Dive Brief:
- Bill Funk, the executive search consultant for Florida State University's presidential search, withdrew from the project Monday following faculty accusations that he favored a state senator’s candidacy for the position.
- Funk's Texas headhunting firm has helped hire about 400 college and university presidents, and he announced his departure with a two-sentence statement, blaming “the environment that has evolved” around the search.
- According to Inside Higher Ed, the FSU Faculty Senate's no-confidence vote of against Funk seems to be the first time such a tactic has been used by professors opposing the direction of a presidential search.
Dive Insight:
Because the no-confidence vote was apparently effective in ousting Funk, faculty at other schools could begin using the tactic to influence presidential searches elsewhere, according to Inside Higher Ed. Faculty accused the headhunter of either ignoring the FSU presidential search committee’s advice or making back-room deals to benefit state Sen. John Thrasher, former speaker of the Florida House of Representatives and chairman of Gov. Rick Scott’s reelection campaign, who at one point was controversially the lone candidate for the job. Funk departs with $61,000 in fees plus expenses — his contract was to pay him $75,000 plus expenses for the search.
