There’s been another call for FGCU’s first female president to get a truncated contract, this time from the university’s own Board of Trustees.
Trustee Joe Fogg told the board’s chair on Wednesday that he was hoping that Aysegul Timur is given annual contract.
The lengths of contracts can run the gamut, but according to a report from the Chronical of Higher Education, the average contract is for five years.
No term length was specified in current president Mike Martin’s contract. Martin came out of retirement to head FGCU in 2017. He has been hoping to go back to retirement for about a year.
“I would just express my hope at this point that we going to see kind of an annual contract like we had with Mike,” said Fogg.
Martin is subject to annual reviews. His predecessor, Wilson Bradshaw had a five-year contract. And University of Florida President Ben Sasse was awarded a five-year contract.
Fogg’s comments come less than 24 hours after Board of Governors member Manny Diaz Jr. told his board he wanted to “error on the side of caution” and offer Timur a shorter contract.
Diaz noted the razor-thin 7 to 6 vote at Wednesday’s Board of Governor’s meeting, the News Service of Florida said.
“This looks like a situation where this contract, and I’m not talking about (compensation) amounts, should be looked at in a situation where they take baby steps,” Diaz said. “In other words, it was close, it was a close call. There was clearly, I wouldn’t say confusion, but … it was very tenuous as to making the decision.”
The News Service said Diaz acknowledged Timur’s qualifications for the job and on-campus support for her, but he described a potentially short contract as a safer move, at least in the beginning.
The Board of Governors must sign off on the selection of Timur when it meets next month.
Timur, the vice president and vice provost for Strategy and Program for FGCU was one of four finalists about of more than 100 applicants for the job.
The list was narrowed to two and Timur was selected by a vote of 7 to 6 over Henry Mack, a senior chancellor with the Florida Department of Education.
Diaz is Mack’s boss.
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