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.
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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.
Kassandra Toussaint, an FIU student, speaks in opposition to trustees voting to name Lt. Gov. Nuñez as interim president. (Screenshot via FIU trustees livestream)
“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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Florida Phoenix is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Florida Phoenix maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Michael Moline for questions: info@floridaphoenix.com.
www.youtube.com – FOX 35 Orlando – 2025-03-24 13:00:11
SUMMARY: SpaceX successfully launched the NROL-69 mission, with Falcon 9 lifting off from Cape Canaveral. The rocket’s first and second stages were fully loaded with over 1 million pounds of fuel. After several milestones, including Max Q, stage separation, and fairing separation, the rocket’s first stage performed an entry burn before landing successfully at Landing Zone One. The mission marked the second launch and landing for this particular booster. The payload was successfully placed into orbit, with reusability playing a key role in reducing spaceflight costs. SpaceX thanked the NRO, range, and FAA for their support and concluded the webcast.
SpaceX to launch the NROL-69 mission from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.
FOX 35 Orlando delivers breaking news, live events and press conferences, investigations, politics, entertainment, business news and local news stories and updates from Orlando, Orlando metro, and across Florida.
The Florida law barring social media companies for using addictive features toward minors has survived a court challenge from some of the largest tech companies.
Senior U.S. District Judge Mark Walker in Tallahassee dismissed a challenge against the state’s law barring Floridians younger than 14 from using social media apps with addictive features filed by industry organizations NetChoice and Computer & Communications Industry Association representing companies including Google, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and YouTube.
The dismissal reiterated Walker’s preliminary injunction denial earlier this month. Walker concluded that the social media companies have not proven they would be affected under the law, which requires parental consent for 14- and 15-year olds to use apps with addictive features.
The state argued Florida’s law is “materially different” from other states’ social media bans, given that it does not outlaw these services but rather features such as infinite scrolling and push notifications for minors.
“Because this law does not regulate ‘social media’ platforms generally, but instead limits its coverage to those platforms that meet each of four specific criteria, this court cannot reasonably infer that a particular platform is likely covered by the law without some factual allegations regarding each of those criteria,” Walker wrote, dismissing the case without prejudice.
NetChoice and CCIA have until Monday, March 31, to amend their complaint.
“Because this court finds that plaintiffs have not plausibly alleged standing, it need not consider defendant’s other arguments for dismissing the complaint,” Walker wrote.
In his March 13 denial of the preliminary injunction, Walker said the only evidence the tech associations brought was “conclusory assertions in each of the four declarations attached to their motion for a preliminary injunction that the declarant ‘understand[s]’ or ‘believes’ that one of their members ‘may be’ or ‘appears to be’ covered by the law.”
Earlier this month, NetChoice said it would continue to fight despite not receiving the preliminary injunction. Monday, a NetChoice spokesperson told the Phoenix it does not have “an update on next steps at this time.”
The attorney general’s office did not respond to a request for comment.
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Florida Phoenix is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Florida Phoenix maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Michael Moline for questions: info@floridaphoenix.com.
www.thecentersquare.com – By Steve Wilson | The Center Square – (The Center Square – ) 2025-03-24 13:16:00
(The Center Square) – A bill active in the Florida Legislature could provide help for the state’s rural areas and create what the bill authors call a “rural renaissance.”
Senate Bill 110 passed the Senate 39-0 on Wednesday and would allocate $200 million to expand education offerings, increase health care availability for rural residents and help modernize commerce.
SB110, sponsored by Sen. Corey Simon, R-Tallahassee, would also appropriate $91 million for transportation projects in fiscally constrained counties.
Sen. Gayle Harrell, R-Stuart, represents a district that includes the wealthy coast and more rural agricultural areas of Martin County and parts of Palm Beach and St. Lucie counties.
“People don’t realize that agriculture is the No. 2 industry in our state,” Harrell said during debate on the bill. “We have to make sure we’re supporting our agricultural communities. They get forgotten a lot and we want to make sure with this bill that we are going to put them on the forefront, especially with health care.”
Simon’s measure would also mandate that the state land planning agency to give special preference for technical assistance funding to local governments located in what is called a rural area of opportunity.
The bill would also allow eligible rural counties to receive at least $50 million in sales tax distribution.
Under SB110, the state Department of Commerce would create an Office of Rural Prosperity and a Public Infrastructure Smart Technology Grant Program to help these areas upgrade their infrastructure.
Added to the measure was a change to the state’s Florida Reimbursement Assistance for Medical Education Program that would add eligibility for medical doctors or doctors of osteopathic medicine who are board certified in emergency medicine and employed by or under contract with a rural hospital.
Rural health care practitioners such as doctors and nurses could receive $250,000 each under a new grant program to build new facilities, buy new equipment and add telehealth services among other allowed costs.
Counties eligible for designation as fiscally-constrained status must meet at least one of two criteria. Fiscally constrained counties are those where a 1 mill levy – which adds up to one dollar per $1,000 dollars of assessed value – would raise no more than $5 million in annual tax revenue or have been listed on the governor’s executive order as an area of economic concern.
