Former State Senator John Thrasher has completed the transition from powerful lawmaker, to university president. Thrasher was formally installed in his new job Tuesday afternoon during FSU day at the Capitol.
It was FSU day at the Capitol Tuesday, a day where fans, alumni and lawmakers gather to celebrate the university’s accomplishments.
The event was former Sen. John Thrasher’s first as official FSU president. “It’s a special day for me, obviously because I’ve been to this many times as a legislature. So today to be here as president was truly an honor and a privilege,” he said.
Thrasher says his primary focus now on is raising funds for the University.
“We’ve got a raise the torch campaign going, trying to raise a billion dollars by 2018. We’re about on the opponent’s 45 yard line,” said Thrasher.
So far, so good. There’s already a plan to put a charter school research program at FSU, leading Sen. Nancy Detert (R-Venice) to weigh in on that at a recent hearing. “Now that we have president Thrasher, is everything gonna go to Florida state? I mean other universities could establish it,” said Detert.
Meanwhile, during FSU’s Capitol festivities the university honored Biomedical Engineering student Farhad ‘Ronny’ Ahmed. 4 months ago, Ahmed was left paralyzed from the waist down after being shot at FSU’s Stroizer library.
Ahmed has returned to his studies on campus and says he’s still adapting to wheelchair accessibility. “The campus is pretty accessible, so it hasn’t been bad at all. The house… getting use to the house was a little more difficult, but it’s been going pretty well,” Ahmed said.
A proposal to allow students, faculty and staff to carry guns on public college and university campus is moving quickly through the legislature. As a Senator, Thrasher was set to block the bill in the past and he’s still opposed to it.
“I’ve been opposed to it. I’ve said that publically many times and you know, we’ll let the wisdom of the legislature decide that issue,” Thrasher said.
But he’s no longer in the legislature and the measure passed on a 6-to-3 vote in a senate panel Monday. The proposal still has several stops left in both chambers.
