligator.org. Follow her on X @wynwg.
Annie Wang is a sophomore journalism student and the Fall 2024 University Administration Reporter. She previously wrote for the University Desk as a General Assignment reporter. In her spare time, she can be found reading and writing book reviews.
