It’s Valentine’s Day, a day we set aside to be romantic and all. Love soon will be in the air at Edison State College, at least that’s the way Florida College System Chancellor Randy Hanna described Edison’s presidential search.

“You’re going to be dating here,” Hanna of wooing applicants. “Remember, this is a beautiful place to live, but you have to convince those candidates that they should want to be your president.”

In the analogy, Hanna is the father giving dating advice, or maybe Chris Harrison from The Bachelor — impartial, but his approval is nice. Trustees are the bachelors and bachelorettes willing to look far and wide for a companion in a very public courtship.

So who is John Hicks? He’s the matchmaker, a consultant from the Washington D.C. firm Academic Search, Inc. whose task is to hook up trustees with a new mate. That process begins next week with public forums seeking input on qualities and characteristics everyone wants in a new president. Trustees didn’t mention tall, dark and handsome in their initial list, but they do desire a president with experience — the more, the merrier. Hicks said sitting presidents are great finds in a search, but much like a potential mate who’s still in a relationship, Hicks said he’s a little wary of some folks looking for greener pastures.

“Sometimes, they are looking for a good reason,” Hicks said. “You just want to be very careful about that.”

John Hicks

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Board of trustees meetings at Edison State College used to last about 45 minutes to an hour. No faculty or students ever spoke during the designated public comment period; it was a rarity when they even attended. The board room in Robinson Hall was tiny, but space was never a problem to accommodate the handful of administrators present. Just one member of the media — me — regularly attended meetings.

Then came April 2011. Faculty were in a highly public spat with administration over a multitude of issues, and everyone was looking at trustees to solve the conflict. Other media suddenly were alerted to Edison, even though it opened in 1962. Faculty wanted to share their emotions with trustees, and the tiny board room no longer was sufficient. Trustee meetings were moved to large multipurpose rooms in Walker Hall and Building U on the Lee campus, both of which can accommodate roughly 200 people, or similar-sized venues on the Collier campus and Hendry/Glades Center.

The board’s Feb. 7 meeting, though, was held back in Robinson Hall, with about 25 people in attendance. No one spoke during public comment and the meeting lasted just more than one hour. Normalcy hasn’t returned to campus, but perhaps the venue change is a sign that the dust is settling.

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Dudley Goodlette was never in an 80s hair band, doesn’t wear leather pants to work and doesn’t have groupies chasing after him. Yet, trustees at Edison State College used an atypical term to describe their new interim president.

“The dude is a rock star in Tallahassee,” said trustee Chris Vernon. “You can’t fathom it until you stand next to him and walk around with him.”

A delegation of Edison trustees and administrators visited House and Senate chambers last week to accept resolutions honoring the college for its 50 years of service to Southwest Florida. Goodlette, an attorney and a state representative from 1998 to 2006, had no direct experience in higher education, but the trip to Tally seemed to reassure trustees that Goodlette gives the college instant cred in the capital.

“Dudley Goodlette knows absolutely everybody in Tallahassee,” trustee chairwoman Ann Berlam said.

“I’m glad you’re our rock star,” added board member Marjorie Starnes-Bilotti.

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