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Florida State University will begin searching for a new president later this week. Eric Barron, who has had the job since 2010, accepted the top job at Penn State today. Barron was recommended by a secret selection process, and some Florida lawmakers want more secrecy in hiring University Presidents in Florida.

Trustees at Florida State first heard President Eric Barron had applied for and was being recommended for the top job at Penn State from reporters on Friday.

By Mid Day Monday it was a done deal. Barron was in Pennsylvania to say yes. “I am much more than pleased to accept,” Barron told Penn State’s Board.

Here in Florida, state law requires such searches to be open to the public. FSU Trustee Mark Hillis says the lack of secrecy has kept some of the best talent from applying in Florida.  “People won’t put their name in the hat to accept the position because they are concerned about losing their job, or it affecting their job” says Hillis

But public records advocate Barbara Peterson questions the need for secrecy. “This bill kind of presumes that all of the University Presidents and deans that have been hired in the last forty years weren’t the best and the brightest we could get” says the First Amendment Foundation’s President.

Trustees did say if they’d known Eric Barron was thinking about leaving, ,they would have made a counter offer.  While state law requires openness, some searches are already circumventing the process. The search committee at FAMU met with chosen applicants before they applied.  “By applying, you certainly suggest you might want to be elsewhere. And I find boards tend to help you do that” says FAMU Search Committee Chairman Karl White.

State Representative Dave Kerner says his legislation actually requires records on finalists be open 21 days before a selection is made. The FAMU finalists were know for just a week before the decision was made.

Penn State has a budget four times larger than FSU’s and has just more than twice the students. Barron’s base salary will be twice his FSU pay.