Florida Atlantic University (FAU) has treated the state of Florida, as well as some of its conservative trustees, badly; the result is that the state has pulled forty million dollars of funding.
The forty million was to be allocated to a new school of dentistry that was going to be named in honor of board trustee Barbara Feingold’s deceased husband, Jeffrey P. Feingold. Once the state pulled funding, Feingold decided not to gift the school with her pledge of thirty million.
That’s a seventy-million-dollar loss. Talk about a kick in the teeth.
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After the 2023 legislative session, FAU was riding high and added this to its website;
The University yielded further success regarding its growing health enterprise. The Legislature approved $30 million in fixed capital outlay funds and $10 million toward operational costs to establish a College of Dentistry at FAU.
There have been grumblings by those attached to the school since the money was allocated, stating that they don’t need a school of dentistry. Given that Florida has a significant shortage of dentists and has passed legislation to pay off student loans for those who agree to practice dentistry in underserved areas of the state, one has to wonder if those attached to FAU resisting the much-needed school have more to do with not wanting to allow Barbara Feingold the satisfaction of “winning” than anything logical. It’s no secret that Feingold has been at war with former board chair Brad Levine, who has resigned as chair and been demoted to just a board trustee since the failed search for a new university president.
With the close of the 2024 legislative session, things have changed drastically for FAU. Representative Randy Fine, R-Brevard, had this to say to Florida Jolt;
Given the blatantly illegal behavior at the University – and the fact that all the guilty parties remain in leadership roles – it would have been irresponsible for the Legislature to entrust them with this project. Without a major in housecleaning, I suspect there is a long road ahead for the university. -Representative Randy Fine
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The drama started when Governor DeSantis recommended State Representative Randy Fine, R-Brevard, for the university president position. Fine is known as a strong conservative who brought forth legislation supporting parental rights in education, known by leftists as “don’t say gay.” FAU is no stranger to woke ideology, and it’s been said that progressives attached to the school didn’t like the idea of the outspoken, conservative Republican firebrand running the show.
Resentments from specific donors about the Governor recommending Rep Fine support this theory. The school’s most prominent private donor is the Schmidt Family Foundation, run by Dick Schmidt. Schmidt didn’t seem to feel that Fine was up to snuff and thought the search committee had picked applicants of the “highest pedigree.” The three chosen finalists were ultimately scrapped when it was discovered that the search committee, headed by then Chair Brad Levine, ended up asking at least one candidate, DeSantis recommended pick for the position, Rep Fine, about his sexual orientation and if he was a biological or transgendered male. This outrageous line of questioning led to a letter from University Chancellor Ray Rodrigues stating that the presidential search would be suspended and that an IG investigation would take place to research perceived anomalies during the search.
The result was that the candidates in the running were discarded, and a new presidential search was to start from scratch. Interim wannabe President for Life Stacy Volnick was asked to stay on longer, and then Brad Levine resigned as chair and was demoted to a regular trustee position.
Sources say that Levine’s ego was bruised, and he lobbied in Tallahassee to pull state funding for the dentistry school, which it seems he’s fought tooth and nail the whole time not to fund. The board of trustees agreed to fund the school of dentistry under the condition that the state allocates an equal amount or greater than Feingold’s proposed gift, a seemingly impossible-to-get amount that Feingold miraculously made happen within six months. Her reward was the school never put a shovel in the ground. The net result is that the state has clawed back the money, and Feingold then decided not to allocate her gift.
Despite all that’s happened, some attached to FAU still don’t get that the bulk of their money is not from private donors but from the state, so embracing Rep. Fine with open arms would have been a sweet deal. Anyone watching this debacle has to have been left with a bad taste in their mouth. Rinse, swirl, and spit.
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