He had no right to speak for me and other search committee members, who absolutely did not agree with his opinion.” “Because he was not supposed to be putting any information out there, and not only that, but speaking for other search committee members. How the university is going to go after him?” Feingold asked. “I’d really like to know what’s going to happen to Dick Schmidt. Longtime donor Dick Schmidt, a member of the search committee, wrote an opinion piece in the Sun Sentinel where he didn’t name Fine but voiced alarm about news reports suggesting the Board of Governors had halted the search because the finalists “did not include the governor’s reported personal selection for the position.”ĭuring the meeting, Feingold blasted Schmidt, who did not attend. Many faculty members, students and donors oppose Fine, a self-described “conservative firebrand,” citing his lack of experience in higher education and his sponsorship of controversial legislation, including bills to restrict drag shows and root out what he sees as “wokeism” in the state. She gave $10,000 last October to Fine’s political committee, Friends of Randy Fine, as he planned a state Senate campaign as well as $1,000 to his House campaign in 2016, state records show. “Whatever they were saying at the Board of Trustee meeting was incomplete,” he said.įeingold didn’t say which candidates she supported for finalists, but observers see her as an ally to Fine. The university even named a building after him. When he was ready to leave in 2022 after seven years, they asked him to stay longer, which he declined, Sartarelli said.
Faculty members voiced anger that Sartarelli wasn’t fully in support of diversity, equity and inclusion programs in the wake of the George Floyd murder.īut Sartarelli’s bosses, the Board of Trustees and state university system leadership supported him, he told the South Florida Sun Sentinel. The university’s Faculty Senate took a vote of no confidence in late 2020, which failed, but then voted to censure him. “The other candidate is retired and why is he a retired chancellor of the university? Because he had a Board of Trustees that voted him out in a no-confidence vote,” she said. Naval Academy.īuck could not be reached for comment Tuesday. Last month, Christopher Rufo, a conservative appointee to the Board of Trustees for New College of Florida, tried to derail Buck’s candidacy, saying he pushed “radical” diversity, equity and inclusion efforts at the U.S. The report did not conclude the statements were made in an effort to deceive and did not recommend any discipline, according to the report. The report concluded Buck made false statements to others, although not under oath, that a midshipman first class told him he would use military force against civilian rioters. Though she didn’t elaborate, this allegation appeared to stem from a September 2022 Department of Defense inspector general report about Buck, which the conservative group Judicial Watch obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request. That’s a problem for us to put in as a president of the university,” Feingold said. There’s “one in the military, who lied under oath. She made claims about the two that appear to not be fully accurate. The Board of Governor’s inspector general has 120 days to complete the investigation, which should be sometime in November, Levine told the trustees Tuesday.įAU presidential search panelist: Our work has been ‘slandered’ | Opinionįeingold also revealed she didn’t support any of the three finalists and said she has serious concerns with two, Buck and Sartarelli. Feingold even said she’s holding off on signing a gift agreement on a $30 million pledge she made for a new FAU dental school until the presidential issues are resolved. Levine praised the work of a presidential search committee as well as its selection of three finalists, while Feingold criticized Levine, two of the finalists and the entire search process. The meeting revealed a clear rift between the board’s chairman, Brad Levine, and vice chairwoman, Barbara Feingold, both of whom are appointees of Gov. Tuesday’s meeting of the trustees, held via videoconference, was the first since the State University System’s Board of Governors suspended the presidential search July 7 to investigate alleged “anomalies,” including the use of a straw poll to narrow candidates and a voluntary diversity survey by a search firm that asked questions about applicants’ sexual orientation and gender identity. The stalled search for the new president of Florida Atlantic University is causing conflict on the school’s Board of Trustees as well as threats by major donors to stop giving to the university.
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