Pick the best answer. Each question is worth 10 points. (Answers below.)

1. In the U.S. News & World Report 2014 ranking of public universities, which of the following is not ranked among the top 30?

A. University of Florida

B. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

C. Clemson

D. Florida State University

2. Of the top 30 public research universities in the country as ranked by U.S. News & World Report, which is the only one not led by a distinguished academic?

A. Georgia Tech

B. University of California at Davis

C. Purdue

D. Penn State

3. How many of the 10 members of the Purdue University Board of Trustees that picked Gov. Mitch Daniels to be Purdue's president in 2013 had been appointed by Daniels?

A. None

B. 2

C. 8

D. 10

4. True or false: R. William Funk & Associates, the firm that is conducting the FSU search, is the same firm that conducted the 2013 search for Purdue University.

5. Which of the following criteria that were used in the 2009 FSU presidential search (the one that selected Eric Barron as president) and were adopted unanimously by the 2014 Presidential Search Advisory Committee to be used again were dropped from the ad placed in the Chronicle of Higher Education?

A. "Distinguished intellectual stature with strong academic credentials"

B. "high ethical standards, impeccable integrity, sound judgment and a personal philosophy that is grounded in administrative transparency"

C. "A successful record in senior management"

D. All of the above

6. How many times has the state of Florida Commission on Ethics found Sen. John Thrasher guilty of ethics violations?

A. Never

B. Once

C. Twice

D. Three times

7. Under House Bill 1205 (which Sen. John Thrasher voted for), which of the following state employees would not be subjected to random drug testing?

A. Coach Jimbo Fisher

B. Interim President Garnett Stokes

C. Nobel Laureate Sir Harold Kroto

D. Sen. John Thrasher

8. Under Senate Bill 1560 (proposed by Sen. John Thrasher in 2012), which of the following FSU employees would have been barred from serving in the Legislature?

A. Coach Jimbo Fisher

B. Interim President Garnett Stokes

C. Pulitzer Prize-winning author Robert Olen Butler

D. All of the above

9. About how much has state spending per full-time college student (in constant dollars) changed since John Thrasher was first elected to the Legislature in 1992?

A. Increased 15 percent

B. Increased by half

C. Doubled

D. Decreased by a quarter

10. Which of the following sent a letter to the Walt Disney Co. chairman and its board saying he was "deeply disappointed" by Disney's "decision to extend health benefits to the domestic partners of your homosexual employees"?

A. Ricky Martin

B. Michael Sam

C. John Thrasher

D. Dick Cheney

Extra Credit (10 points possible): Who seized the crown from hands of Pope Pius VII and crowned himself emperor?

A. Napoleon I

B. Nebraska Gov. Dave Heineman

C. John Thrasher

D. Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels


1. D. FSU is ranked 40th, and UF, UNC and Clemson are ranked 14th, fifth and 21st, respectively.

2. C. Former Indiana governor and Eli Lilly president Mitch Daniels has been a highly controversial and polarizing choice as Purdue's new president. Daniels has only been president since 2013, so Purdue's current ranking does not reflect his work.

3. Full credit for either C or D. Daniels, while governor, appointed eight of the 10 members and reappointed the other two.

4. True. Funk & Associates also consulted on the 2007 West Virginia University search that selected William Garrison, a former lobbyist and political operative, as president. Garrison resigned about a year later during a scandal in which the governor's daughter was granted a degree she didn't earn.

5. D. The criteria listed in A, B and C were replaced in the Chronicle ad by "loyalty to FSU," a category that lets in Thrasher but would prove troublesome to Harvard President Drew Faust, who has probably never been to a game in Doak Campbell Stadium.

6. C. In 1993, the Commission chastised Thrasher for illegally lobbying a state medical board on behalf of the Florida Medical Association, and in 2001 he was fined $500 for violating ethics laws forbidding former legislators from lobbying lawmakers within two years of leaving office.

7. D. Thrasher voted for HB1205, which passed the House and Senate and signed into law. Legislators exempted themselves from such drug-testing. Miami U.S. District Judge Ursula Ungaro later ruled the law unconstitutional.

8. D. In 2012, Thrasher proposed legislation (SB 1560) that would have banned any university employee, including professors and administrators, from serving in the Legislature. Now, he is simultaneously running for re-election to the Senate and campaigning to become president of FSU.

9. D. State funding dropped by 26 percent ($8,294 in 1990-91 per full-time equivalent student to $6,150 in 2009-10).

10. D. Thrasher and 15 other Florida legislators sent this letter in 1995. Now, two-thirds of Fortune 500 companies, 90 percent of all large employers and more than 140 colleges and universities (including FSU) offer health insurance and other spousal benefits to the same-sex domestic partners of their employees.

Extra Credit: A. But 5 points for B, C or D, for all of these politicians clearly have Napoleonic complexes. Daniels picked the people that picked him. Heineman and Thrasher both announced publicly that they were "available" before contacting the search committees, thereby hijacking the process.

Ned Stuckey-French is an associate professor of English at Florida State University. Contact him at

Read or Share this story: