Florida Atlantic University’s next president will make between $1 million and $1.5 million, according to my sources.
I’m told that the search committee set that salary range during its Monday meeting. That would be an eye-popping number even at the low end.
For perspective, John Kelly’s base salary was $505,000 when he retired in December 2022. Like all university presidents in Florida, he also received performance bonuses. Kelly had reached that salary level after nearly nine years on the job.
For more perspective, Florida State University President Richard McCullough’s salary is $1.1 million. When FSU hired him in 2021, McCullough got $700,000 in base salary.
For even more perspective, former U.S. Ben Sasse got a salary of $1 million when he was hired to be president of the University of Florida. UF brought back former President Kent Fuchs to clean up the mess Sasse made during his turbulent 18 months. Fuchs’ total compensation when he retired in 2022 was $1.4 million—after eight very successful years, during which UF reached the top national rankings of public universities.
No disrespect to FAU, but the Boca Raton-based university is not in the same tier nationally as UF and FSU. Even in Florida, FAU is not yet top tier. According to the Board of Governors’ most recent performance rankings, FAU is roughly even with the University of Central Florida in Orlando and the University of West Florida in Pensacola.
And whomever FAU trustees choose, he will be untested at the presidential level. Michael Hartline is dean of the business school at FSU. John Volin is provost—chief academic officer—at the University of Maine. Each, however, has three decades of experience in higher education. Former State Rep. Adam Hasner has no higher education experience beyond being a student.
Recent history shows that experience matters. McCullough had three decades’ worth, serving as a vice president at Harvard before coming to FSU. Fuchs had been provost at Cornell before UF hired him.
Sasse at least had been president of a small college in Nebraska, but his hiring was controversial from the start. He emerged as the only finalist for president. Given UF’s high national ranking, only politics could explain how an out-of-state, two-term senator could have gotten the job. News reports confirmed that Gov. Ron DeSantis engineered the choice.
According to the Board of Governors, the state’s new rising higher education star is Florida International University in Miami. It scored highest—above UF and FSU—in those 2024 performance rankings.
FIU’s president is Ken Jessell, who had been chief financial officer and has spent 15 years at the school. Before going to FIU, Jessell worked for 26 years at Florida Atlantic. His compensation just reached roughly $1 million.
Notice the patterns? Presidents with extensive academic backgrounds—including Kelly—succeed. After that success, they get paid accordingly. FAU, however, seems ready to overpay before seeing success.
FAU search finalists to tour campus
FAU has released the schedule for next week’s campus visits by the three finalists.
Hartline will be on the Boca Raton campus Monday. The first session—from 11:15 a.m. until 12:15 p.m.—will be for faculty. The second—from 12:30 until 1:30 p.m.—will be for students. The third—from 1:45 until 2:45 p.m.—will be for staff, donors and the public. Volin will be there Thursday and Hasner on Friday. Times of the sessions will be the same.
New project proposed from Whelchel Partners
The developer that tried unsuccessfully to put an adult living facility (ALF) in a southwest Boca Raton neighborhood now wants to put 42 townhouses on the property.
Whelchel Partners seeks a rezoning and a land-use change for the 3.6-acre site on Twelfth Avenue just north of Addison Mizner School. Current rules allow only religious uses—it’s been home to a church since 1962—or single-family homes, like the Boca Square neighborhood to the south and east.
The rezoning—from Residential Low to Residential Medium High—would allow as many as 15 units per acre, or a maximum of 54 townhomes. Whelchel Partners’ attorney, Ele Zachariades, notes that the developer is asking for just 11.6 units per acre under what would be the new zoning. In addition, Zachariades said in her letter to the city, the project’s setbacks and open space would exceed minimum requirements.
Single-family homes, Zachariades said, are not practical for the property because all front and backyards would abut Palmetto Park Road. The site, however, is an “ideal location” for townhomes. Owners would use only an entrance-exit on the west side and an exit to the north. The project would be compatible, Zachariades said, because only two-story buildings would face existing homes. There would be nine residential buildings—three stories at most—and a clubhouse with a pool.
Whelchel Partners’ proposed ALF would have had 128 beds in a three-story building. That project became controversial not just because neighbors considered it too dense for the site but because the city would have had to allow ALFs in several other locations next to single-family neighborhoods.
After the city in March 2022 found problems with the application and rejected it, Whelchel sued. Whelchel bought the property in April 2023 for $4.2 million. Four months later, he dropped the lawsuit, saying that he wanted to seek “alternative uses” for the site, including a land swap with the city. There was no serious talk of a swap.
Holi Sutton’s house abuts the site to the south. She helped to organize opposition to the ALF. She and others listened Tuesday to the preliminary staff review of the project, which Whelchel calls Park Square.
“Most people think it’s worse” than the ALF, Sutton told me. Among other things, she said, Park Square would have nine dumpsters. She said opponents would focus most on the rezoning, which they consider excessive. Another issue may be added traffic during morning drop-off at the school.
Even after Whelchel dropped the lawsuit, it didn’t seem that the company could get return on a $4.2 million investment from leasing the land to a church. I’ll have more as the project goes through city review.
Vertiports coming to Boca?
“Vertiport” has entered Boca Raton’s vocabulary.
It’s a facility for aircraft that take off and land vertically. According to the staff memo, vertiports differ from helipads in that they use electric charging stations, not fuels.
Last week, the Planning and Zoning Board considered an amendment to the city’s comprehensive plan that would add vertiports as a permissible use on property zoned Institutional. The change would allow a privately run vertiport to operate at the FAU Research Park next to the Boca Raton Airport. It would be classified under “private transportational facilities.”
One board member asked whether the change could put such facilities near homes. City planners responded that the only potential locations are the airport, FAU, Lynn University and “some schools.” The language also contains protection for residential neighborhoods. The board voted unanimously to recommend approval by the city council.
Boca Bash strangler case continues
When Boca Bash 2025 comes, it will be three years and counting for the case of the man accused of trying to strangle his girlfriend at Boca Bash 2022.
This week, the judge ordered a continuance until May 22. Cole Preston Goldberg is charged with attempted second-degree murder and domestic battery by strangulation—both felonies—and battery—a misdemeanor. Last November, the first attempt at trial ended in a mistrial.
