FIU’s new president in her own words: A Q&A with former Lt. Gov. Jeanette Nuñez

In the wave of conservative politicians taking over state schools under Gov. Ron DeSantis, Florida International University got both an FIU graduate and an FIU parent in Jeanette Nuñez.

Her appointment as interim president by the FIU Board of Trustees fewer than three weeks ago came in Nuñez’s seventh year as lieutenant governor under DeSantis, and required the demotion of Kenneth Jessell, a longtime FIU administrator serving as president since 2022.

Senior Board members made clear Nuñez’s hire wasn’t their idea but came at the request of DeSantis’ office. At the same time, they publicly and privately touted the upside of a former Florida lawmaker and sitting lieutenant governor taking over FIU, which typically takes a back seat in Tallahassee spending decisions to Florida State and the University of Florida.

Two weeks into her new $850,000-a-year job, Nuñez sat down with the Miami Herald for an interview in the president’s office. The loaned paintings from FIU’s art collection are the same as when Jessell occupied the space, but there are Nuñez mementos on the bookshelf: a cafetera for Cuban coffee; signed copies of books by DeSantis and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, a friend; and a framed pencil sketch of a disco ball with “Florida International University” under it – a congratulations gift from Nuñez’s daughter-in-law.

Nuñez, 52, earned her undergraduate and masters degree at FIU and then she and her husband sent two of their three children there as well. (A third, still a teenager, might go, too.) She takes over after a banner year for FIU, which was named a Top 50 public university by U.S. News & World Report, and snagged a top ranking for social mobility, which measures graduation rates and other metrics with low-income students.

FIU’s Faculty Senate opposed Nuñez’s appointment, which came weeks after the Republican-controlled Legislature overturned a law she championed as a state representative that likely benefited thousands of FIU students over the last decade.

Passed in 2014 under Gov. Rick Scott, the law granted in-state tuition rates to students who came to the United States illegally with their parents but grew up in the country. Known as Dreamers by advocates of the kind of accommodations Nuñez, a Cuban-American, once promoted, those students will see their tuition expenses triple under legislation passed earlier this month that overturned the law.

With DeSantis backing repeal, Nuñez dropped her prior arguments for helping Dreamers and endorsed the change, saying illegal immigration has gotten to be too big of a problem in the intervening years to continue the tuition breaks. FIU estimates about 500 students would be impacted by the bill, less than 1% of the enrollment for a school with more than 50,000 students.

In her interview, Nuñez talked about FIU’s potential, her about-face on tuition aid for Dreamers and the funding squeeze the school is already feeling from President Donald Trump’s second term in the White House.

What follows is an edited version of that interview:

Q: Has FIU seen cuts or pauses in research dollars from the Trump administration?

A: There have been some grants that have been eliminated, if you will, or paused while they evaluate the grant itself. [Nuñez also said FIU is losing out on federal grant money due to changes in what Washington will pay for overhead expenses on research.] We’re talking about somewhere between $8 million to $10 million … I have reached out to the members of our Congressional delegation on both sides of the aisle. They’re aware — they know what’s going on. I know the chancellor of the state university system is in DC today, probably as we speak, talking to members of the delegation and making sure that we make the Florida case — but also individually for FIU.

Q: In some of your first messages as interim president, you highlighted the importance of sports. What’s your plan there?

A: I don’t fancy myself a coach, but I certainly know that you have to have a winning mentality. And in order to have that winning mentality, you have to put together a good team. And that’s not necessarily just the players, right? It entails the entire staff. So I’m looking forward to getting more up to speed with the athletic director, with our individual sports programs. I know we have some great ones that don’t get a lot of notoriety. Our women’s swimming team, diving team — they’re constantly being recognized and doing well. Of course, everyone wants to focus on football and basketball and baseball. But you know, of course, we want to look at the entirety of our athletics department.

Q: FIU has a Pride Center to promote education and celebration with queer, trans and allied students. Is that a good idea?

A: I feel like the student should be an FIU student first and foremost. And so I know a lot of small groups, they want to kind of separate into silos…I prioritize safety on campus for every single student. So I don’t know why we have to bifurcate everything into a group or two into a particular program. No matter who you are, what you do, my focus is to provide you with an excellent student experience, and that will manifest in many different ways.

Q: But do you think it’s a good idea if, say there’s a transgender student thinking about attending FIU who would say: “Oh, there’s a Pride Center. That is specifically there to make me feel more welcome?”

