Ralph Wilson, Lakey, Regina Joseph and Zachary SchultzMy View

The battle over Florida State University’s next president seems to have slowed, except that the FSU Board of Trustees quietly “postponed” its Aug. 26 meeting. This meeting was the last chance for Chair Allan Bense to answer the overwhelming call to restructure the Presidential Search Advisory Committee before the selection process starts in September.

Currently, Bense’s PSAC is made up of 26 percent faculty/student seats, while 64 percent represent corporate/political interests. Bense and 14 other nonacademic members voted in May, against all students and faculty, to accept state Sen. John Thrasher as the sole candidate for consideration without as much as an application. Interestingly, Sen. Thrasher is running the re-election campaign of Gov. Rick Scott, who appointed Bense as chair of the trustees.

Bense also chairs the Board of Directors of the James Madison Institute. JMI is heavily funded by the Charles Koch Foundation and was involved in implementing the controversial 2008 contract between CKF and FSU’s Department of Economics. Described originally as a “two-fold conflict of interest” by the Faculty Senate, the contract gives CKF inappropriate influence over faculty hiring and curriculum. In 2013, President Eric Barron (and now-Interim President Garnett Stokes) secretly authorized an amended and arguably worse version of the original contract. If Koch wins the battle for FSU’s next president, it gives the Koch brothers direct power to promote their own agenda and to plunder academic integrity.

One month after the exposure of the 2013 Koch contract, Thrasher chaired a Senate Rules Committee meeting at which students and faculty spoke out against the “Koch Cover-up Bill.” This bill, now state law, blocks all public access to meetings between private donors and public university foundations.

Predictably, HB 115 was sponsored by legislators who champion the Koch-funded organizations American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) and Americans for Prosperity.

The bill allows donors such as the Kochs to keep contracts with universities out of public view. As these universities are not required to disclose donor funding, they would have to rely on whistleblowers to speak up only after corrupt contracts have been signed. Despite hearing these concerns from student and faculty testimony, Thrasher voted in support of the bill. Seven short days after the bill passed, Thrasher was fast-tracked by Bense’s PSAC.

The corporate/political influence on Bense’s PSAC is blatant and unapologetic. Many members have direct connections to the controversial corporate-legislative partnership ALEC and Koch-funded institutes. In fact, ALEC/Koch affiliates have more representation on Bense’s PSAC than either faculty or students.

In May, FSU United Faculty of Florida leveled demands for additional student and faculty votes on the PSAC. The FSU Student Senate, Congress of Graduate Students, UFF-FSU-Graduate Assistants United, and many other student groups have called for one-third student representation. After FSU Student Body President Stefano Cavallaro called for increased student representation, Bense told the Tallahassee Democrat that he “would consider the plea for additional student spots.”

To help Bense we have created a very specific “Student Plan” (go to http://bit.ly/1qfMB3y). Any further refusal by Bense to restructure the PSAC, given his connections to JMI and the Charles Koch Foundation, serves as a “conflict of interest” by way of the Board of Trustees’ own ethics policy (see the “Student Plan” for details).

The selection of FSU’s next president must be independent of corporate influence. We demand a complete restructure of the current PSAC. Our proposal removes corporate/political control and allows those with direct academic ties to the university to have the majority vote. We feel confident that a faculty/student majority will answer all calls for renewed academic integrity at FSU and guarantee a president with full academic credentials.

We insist that Bense restore the “postponed” August BOT meeting and motion for a complete PSAC restructure in line with the “Student Plan.”

Any other action will only be interpreted as an act of political hostility toward our great university and an ongoing attack in the battle over FSU’s academic freedom.

Ralph Wilson represents the FSU Progress Coalition. Contact him at ralph.wilson.ralph@gmail.com. Lakey (her full legal name) represents UFF-FSU-Graduate Assistants United. Regina Joseph represents Tallahassee Dream Defenders. Zachary Schultz represents Tallahassee Students for a Democratic Society.