• Florida Gulf Coast University (FGCU) announced three finalists for its Presidential search. The university will conduct final interviews on Oct. 17 and the chosen candidate will be presented to the Board of Governors for approval in November 
• Current outgoing university President Mike Martin is stepping down from his position at the end of the calendar year after four years 
• Each of the finalists will visit campus to meet with students and staff before final interviews are conducted 

Florida Gulf Coast University (FGCU) last week announced the three finalists for its Presidential search. The chosen finalist will serve as the university’s fifth President, succeeding outgoing Mike Martin.

Following a nationwide search, the three final candidates are Robert G. Gregerson, President of the University of Pittsburgh at Greensburg, Tod A. Laursen, Acting President of SUNY Polytechnic Institute, and Susana V. Rivera-Mills, Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs at Ball State University.

According to the university, each of the finalists will visit campus to meet with students, faculty, staff, and other community stakeholders in October during public forums. On Monday, Oct. 17, the FGCU Board of Trustees will hold final interviews.

Following the meeting, the Trustees will pick one of the finalists for the position of president-elect. The chosen candidate will be presented to the Florida Board of Governors in November for approval, with an official start date of January 2023.

“FGCU received an outstanding response to our call for applicants, and our finalists represent the top and emerging leaders in the field of higher education,” said Edward Morton, the chair of FGCU’s Presidential Search Advisory Committee and a member of FGCU’s Board of Trustees. “We are looking forward to bringing these accomplished, talented, and innovative individuals to campus to meet with our stakeholders.”

Since the Presidential search was publicly launched in June, the school claims that interest among candidates was high, accruing between 20 and 30 potential successors across previous months.

As part of the search, the committee consulted The Segal Group, which conducted studies to determine compensatory proposals for considered candidates. While a salary number has not been finalized, as of July, the scope of the study was expanded to include educational institutions with a higher enrollment number than FGCU rather than the previous examination of schools smaller than or at the same size as the university.

FGCU’s current President, Mike Martin, has served in the role for the past four years. Martin announced recently that he plans to step down into retirement in December 2022 at the conclusion of the upcoming fall academic semester.

During his tenure, Martin helped the university recoup lost funding; in the years before his appointment, FGCU lost $8 million in performance-based funding via a ranking system determined by 10 metrics that evaluate Florida public institutions on a range of issues. With a goal to restore previous funding standards, Martin procured more than $23.7 million.

Across his four years, the FGCU’s four-year graduation rate improved by almost 19 percentage points, the six-year graduation rate jumped 4.6 percentage points, and the net cost of tuition and fees decreased 48 percent for those who completed their degree in four years instead of six.