UF's law community is experiencing anger and embarrassment due to the rejection of two dean candidates who provided us with an great chance to move forward.

I am a tenured full professor at the University of Florida Levin College of Law. I came to this institution in 1993, as both the college and the university were struggling to free themselves from the legacy of southern segregation.

Between then and now, the College of Law has experienced many tumultuous moments, particularly over diversity issues. These chaotic upheavals have rarely produced anything of value for our college. The same can be said of the current fiasco created by UF President Bernie Machen's act of failing our dean search.

An article in The Sun last week did not adequately reflect the depth of the anger and embarrassment our community is experiencing as a result of the rejection of two candidates we believed provided our college with an excellent opportunity to move forward. Machen could not give any concrete explanation for why the candidates forwarded to him, particularly University of Kentucky College of Law Dean David Brennen and former ambassador to New Zealand David Huebner, could not satisfy his criteria.

In an email sent to our faculty, he stated that he made his decision after consulting "stakeholders." These "stakeholders" could not have been anyone from our community who would have worked with the new dean. We suspect that these "stakeholders" were the individuals who tried to force Alex Acosta, dean of the Florida International University College of Law, upon our faculty.

Our faculty rejected him as unsuitable. Machen was quoted as saying he wanted a "visionary" to lead the law school. Where was his concern for visionary leadership when he reappointed our current dean six years ago, despite the fact it was clear he had absolutely no coherent vision for our college? Machen stated he met with us so that we could have a fresh start to "deal with our problems." But the problems our college is facing have been caused in part by leadership's lack of vision and then aggravated by central administration's incessant interference with our process of faculty governance.

As The Sun has noted in its coverage of the search, there were grave concerns from its inception over what was perceived as central administration's repeated attempts to exclude the law faculty from having any real impact on the process. Florida's public records law was not and is not an impediment to a good search, as is being asserted. However, spending $90,000 on a search firm that was ignorant of the requirements of Florida law was a problem.

Despite all the odds, the searched produced three acceptable and qualified candidates, two of whom were highly qualified. Our students, our staff and our faculty, which has become increasingly fractious due to the lack of leadership from our current dean, managed to come to a strong consensus that at least two of the candidates had the potential to help take our college to the next level.

About one week before the university search committee met for the final time to select the three names that would be forwarded to Machen, rumors began to circulate that he would fail the search if Acosta did not make the final list. Surely, I thought, Machen would not be so foolish as to miss the historical significance of this moment for the university and our college. Surely, Machen would understand that it would be a bold and courageous move to propel Florida into the future by appointing either a black man or an openly gay man as the new dean of our college. I was wrong.

How ironic can it be that at an institution that constantly claims it cannot find enough "qualified" minority candidates to hire, our university president decides that a black man — who is a nationally recognized scholar, guided another law school upward in the rankings, served at our national accrediting institution for two years and presented very good ideas to us about how our college could re-envision itself for these new times — could not be transformative.

Our other candidate was a managing partner at two internationally known law firms. He too offered some exciting ideas about how we could propel ourselves to the next level. His connections with lawyers and law firms at the national and international level were incredible. And yet, Machen found him lacking as well.

Machen's decision delivers a terrible blow to our college. He has damaged our institution in the eyes of our peers throughout the country, and has now burdened any search we will conduct next year. What candidate of high quality would consider applying to be dean at UF after these shenanigans? Machen disrespected our faculty, students and staff, not only by crushing our hopes, but also by reminding us that he neither values nor understands the assets here at the College of Law.

For far too long the college has rested on laurels it achieved decades ago. We routinely squander opportunities that open the door to greatness, but this time, our college stepped up to the plate. We dared to hope and speak out loud that we could become great. But Machen was not ready. UF is not ready.

Perhaps the saddest truth is that we are now forced to admit publicly what we have only whispered among ourselves privately: this university and our college, pulled in the wake, are not capable of being more than what they were 20 years ago.

Michelle Jacobs is a UF law professor.