Welcome to

It’s a new era at Florida State as the 17^th president of the university officially started work today.  But as Matt Galka tells us, a persistent group of students made for a rocky beginning.

New Florida State University president John Thrasher didn’t ease into his first day on the job. A group of students who have been protesting the former state lawmaker’s candidacy continued to put the pressure on. The left leaning FSU Progress Coalition skewered Thrasher for his ties to corporate funded conservative groups.

“We’re asking you to dismantle the influence of the Charles Koch foundation on this university, your first day as president,” said grad student Ralph Wilson. He was one of about 20 students at the meeting with president.

It was a tense situation with the small but vocal group.  Thrasher vowed to meet with them again.

“This university, by the way, has 42,000 students, and I’m interested in all of their interests and making sure the university thrives,” said Thrasher.

Even though it was his first day, the students in attendance weren’t cutting the new guy any slack.

“If he cared about FSU as much as he claims to have and higher ed as much as he claims, he would have not only been familiar with this but he would have had a working knowledge and been able to discuss this,” said Wilson.

After the meeting, the former Senator said they’ll start addressing his top priorities – including increasing professor pay and trying to hit the $1 billion dollar mark in the school’s latest major fundraising campaign.

“All those things are important so we have a lot of issues right out of the box to work on,” said Thrasher.

The 70 year old signed a five year contract paying him $430,000 a year.  Thrasher was re-elected to his Senate seat in the Florida legislature last week, a position he had to resign from today as he begins his term as FSU’s president.