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The first round of interviews are underway in the search for the next president of FloridaStateUniversity. As Matt Galka tells us, the tumultuous process settled down, but the peace may be short lived.

Eleven candidates will hopefully produce the next President for Florida State University.  Six applicants were interviewed Monday.

The day one interviews were business as usual, but day two includes two high profile candidates.

Interim President Garnett Stokes and State Senator John Thrasher will go in front the search committee Tuesday.  Student groups have been protesting Thrasher’s candidacy for months.

“Each candidate deserves respect, to be treated with respect and to have their candidacy vetted in a proper way. Which is what we’ve been doing,” said search committee chairman Ed Burr.

Grad students briefly shut down a meeting last week for lack of student and faculty representation on the search committee. Finalists will field questions from campus next week. Committee and faculty member Eric Walker says that’s a start.

“It addresses the problem, it does not speak to the voting representation on the committee. But it does indicate that the student and faculty voices will be heard,” said Walker.

Former State Senator Al Lawson called the protesting embarrassing when the search first started.

“It shouldn’t be a protest to interview high profile candidates, I think it’s good to have high profile candidates. It makes you appreciate the process,” said Lawson.

Five candidates will be interviewed Tuesday with three or four finalists being selected after the interviews are over. The search committee will recommend at least three candidates to the school’s board of trustees. The board will then interview the applicants at their meeting on September 23^rd.