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Adam Hasner has made FAU less safe. He should resign | Opinion

  • Writer: Indivisible Boca Raton
    Indivisible Boca Raton
  • 4 days ago
  • 4 min read

"Public education is a modern miracle of democracy. Florida taxpayers deserve better." - Karen J. Leader


Florida Atlantic University President Adam Hasner speaks during a news conference at Florida Atlantic University on Thursday, June 26, 2025. (Amy Beth Bennett / South Florida Sun Sentinel)


PUBLISHED: March 9, 2026 at 4:35 PM EDT - South Florida Sun Sentinel


Florida Atlantic University President Adam Hasner assumed the role on March 10, 2025. In the year since then, FAU has become less safe, its reputation has suffered, and its resources have been squandered. He should resign and take his unqualified circle of advisers with him.


Although Hasner received a unanimous vote from the Board of Trustees, he was not the choice of the FAU community. Faculty recognized his lack of experience, either as academic or administrator. Students protested his fealty to the prison-industrial complex through his previous position at the GEO Group, a private prison and immigration detention corporation notable for allegations of human rights abuse. The community was right.


Among Hasner’s early acts was his choice to sign a 287(g) agreement, forcing FAU’s police department to train and collaborate with ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement). The calculated lack of transparency ever since about the details and deployment of this effort, despite repeated requests from faculty and students, demonstrates Hasner’s lack of care for our safety, fostering distrust.


On Sept. 5, 2025, students organized a demonstration against the 287(g) agreement, dubbed ICE Off Campus. The protest was by-the-book, with proper paperwork filed, FAU Police alerted, and approval for tabling, marching and rally speeches. When students, faculty and community members arrived, they were met with overwhelming law enforcement presence from numerous agencies. With no discernable reason beyond intimidation, Hasner approved this staggering waste of taxpayer funds, stifling the First Amendment right of peaceable assembly. I spoke at this rally, making points similar to those in this essay, under the watchful eye of horse-mounted police and rooftop snipers.


Several days after this event, right-wing podcaster Charlie Kirk was assassinated while speaking at Utah Valley University. Most Americans were unfamiliar with Kirk, but his supporters and detractors had strong opinions. One side portrayed Kirk as a sanitized, moderate, god-fearing figure simply seeking civil discourse. The other shared and re-shared evidence of who Kirk was quite comfortable being - on camera, mic and in print - a racist, misogynist, homophobic, transphobic, antisemitic rage-baiter who did genuine harm. Academics in particular knew the impact of his anti-college diatribes, demonizing of university professors, and literal targeting of them with Professor Watchlist.



What followed was a spectacle of failure and endangerment. Kirk’s supporters, including a former staffer in the DeSantis administration, collected screenshots and tried to get people fired for disrupting their fake martyr narrative. I was targeted, my university tagged, my home address posted. Kirk was shot on a Tuesday; by Saturday, I was on administrative leave.


But Hasner couldn’t leave it there. He tossed red meat to the mob, while blatantly violating university policy. In a public post on the Florida Atlantic X feed, he announced the administrative leave, informing the horde that their “concerns” had been heard. The response was predictable - “Leave? Not fired?” Light the torches.


What should have been a manageable communications situation was, because of Hasner’s announcement, now a full-blown crisis. Social media influencers that make a tidy living off fostering outrage featured my faculty headshot and posted it with Hasner’s announcement. The death threats poured in, not just to my voice mail and email, but also to my department, the dean’s office and the president’s office.


By Monday, FAU had gained several new features, including police cruisers with lights flashing, a surveillance tower and permanent uniformed watch stationed in certain buildings. Classes moved online. No responsible messaging came from any administrator about what was happening.


As for the investigation into myself and two colleagues also put on leave, instead of relying on the professionals in FAU’s Office of General Counsel and Office of the Provost, Hasner retained the well-connected Tallahassee law firm Lawson Huck Gonzales. After spending vast sums to “investigate” us, the law firm determined that we could not be disciplined and should be reinstated. Eventually, the two of us with tenure were. Our colleague without tenure was thrown to the wolves, her annual contract not renewed.


In the end, Adam Hasner could not find the leadership to do the right thing: stand up for the rights of faculty and protect the safety and well-being of our community, particularly our students. He could not put the Constitution ahead of narrow ideological aims.

Public education is a modern miracle of democracy. Florida taxpayers deserve better. Adam Hasner should resign.



Karen J. Leader is an associate professor of art history at Florida Atlantic University, where she has taught since 2009. She has recently become a sought-after speaker on free speech and political violence.



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