Finalists for FAU president include FSU dean, former House Majority Leader

(L-R) Michael Hartline, Adam Hasner and John Volin. Images via Florida State University, Florida Atlantic University and University of Maine.

More than two and a half years after John Kelly announced his resignation as president, Florida Atlantic University has again whittled down its list of candidates vying to replace him to three.

They include Michael Hartline, dean of the College of Business at Florida State University; former House Majority Leader Adam Hasner, who today works as a private prison company executive; and John Volin, executive vice president of Academic Affairs and Provost at the University of Maine.

Piero Bussani, Chair of the FAU Board of Trustees, confirmed the trio as finalists for president in a post on the university’s website.

Public candidate forums will be held on the school’s Boca Raton campus during the first week of February.

Stacy Volnick has served as FAU’s Interim president since Kelly stepped down at the end of 2022 for a president Emeritus role with the university. She previously served as the school’s Chief Operating Officer and vice president for Administrative Affairs.

The job was meant to be short-lived, but a national search for Kelly’s successor hit a snag in March 2023 when Brevard County Republican Sen. Randy Fine, then a state Representative, told reporters that Gov. Ron DeSantis’ Office had encouraged him to pursue the post. DeSantis said Fine would be a “good candidate.”

FAU released its list of finalists four months later. Fine wasn’t on it. Hartline was, as were Vice Adm. Sean Buck of the U.S. Naval Academy and Joseph Saartarelli, a former University of North Carolina — Wilmington chancellor.

Within days, Florida State University System Chancellor Ray Rodrigues suspended FAU’s search, citing, among other things, a questionnaire at least one candidate received asking “if his sexual orientation was ‘queer’ and whether he was a ‘male or transgender male.’”

“These inquiries are wholly irrelevant, inappropriate and potentially illegal,” he wrote in a letter to Brad Levine, then-Chair of FAU’s Board of Trustees, citing strictures in U.S. Equal Opportunity Commission regulations forbidding job application queries on sexual orientation and gender.

Rodrigues also said meetings, surveys, and unofficial votes by FAU’s search committee may have violated Florida’s Sunshine Law. A subsequent investigation by the State University System’s Inspector General, which concluded in December 2023, found that they did, and Florida’s Board of Governors ordered the search to begin again.

FAU rebooted the search last June under Bussani, who took over as Chair after the Board of Governors ousted him in a vote of “no confidence” four months earlier.

Hartline holds a Ph.D. in business administration from the University of Memphis and has been FSU’s business college dean since 2016. He has been with the school since starting in 2001 as an assistant marketing professor. In recent years, he has also held Interim Vice president positions for University Advancement and Interim president of the FSU Foundation.

His 14-page résumé states that during his tenure as dean, the College of Business’s scores in U.S. News & World Reports have increased notably, and he secured hundreds of millions of dollars in contributions while broadening the school’s academic offerings.

Hasner earned his law degree from FSU. He served four straight terms in the House from 2002 to 2010, earning a reputation as one of the most conservative legislators in the chamber. In 2007, he became the first Jewish person to serve as Majority Leader. After leaving office, he unsuccessfully ran for the U.S. Senate and Congress.

He owned and operated a consulting firm for a decade before joining People’s Trust Insurance, where he worked for three years, first as Vice president of Corporate Development and later as Chief Marketing and Communications Officer.

Since 2016, his 11-page résumé said, Hasner has been the executive vice president of Public Policy for the GEO Group, a private prison company headquartered in Boca Raton.

FAU’s Schmidt College of Medicine honored Hasner with a plaque in May 2023 for the “pivotal role (he played) in creating” the school. “His dedication has left an indelible mark on our community, inspiring future generations of medical leaders,” the college wrote on Instagram.

If selected, Hasner would join four other former state lawmakers who recently became university presidents: Richard Corcoran (New College of Florida), Fred Hawkins (South Florida State College), Tommy Gregory (State College of Florida), and Mel Ponder (Northwest Florida State College).

Volin earned a Ph.D. in forestry from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Before his current role at the University of Maine, he was Vice Provost for Academic Affairs at the University of Connecticut, where he co-founded and led the school’s Eversource Energy Center and headed the Department of Natural Resources and the Environment.

Between 2001 and 2007, Volin was the Director of FAU’s Environmental Sciences Graduate Program. He also worked as Chair of the school’s Division of Biological Sciences.

His curriculum vitae spans 34 pages and includes a patent he holds, numerous awards, and 70 or so academic papers he’s published.