The Florida Poly hire isn't even a Florida Poly hire; it's a Henry Mack career boost
The best hypothesis: 71-year-old new Devin Stephenson was in Mack's way at Northwest Florida State College. So DeSantis (through grifter trustees) lured him away with a late career Poly paycheck.
The last article I wrote mocking the Florida Polytechnic University presidential “search” asked a question to which I knew an answer must exist.
Why did DeSantis’ bloc of new grifter trustees line up behind a 71-year-old “community college” president with no STEM education background to lead the floundering, 80 percent male, socialistically-funded, lowest state graduation rate university in the state system at a crucial moment for its future?
Who “railroaded” the selection of Northwest Florida State College President Devin Stephenson, as disgruntled Florida Poly Trustee Mark Bostick put it? And why? See article here.
It did not take long for me to get an answer in the form of a text from someone — not anyone at Poly — generally in the know about these things:
By the way: I have heard (unattributable) that the real reason this dude got the Poly gig was to create a place for Henry Mack (who one assumes will soon ride a similar railroad track into the convenient NWFSC vacancy)… time will tell.
it’s crazy how basic some of the conspiracies are, isn’t it?
Introducing soon-to-be Pres. Henry Mack of Northwest Florida State College
Who is Dr. Henry Mack? A very very thirsty Florida educrat. He almost became interim president of Broward State College back in October — but the Broward board of trustees wouldn’t let him shake them down for a year-long contract:
He cited the “disruption” to his family as his reason for backing out. LOL. Really, read this excerpt from Inside Higher Ed.:
Board chair Alexis Yarbrough told Inside Higher Ed that Broward College offered Mack a salary of $287,000—plus travel expenses—for a six-month appointment. However, Mack, in verbal negotiations, requested a $400,000 salary for a yearlong contract, plus housing and transportation.
Mack, in a letter to trustees obtained by The South Florida Sun-Sentinel, cast his withdrawal in a different light, saying he backed out of the job due to family reasons. “While it was an honor to be selected, it is now apparent that the disruption to my family, with three very young children, is too great, and for that reason, I have to decline,” the newspaper reported he said.
Within two months, he was disrupting the lives of his three very young children again — this time at Devin Stephenson’s Northwest Florida State College in Niceville.
I humbly submit to you that the Florida Poly presidential search ended that day.
To recap: Stephenson gets a raise to come to Poly (expect him to make at $500K to manage two buildings and a dorm); and Mack gets a clear path to the NWFSC presidency. It’s a win-win — for those two guys at least.
Have you no dignity, J.D.?
It’s less of a win-win for the collective self-respect of Polk County’s leadership class club, which has just swallowed this “railroaded” process silently.
One trustee, not from Polk, quit in a dignified huff over the hire, saying simply:
“It is no longer an honor to serve on the Board of Trustees of Florida Polytechnic University so I resign, effective immediately,” Williams wrote.
And local Trustee Mark Bostick complained about the railroading as it happened, but has gone silent since. Other than that … crickets.
I remain the person who has paid most serious public attention to this university — and I don’t care about it at all.
The silence of nepo-baby J.D. Alexander, who bullied Poly — rather than the general service college Polk County wanted and needed — into existence years ago is especially telling.
I doubt Devin Stephenson has time or inclination to do much more at Florida Poly than drive up his ultimate pension pay out. But everything about Stephenson suggests that if he actually has a vision for Poly, it’s closer to the original USF Lakeland vision from all those years ago, than the “M.I.T. of the South.”
At least those M.I.T dreamers can take consolation from aiding Henry Mack’s meteoric rise. He should send them invites to his NWFSC inauguration.
The amount of grift that goes on in Florida can be overwhelming at times, and we desperately need more people like you to keep tabs on the grifters. For what ultimate purpose is unclear, but perhaps there will be an accounting someday.
We had an opportunity to put a talented person from Rennsaelear, but decided to make Florida Polytec a dumping ground for bureaucratic careerists. I'm still angry about crooked Rick Scott cancelling High speed rail from Tampa to Orlando for his buddies at Florida East Coast Railway. Heck, why are the tolls still out there on the Florida Turnpike? They told the Citizenry the tolls would be taken off when the road was paid for in the 1970s. Now the act like they're doing everyone a big favor when they take them off for a day or two during a major hurricane. I still think Billy Townsend got shafted when his general election was during a Republican Primary. Maybe it wasn't intentional, but that is still total bull crap.