A: Well, I think FIU does a great job welcoming all students.

Q: What’s your wish list for the upcoming legislative session?

A: Well, certainly, we want to continue to look at ways to enhance FIU ongoing operational expenses. That is our recurring funding that we are hoping to obtain. There are reasons for why some institutions perhaps get more funding one year over another, but I really want to start to look at it strategically. How can we elevate that [for FIU]? Because, as you know, we’re one of the largest in the state. We’ve been growing in the rankings … If you look at tuition from an affordability standpoint, we rank very high, probably the top university system in terms of affordability. So that comes with the other side of the equation, right? If tuition is going to stay flat, the investments have to increase if you’re looking to improve and make strides on graduation.

Q: The Miami Herald interviewed a high school student who is 18, undocumented and got accepted to FIU. She told the Herald that “Getting into FIU was a moment of ‘Oh my God, I’m so excited. But also a moment of ‘What if I can’t go?’” Is FIU better off not having Maria on campus?

A: Well, I’m not going to say FIU is better off having Maria or anybody else — Don or Sally… There’s a long list of people that are angry because their child wouldn’t get into FIU, or their child won’t get into FSU or what not. It’s a policy debate. When I sponsored the legislation back in 2014, times were very different … And then over time, as you saw the last four years, this tremendous impact that illegal immigration has had on the state of Florida, and really the country, kind of shifted the thought process as to whether or not the state of Florida should be in the business of providing this benefit, because it is, you know, a really difficult topic, and I get that but, but really, we do have a responsibility, because there are many students that cannot afford tuition, even at the in-state rate.

Q: Is there a challenge facing FIU that you think is generally overlooked or not appreciated?

A: One of the points I like to make is that roughly 50% of our students have Pell grants. We are able to graduate our students on Pell Grant quicker than other institutions, and I think that’s a testament, again, to our educational excellence that we provide here. A lot of our students are working students, so they have a unique set of challenges, but really, the beauty of FIU is, with all of that into consideration, we’ve been able to achieve great things.

Q: Have you spoken to anyone about FIU being considered for President Trump’s presidential library?

A: So there are not really any active discussions … but we’re eager. It doesn’t matter who it is, I think having a Presidential Library is a huge source of just pride and prominence. And I think FIU is probably most uniquely positioned to host the presidential library because of Miami being such an international community, because of how attractive it would be to come to Miami.

Q: When you were an undergrad, here, were you working as well?

A: So I walked on campus in 1989 as a high school senior and got my first summer job, I worked right downstairs in the Office of the Registrar. And actually my job was data entry. We had to input every single official university form, everything from applications to transcript requests and name changes to grades at the end of every semester. Believe it or not, that was all done by hand. I worked that summer, and they liked me and said they’d have a job for me if I came back as a student. Which I did. I think I made $5 an hour.

Q: Can you walk us through the timeline for how you got this job? Who did you raise your hand to?

A: I didn’t really raise my hand to anyone. The chairman reached out to me and asked me what my interests were, if I had an interest in being considered. That rumor had swirled, probably three years prior, and at the time, wasn’t really something I was thinking about. [This time] I gave it some thought, of course. It was a tremendous opportunity to come back to my alma mater.

Editor’s note: Chairman Rogelio Tovar said he was told by the governor’s office that Nuñez should be considered for the FIU presidency.

Q: Do you think the next governor should pick a new FIU president?

A: Well I certainly don’t think it’s: the governor picks, and the poof, here you are. Certainly there’s a conversation around the FIU Board of Trustees and the [state’s] Board of Governors. The next governor will make appointments to those boards.

Q: If a Democrat is elected governor in 2026, should they have a former Republican lieutenant governor running FIU?

So, no matter who the governor is, and no matter what persuasion they are, what they should want is someone that is competent, someone that is passionate, someone that has demonstrated tremendous leadership to drive the university forward. Because the universities are not just where you put your focus on from an educational standpoint, right? It’s an economic engine as well. So you want to have universities that are performing at the highest level, because they drive a tremendous amount of economic benefit to the entirety of the state.Those decisions are in the future, and so I can’t necessarily speculate as to what will happen or who will be elected governor You know, things happen very quickly in politics. What you think is going to happen a week from now can go in a different direction.

This story was originally published February 25, 2025 at 5:30 PM.