GAINESVILLE, Florida — The University of Florida wants to hire Santa Ono as school president instead of someone from the University of Michigan.
Ono was picked by the search group as the only finalist that the board of trustees should think about on Sunday night.
Rahul Patel, who is in charge of the school’s presidential search committee, said, “Dr. Ono was our clear choice because he has a history of academic excellence, innovation, and collaborative leadership at world-class institutions.”
State law says that the president must be approved by the Florida Board of Governors after being chosen by the school’s board.
Ono will likely be on campus on Tuesday for a number of meetings with students, teachers, and officials.
Ono said, “There aren’t many more exciting times in higher education than this one at the University of Florida.” “UF has a lot going for it: it’s the flagship university of one of the most important states in the country, it has a lot of support from state leaders, and everyone in its community shares the same vision.”
In the summer of 2018, Kent Fuchs took over as temporary president of the school after former Sen. Ben Sasse stepped down. Ono will now take over as president. Sasse quit the U.S. Senate, where he was from Nebraska, to become head of the university in 2023.
Sasse quit his job in July to spend more time with his family after his wife was diagnosed with epilepsy.
Soon after, it was said that Sasse hired six former staff members and two former Republican officials at salaries that were higher than those of similar jobs. In his first year on the job, he also spent over $1.3 million on private catering for fancy dinners, football tailgates, and other fancy social events.
The amount was about twice as much as what his boss, Fuchs, who was brought back to temporarily lead the university, spent.
Santa Ono would be my first choice for president of the University, if I had to pick just one, Fuchs said. “His track record of success at the best universities, his caring personality, and the way he leads have helped him work well with faculty, students, alumni, staff, and other important people everywhere he has been.”
Nearly three years ago, the University of Michigan hired Ono after he led the University of British Columbia. He was president of the University of Cincinnati and senior vice provost and deputy to the provost at Emory University in Georgia before this.
In response to the Trump administration’s orders against diversity practices, colleges in the U.S. are scaling back on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts. The University of Michigan was one of the first schools to make big DEI cuts to avoid federal scrutiny. Ono had said that the school would find other ways to help students, such as giving more low-income students grants.