In the quest to push the university to Carnegie R1 status, Levine and the Board have promised to find a permanent replacement with a "comprehensive, methodical, all-inclusive" search that will include stakeholders both on and off-campus, including faculty. Of course, those faculty won't be able to get in front of those individuals until a finalist pool is determined and three weeks before they are interviewed under a new state law. There are currently four other openings at large state universities in Florida that also will be impacted, including:

The University of Florida, which is searching for a new leader to take over for Kent Fuchs, who announced he was stepping down from his post at the end of this academic year to take a faculty position;
The University of North Florida, whose trustees have approved Moez Limayem to replace interim leader Pamela Chally. The state board is set to begin its process next week;
Florida International University, which named Kenneth Jessell as its interim president in January to replace the embattled Mark Rosenberg;
And Florida Gulf Coast University, whose president Mike Martin is retiring after five years at the end of the year.

At the University of South Florida, the process went as planned, with trustee choice Rhea Law—the former interim president—confirmed by the Florida Board of Governors and voted in as the new president in March. It is unclear whether the other selections will be embraced by the state board. Law is one of only six current presidents in the system that is remaining, and none of them predate 2017. The two most veteran presidents are Martha Saunders at the University of West Florida and Larry Robinson and Florida A&M, with five years of service each. Alexander Cartwright has been the University of Central Florida president for a little more than two years, while Florida State University's Richard McCullough and Patricia Okker at New College of Florida have been in their positions for less than a year.

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FAU president becomes 8th state university leader to exit during pandemic

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