A Letter to Friends of FIU

April 5, 2022

Dear Friends of FIU,

As a member of the FIU community, you are an integral part of FIU’s success. Your time and dedication to FIU have helped solidify our university’s role as a leader in student success and research excellence, with impact both in our community and around the world. We are grateful for your commitment to the Panther family and especially to our students.

Now, as our university begins the process of selecting its next president, your input has never been more important. Through your involvement at FIU, you understand why the FIU presidency is one of the great jobs in higher education. Leading a university like FIU is a great responsibility, and it comes with both opportunities and challenges. You, more than most, can provide valuable insight as we work together to select FIU’s sixth president.

As you know, a presidential search committee will collaborate closely with the Dallas-based search firm R. William Funk and Associates to identify, recruit and vet presidential candidates. Funk and Associates has extensive experience recruiting for R1 universities and has successfully placed presidents at several institutions, including Rutgers University, Indiana University, Texas A&M University and University of South Carolina. The firm has also helped recruit for FIU leadership positions in the past. You can read more about the search process at our FIU presidential search website.  

Feedback from stakeholders like you is an essential component of this search process. As always, we welcome your input and comments, including suggestions about potential candidates with the necessary skills to lead this great university. To facilitate discussion about the search process, we will host several FIU Community Listening Sessions in the coming days. We hope you can participate. The in-person listening session will take place on April 12 and 13 at the GC Ballrooms. The session will also be livestreamed at webcast.fiu.edu.

You can also send your feedback directly to our search firm at krisha.creal@rwilliamfunk.com. 

Thank you for being among FIU’s greatest champions and for always supporting our university. We are confident that together, we will select a leader who shares our vision of excellence and will take FIU to new heights.

Sincerely,

Dean C. Colson
Chair, FIU Board of Trustees

Roger Tovar
Vice-Chair, FIU Board of Trustees
Chair, FIU Presidential Search Committee