FIU’s interim president Ken Jessell will stay for a full year until replacement is found

MIAMI – Florida International University’s interim president Ken Jessell was at his first board of trustees meeting on Thursday morning after he was appointed back in January.

This comes a day after the university released its investigation of former president FIU Mark Rosenberg.

Attorney and Investigator Eric Isicoff explained how the investigation went down.

“700 pages of text messages all emails between the principal parties involved,” Isicoff said.

The investigation revealed Rosenberg was unprofessional and crossed boundaries with a female employee in her twenties.

An investigator reported Rosenburg admitted to asking a woman under his direct supervision if “companionship was of interest” to her in October, but she said that what he actually asked was if she wanted to become his “lover.”

She said he later started to call her a “princess” and the situation escalated to her crying about her work environment.

They had a professional and personal relationship and Rosenberg admitted that back in October during a meeting.

Rosenburg asked the female employee if companionship was of interest to her and she said, “yes.”

She told investigators, “He became personal with his questions, told her he was getting a divorce, and proposed that she become his “lover” and companion.”

The report says Rosenberg denied ever using the word lover, but admitted he discussed that she could become his companion when he retired.

The woman also asked Rosenberg to stop his advances, but he continued anyway.

“There are no smoking guns, but the messages reveal an uncomfortable and inappropriate level of familiarity and informality on the part of both the president and female employee,” investigators said.

The text messages included pictures the woman sent to Rosenberg of her working out.

In the end, investigators concluded, “Given his position as president of a major educational institution, the substantial disparity in age and the obvious power dynamic that existed in the relationship, the president, at best, displayed extremely poor judgement.”

Rosenburg did go on to apologize to the FIU community and he currently remains a tenured professor.

The investigation will now go to the faculty board and they will decide if there will be any disciplinary action they need to take.


About the Authors:

In January 2017, Hatzel Vela became the first local television journalist in the country to move to Cuba and cover the island from the inside. During his time living and working in Cuba, he covered some of the most significant stories in a post-Fidel Castro Cuba.