Adam Kissel was reappointed to the University of West Florida Board of Trustees late last week despite rejections from the Senate Ethics and Elections Committee and the Senate Appropriations Committee on Higher Education, and without a confirmation from the full Senate.
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Gov. Ron DeSantis also appointed Edward Fleming, founding partner of Pensacola-based McDonald Fleming Attorneys at Law, to the board. Fleming has been a Commissioner on the First District Court of Appeals Judicial Nominating Commission for the past 12 years and currently serves on the Pensacola State College Board of Trustees alongside Zack Smith, who also serves on the UWF board.
Both appointments are subject to confirmation by the Florida Senate.
Though Kissel was not confirmed to the board after his first appointment, he continued to serve, telling the Pensacola News Journal he could serve until 45 days after the legislative session ended.
Kissel is a Visiting Fellow on Higher Education Reform with The Heritage Foundation and a Senior Fellow at the Cardinal Institute for West Virginia Policy.
His appointment was met with criticism from the Pensacola community and Florida lawmakers who questioned his past comments about privatizing public universities and his critique of the GI Bill. Both were questioned during his hearing before the Senate Appropriations Committee on Higher Education in March.
Kissel and Fleming are just the latest of several appointments made this year by DeSantis to “break the status quo” and “refocus the university on the core mission of education,” the governor said earlier this year. The overhaul drew pushback from the community, including UWF faculty and students. During a press conference in April, DeSantis warned, “UWF, buckle up, you’re going to see a lot of changes.”
Two appointees, Scott Yenor and Gates Garcia, have since resigned from the board. In May, UWF President Martha Saunders announced her resignation. Former Florida Commissioner of Education, and close ally of DeSantis, Manny Diaz Jr. was named interim president while an executive search firm begins the search for a permanent president.
In Okaloosa County, DeSantis also made recent appointments to the Northwest Florida State College including Lyndsi Stevens, Chief Marketing Officer for Celerium, Inc., and a previous adjunct professor at the college, Cory Fosdyck, owner of Krueger, Fosdyck, Brown, McCall & Associates Private Wealth Management, and Jack “Tanner” Peacock, a Broker Associate for Scenic Sotheby’s International Realty.
