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Ex-speaker may get his FSU wish
By ANITA KUMAR, Times Staff Writer
Nine years ago, the former legislator with the soft voice and deadpan humor campaigned hard to be named president of his alma mater, Florida State University. He lost out to Talbot "Sandy" D'Alemberte, a former dean of the law school. Today, Florida State is poised to name D'Alemberte's successor. Once again, Wetherell wants the job. But this time, the former Florida House speaker is the heavy favorite. Wetherell enjoys strong support from alumni and legislators. The other two candidates are several years older and from out of state. "I've been in education all of my life," Wetherell said in an interview Tuesday. "This is the next progression. It's something you kind of want to do to finish it off." Both Wetherell and the state have changed since he last sought the FSU presidency. Wetherell, who turns 57 Sunday, now has six years' experience as president of Tallahassee Community College. And Florida has significantly altered how it oversees its public universities, making political connections even more important for college presidents. "I had doubts about him nine years ago," said Steve Uhlfelder, an FSU trustee and member of the presidential search committee in 1993. "But I don't have those doubts about him now." FSU conducted a national search, narrowing the list of candidates to three last week. The others are former Ohio State and University of Wyoming president Edward Jennings, 65, and Susan Prager, 60, a former law school dean at the University of California at Los Angeles and former provost at Dartmouth. Many are rooting for Wetherell in Tallahassee, where he played wide receiver at Florida State, earned three degrees and spent a dozen years in the Legislature. It has been a decade since he left politics, but Wetherell talks about the FSU presidency as a deal he's looking to close. The candidates are in Tallahassee today for campus visits and interviews with Florida State's board of trustees. The 13-member board expects to choose a president for the school, which has 37,000 students. Wetherell proudly describes himself as a "nontraditional" candidate at a time when the national trend at major research universities is to hire presidents to act as chief executive officers of big businesses. "It's a hard pill to swallow for some traditionalists," he said. "But I don't think it can be questioned anymore. All of a sudden the whole era of higher education is changing." About 20 percent of presidents nationwide are considered nontraditional leaders who came out of politics or business, according to recent studies. Wetherell's candidacy has been likened to Betty Castor's rise to University of South Florida president after serving three terms as a state legislator. Some faculty members are opposed to Wetherell. They want someone with more impressive academic credentials who has worked through the administrative ranks at a four-year university. "Nobody's against him, but they are against that he's not a traditional academic," Uhlfelder said. "Ideally, he would have a Ph.D. from Harvard, but he doesn't." Wetherell has a doctorate in education administration -- from Florida State. Faculty members opposed D'Alemberte's selection because they thought he lacked strong academic credentials. He won them over with aggressive fundraising and a push to make the university a research facility on a par with its prowess on the football field. Wetherell led a similar effort at Tallahassee Community College to enhance the school's reputation after he became president in 1995. He doubled the school's size. He boosted enrollment. He battled the school district over control of law enforcement and vo-tech training, and won praise when he improved them with innovative programs. But it was in the Legislature where Wetherell first rose to prominence. He was elected to represent Daytona Beach in 1980, then slowly climbed through the ranks during a period when Democrats controlled the Legislature. He quickly rounded up support to become House speaker in 1990, then delivered a speech that recalled the soliloquy that Kevin Costner's character delivered in Bull Durham. "I believe in the Oak Ridge Boys, and Waylon and Willie and Hank make more sense to me today than Guns 'N Roses and Bon Jovi," he said. "I believe rock 'n' roll is forever, and Elvis Presley is the king. I believe Willie Mays is the greatest baseball player I ever saw, Casey Stengel was the greatest manager, Gayle Sayers and Dick Butkus were the greatest football players, Vince Lombardi the greatest coach, Bobby Bowden is a saint. . . . I believe my daddy was the greatest man I ever knew." Wetherell mixed hard-ball politics with a sense of humor. He ran the House during a period when a sluggish economy forced budget cuts and tax increases, and still he managed to steer millions to Florida State. He endured both legislative redistricting, and special hearings over allegations of sexual misconduct against another lawmaker. "He never seemed flustered," said Sen. Gwen Margolis, a Miami Beach Democrat who served as Senate president when Wetherell was House speaker. "He had an ability to quietly prod people and get the job done." Wetherell never lost his sense of humor. He once joked that he kept a stuffed 5-foot rattlesnake outside his legislative office to scare away lobbyists. He buried sports trivia questions in the state budget -- and a promise of $10 and a turkey dinner to the first reporter who found the offer. Another year, Wetherell created a $1.1-million item in the budget for the restoration of Silver Beach, even though there was no such place. He wanted a fund from which to hand out money to legislators for special projects. "He's very determined," said Peter Wallace, a former House speaker from St. Petersburg. "He's comfortable and casual but tough as a negotiator." Wetherell, whose references included Bowden and state Senate President Jim King of Jacksonville, left Tallahassee Community College last year. Until he applied for the FSU job, he was a partner in one of the most influential lobbying firms in the capital along with FSU board chairman John Thrasher. "He has a great affection for Florida State University," said Curt Kiser, a lobbyist who served in the Legislature with Wetherell. "He knew it would come open. I fully expected he would try again. Everyone knew he wanted to do this." -- Times researcher Kitty Bennett contributed to this report.
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