At UF, Florida shows what it wants in a college president

[Zorro]

State’s campuses become the latest front in ideological wars.

If you want a snapshot of how far Florida has gone off the rails, look at the spectacular collapse of Santa Ono’s presumptive presidency at the University of Florida. His era ended last week before it began, sunk by secrecy, right-wing woke and online pollution. It was an ignoble moment of history that stands to harm Florida for years. Anyone who’s unfazed by the ugly episode is either drinking the Kool-Aid themselves or not paying attention.

In an unprecedented move, the Board of Governors, which oversees the state’s university system, blocked UF from appointing Ono as its next president. UF’s board of trustees unanimously approved Ono’s hiring as the school’s 14th president in May, weeks after the former University of Michigan president was named the only finalist for the job.

But the Board of Governor’s refused to sign off for the first time in its 22-year history. The 10-6 vote followed a monthlong campaign by conservative activists who opposed Ono’s prior stances on diversity programs at Michigan and his handling of pro-Palestine protests in the wake of Hamas’ deadly terrorist attack on Israel in 2023.

I’m not here to carry Ono’s water. During the selection process, he seemed to take pains to rewrite his views on diversity, climate change and COVID-19, aligning himself with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and the state’s Republican leadership. Ono said he agreed with the state’s opposition to diversity programs on college campuses, gave muted defenses of free speech and signaled an institutional retreat at UF from leading on major societal issues of the day. Being pragmatic is one thing, but Ono’s explanation of his evolving views struck me as having crossed into fealty and pandering, which sets the wrong example for a leader who’s supposed to inspire our best and brightest.

But luring away the president of Michigan would have been a coup for Florida’s higher education system. Ono is an accomplished scholar and administrator who, as Michigan president, headed one of the most respected public universities in the world. He brought a history with the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Harvard University and other leading institutions. His selection also would have put an academic in charge of Florida’s flagship university, halting, at least temporarily, Florida’s sleazy practice of spoon-feeding these jobs to the governor’s political cronies.

https://www.tampabay.com/opinion/2025/06/11/uf-florida-shows-what-it-wants-college-president-column/

MAGAts attack public and higher education because students LEARN to discriminate between truth and rhetoric, between reality and fantasy, between science and ignorance, between facts and lies -- and such an education does not agree with Republican orthodoxy. So exposing students to subjects, issues, and positions that differ from the worldview embraced by Republicans must be suppressed.