A hot topic is who will be appointed the interim president for the University of West Florida. Former Florida House Majority Leader and UWF student body president Jerry Maygarden is the sentimental favorite. However, Maygarden only has a masters. Some believe that he would give the university the much needed political clout in Tallahassee.
The rumor goes that Maygarden will be appointed and then he will be given two years to get his PhD so that he can become the permanent UWF president. There is only lukewarm support for this on the campus.
There are two names from inside the UWF faculty being thrown out. Dr. Judy Bense and Dr. Ed Ranelli. Ranelll is the dean of the UWF Business School and could be the perfect interim because he is in the UWF DROP program. He is on the City’s Charter Review Commission.
Judy Bense is the famous chair of the Department of Anthropology. We hear she is the faculty’s favorite for the interim position. Her brother, Allan, was the Speaker of the Florida House from 2004-2006.
The darkhouse candidate is Dr. Pam Dana. Who? Dana headed the state’s Office of Tourism, Trade & Economic Development under Gov. Jeb Bush. She has a doctorate from the University of Southern Cal and her masters from Harvard. She was a Fulbright Scholar. Dr. Dana is currently senior advisor for Strategic Initiatives at the Institute for Human and Machine Cognition.
We had heard that she was on the short list to head the Small Business Administration for Pres. GW Bush so Dana definitely trumps Maygarden’s and Bense’s political clouts. She has the education to be accepted by her peers around the state. Plus she has proven organizational and leadership ability.
I will have Duwayne do some more digging today on this. The Interim Search Committee meets today at 2 p.m. I hope they don’t drag this out. Once an interim president is appointed then the Board of Trustees can begin the process for the permanent replacement.