Amid controversy surrounding UF's recent hire of a state senator for a lecturer position, the online publication Inside Higher Ed reported Thursday that Florida State University hired another senator in September to oversee a reading center she helped create and fund.
FSU hired Sen. Evelyn Lynn, R-Ormond Beach, chairwoman of the Higher Education Appropriations Committee, to supervise its outreach reading center at Daytona Beach College.
As committee chairwoman, Lynn holds considerable power over FSU's budget. Senate records also show she helped establish the outreach center in 2006 and pushed for $1 million of the center's funding in 2007.
Lynn could not be reached for comment for this story.
In a November letter to FSU, Lynn clarified that her FSU position would not require any lobbying.
FSU Provost Larry Abele said Lynn's role is to work with local schools, not with the Legislature or any state leaders. Abele said FSU hired Lynn, a former Volusia County schools official, because she can use local contacts to help the center.
"She's clearly qualified for the position, and she's working hard," he said.
He said Lynn earns a biweekly salary of $4,600 and is on unpaid leave until the end of the legislative session.
That makes her appointment a 9-month position, which is about an $80,000 total salary, Abele said - a normal salary for her qualifications, he said.
Lynn also earns about $30,000 as a legislator and a $3,100-a-month pension as a past Volusia County educator.
Her FSU appointment brings up some of the same questions raised when UF hired Sen. Mike Haridopolos in February.
Haridopolos, R-Indialantic, expected to become Senate president in 2010, was hired for $75,000 to lecture in UF's political science department and coordinate internships for the Bob Graham Center for Public Service.
Both senators were hired without an open search and at a time when state universities are scrambling to save their budgets from hard-hitting cuts.
Abele said it's not unusual to fill a time-limited position such as Lynn's without conducting an open search because there aren't that many people interested in temporary jobs.
Ben Wilcox, executive director of Common Cause Florida, a nonprofit group that advocates open government, said Lynn's FSU position is legal as long as it's not a reward for helping the center get started.
Wilcox said Lynn's involvement on the Senate higher education committee appears to be a conflict of interest, which he said is just as bad in the eyes of the public.
"When the public sees something like that, they lose confidence in government," he said.
