Last month, Santa Ono was vying to become the next president of the University of Florida, and declared in an opinion essay that he believed in Florida’s “vision for higher education.” But on Tuesday, the state’s higher education leaders said they did not believe in Dr. Ono.
Even though Dr. Ono sought to distance himself from those efforts, board officials said they did not find his new posture credible.
The state-level saga over Dr. Ono’s candidacy comes as the federal government wages an assault on the nation’s colleges, revealing how deeply politicized higher education has become.
It did not seem to matter to the Florida officials that his previous university’s diversity program had preceded Dr. Ono, who arrived in 2022, and that he had presided over its dismantling.
Supporters of pro-Palestinian activism on Michigan’s campus also said that Dr. Ono had taken a hard-line approach against them.
In an opinion piece last month, Santa Ono, who was running for the position of University of Florida president, stated his support for Florida’s “vision for higher education.”. “”.
Higher education officials in the state, however, stated on Tuesday that they did not trust Dr. Dot Ono.
His application to be the head of the 60,000-student Gainesville campus was unexpectedly denied by a board that oversees Florida’s public universities. While serving as president of the University of Michigan, the officials voiced concerns about his leadership there, denouncing the university’s extensive diversity, equity, and inclusion program and what they described as its shortcomings in preventing antisemitism. Board officials stated they did not think Dr. Ono’s new stance was credible, despite his attempts to disassociate himself from those initiatives.
The state-level drama surrounding Dr. Ono’s candidacy reveals the extent of the politicization of higher education as the federal government attacks the country’s universities. Right-wingers and even some left-wingers applauded his unsuccessful bid, arguing that he had adjusted his message to the audience he was speaking to.
Dr. Dot Ono was unanimously accepted for the position by the Gainesville campus’s board of trustees in May. However, the nomination was rejected by the Board of Governors, which is in charge of the 12-institution state university system, by a vote of 10 to 6. The governors grilled him about his time at Michigan during the four-hour hearing, which resulted in the decision.
Florida officials didn’t seem to care that Dr. Ono, who arrived in 2022, had overseen the dismantling of the diversity program at his former university, which had existed before him. Additionally, pro-Palestinian activists on the University of Michigan campus claimed that Dr. Ono had adopted a tough stance against them.
Dr. Ono lost his job and the $1:05 million base pay that came with it as a result of his attempt to move from Michigan to Florida’s red-state higher education politics, which are notorious for attempting to stifle “woke ideology.”.
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