Lt. Gov. Nuñez to head FIU, leave DeSantis administration

by Jay Waagmeester, Florida Phoenix
February 7, 2025

Florida International University trustees voted Friday to install Lt. Gov. Jeanette Nuñez as interim president, meaning she will leave her statewide-elected office 23 months before her term expires. Trustees expect she will assume the presidency officially after a formal search.

“The governor’s office has contacted me and suggested that we consider Lt. Gov. Jeanette Nuñez as the next leader for FIU,” Board of Trustees Chair Roger Tovar said during a special meeting held via Zoom. “Subsequent to that, I have had several conversations with the Lt. Gov. Nuñez, who confirmed her interest in leading this great university, which happens to be her alma mater.”

During a news conference on immigration Friday morning, DeSantis said the leap actually was her idea. He applauded Nuñez for her support for his policies as lieutenant governor, including efforts to “bring some sanity” to higher education. 

“This is something she was interested in doing, she had my endorsement and my support, and I think that she’s somebody that is very well regarded in the community anyways,” DeSantis said. 

The interim hiring would be effective Feb. 17. The university must launch a formal search to name a president, although trustee Dean Colson said the “probable results of the search are already known.”

Sitting FIU President Kenneth Jessell, who served for three years and whose contract was set to expire in November, will become senior vice president and chief administrative officer. Tovar called the administrative changes “additive.”

“I have complete confidence in the lieutenant governor,” Jessell said. “She’s a double Panther, and I look forward to supporting her. I look forward to continuing supporting our students, our faculty, our staff, our alumni, our great supporters and donors, and our community.”

Finding funding

Trustees praised Jessell’s leadership while emphasizing a desire to boost fundraising efforts. 

“Given the university FIU is today, a top 50 public preeminent research university, we need to increase our endowment to at least $500 million and triple our annual fundraising. World class universities have healthy endowments. This is imperative for the university’s future,” Tovar said.

The move, notably, comes shortly before the 2025 legislative session starts, when lawmakers will decide how much state support the Miami institution will receive.

Tovar said Nuñez’s experience as a health care lobbyist and lieutenant governor make her “an ideal leader to help transition FIU into the future,” noting her connections in the community and in Tallahassee.

She graduated from FIU in 1994 with a bachelor degree in political science and international relations and in 1998 earned a master degree in public administration. 

Nuñez posted to X following the vote, saying she is “deeply committed to the success of FIU. I look forward to working with the Board of Trustees in the coming days.”

Her salary as lieutenant governor is $135,000. The outgoing president, Jessell, made a base salary of $650,000.

Opposition

Trustee Noël Barengo, representative of the FIU Faculty Senate, was the lone no-vote on Nuñez. He questioned the need to remove Jessell before the contract ended and voiced “deep concern about what we see as another effort by the governor’s office to interfere with public higher education.”

Several of the about 15 people speaking during public comment questioned Nuñez’s qualifications to serve in higher education, as well as the need for a new president given the lack of criticism of Jessell’s leadership. 

“Jeanette Nuñez is a textbook example of what happens when politicians prioritize partisan loyalty over genuine leadership. Rather than standing up for people, for the people of Florida, Nuñez has acted as a rubber stamp for policies that erase history, limit opportunities, and push a narrow, exclusionary agenda,” said Kassandra Toussaint, mentioning Nuñez’s recent walk-back of her previous support for in-state tuition for Dreamers.

Every public-comment speaker was against the change in leadership.

“FIU deserves better than a yes-woman for DeSantis’ dangerous agenda,” Toussaint said. “We deserve leaders who fight for all of us, not just those who fit their narrow vision of who belongs.”

DeSantis specifically mentioned the Adam Smith Center for Economic Freedom at FIU, a think tank studying free-market policies labeled as non-partisan. He suggested the center might increase its activity under Nuñez. 

“I think you have pretty much every right-of-center former head of state in the entire Western hemisphere has been there to talk, and so they’ve really been great at promoting free enterprise and the rule of law and constitutional government. I think they’re going to be able to do a lot more of that going forward,” the governor said.

Florida Democratic Party Chair Nikki Fried called the hiring “Republican hypocrisy.”

“Just a few weeks after she backflipped on protecting in-state tuition for Dreamers — Jeanette Nuñez will now lead one of the most diverse colleges in the state. With her record, how can she be trusted to lead the college with the largest population of Hispanic students in the country?” Fried said in a prepared statement Friday morning. 

“Her appointment is just the latest move in Ron’s hostile takeover of Florida’s colleges and universities, as he continues to install political hacks and loyalists to push his partisan agenda,” Fried continued. “It has nothing to do with improving Florida’s cratering educational outcomes and everything to do with rewarding loyalty.”

‘Engaged governor’s office’

Naming of an interim president often follows the retirement or resignation of a sitting president. The transition at FIU defies common practice, Colson acknowledged.

“Is the current way we are selecting a president a perfect system? I don’t think so. Is the current selection process what was anticipated when the Florida Constitution was amended to create an independent board of governors? Again, I don’t think so,” Colson said.

“But will FIU find itself not just surviving but thriving over the next decade under its new leadership team? Well, I think so, and for that reason, I’m hopeful in support of your motion.”

Colson advocated for the Board of Governors to revise its presidential selection rules. 

“We all know that the BOG is an independent constitutional body, but its rules did not anticipate the reality of an engaged governor’s office being involved in the hiring of our presidents. I don’t think this engagement is going to change in the next two years. And I think you can’t help but wonder what happens in two years when we have a new governor — are these presidencies going to be included in the jobs that a new governor might want to fill during his or her transition or first few years in office?”

Presidential searches often take months, requiring appointment of a formal search committee that names a shortlist of finalists (in the case of University of Florida and Ben Sasse the list was as short as one) that must be approved by the Board of Governors and university trustees. 

The transition from interim to permanent president would cost “a lot of time and money,” “when the probable results of the search are already known,” Colson said. 

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