
The Florida Board of Governors voted 10-6 on Tuesday to reject Dr. Santa Ono as the next president of the University of Florida, overturning unanimous support by the UF Board of Trustees.
The decision abruptly stops the process to appoint Ono as UF’s next president, with the Board of Governors typically confirming candidates.
“Alright, the motion fails. First time that’s really happened,” Board Chair Brian Lamb said after the vote.
The rejection leaves UF without an option for its 14th president. Ono was the sole finalist brought forward by UF’s Presidential Search Committee. Interim President Kent Fuchs continues in the role after former President Ben Sasse resigned in July 2024.
The Florida Board of Governors held the short notice meeting on Tuesday with Ono’s presidency as the only item. The meeting lasted for nearly four hours.
UF trustees Rahul Patel, Fred Ridley and Blake Cox spoke at the start to reaffirm their support of Ono.
“Dr. Ono chose to come to Florida because of our reforms, not in spite of them,” UF Board of Trustees Chair Mori Hosseini said to the Board of Governors. “He seen firsthand how liberal orthodoxy that dominates many elite universities is failing, breeding division, eroding public trust and compromising academic rigor.”
Ono served as president of the University of Michigan starting in 2022 before resigning in May in anticipation of the UF post. He also led the University of Cincinnati and the University of Vancouver.
Despite glowing reports from UF trustees, Board of Governors members grilled Ono on his evolution of thinking on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs, systemic racism and merit-based admission. They referenced past speeches, letters and statements by Ono that seemed to support DEI through the end of 2024.
Board member Paul Renner, the former Republican Speaker of the Florida House, referenced a speech Ono made in November 2024. The speech ended with the following statement:
“I’m convinced that we cannot be excellent without being diverse in the broadest sense of the word. Inclusion and equity, respect, diversity, integrity, these are core values of the university. They must be at the heart of everything we do. We must not back down in face of renewed adversity,” Ono is quoted as saying in the speech.
Renner asked if the “renewed adversity” referred to Texas or Florida having “taken a sledgehammer to DEI.” Ono said it didn’t refer to those, but he said he couldn’t recall what renewed adversity he was referencing at the time.
“I don’t remember because I didn’t know I was going to be talking about this document until now,” Ono said.
Board member Charles Lydecker, who previously spoke in favor of Ono, objected to the line of questioning and referencing documents Ono hadn’t had time to review. It’s not a quasi-judicial meeting, he said, and didn’t feel fair.
Board member Jose Oliva defended Renner. He said if Renner’s questions aren’t sitting well, then Lydecker really wouldn’t like his questions. Oliva said it’s okay to interrogate the candidate that will lead Florida’s flagship university.
Renner had documents with various numbered tabs that he asked Ono to flip to and comment on. Renner had posted the documents on his X account just before the meeting, noting that he had serious concerns about Ono.
However, board member Eric Silagy questioned if detractors from Ono had ulterior motives. He asked Hosseini if the presidential search netted candidates from Florida. These detractors might benefit from Ono getting dismissed as a candidate, opening the door for another search.
“Are there any folks who are currently serving on the Board of Governors, who will be voting on this, who expressed an interest,” Silagy asked Hosseini.
Hosseini said there were. Silagy told Lamb that he wasn’t sure if he could ask for names, but Hosseini offered that if Silagy asked, he would answer.
Silagy asked who had expressed interest in the job, and Hosseini said Paul Renner.
Renner immediately asked for a chance to respond. He said a UF trustee asked if he’d be interested and encouraged him to look into it. Renner said he reached out to the governor’s office, which referred him to Hosseini, but Renner said Hosseini made clear that he wasn’t interested in Renner.
Renner said this happened before he joined the Florida Board of Governors in April. He added that if offered the position, he would reject it.
Silagy asked if he would recuse himself from the vote, and Renner asked why he would before Lamb cut off the conversation and returned to questions for Ono.
Renner asked if Ono could point to any instance where he openly questioned his prior advocacy on DEI while he was changing his thoughts on the programs. Ono said he would have to take time to think about it but couldn’t come up with an example.
Oliva further questioned Ono and seemed skeptical of his change in beliefs.
“Your recent reversal on an entire architecture of ideology is nothing short of incredible,” Oliva said at the start of his remarks.
Other board members were less skeptical.
Board member Edward Haddock said a lot of people followed DEI because who was against diversity, who was against equity and who was against inclusion? But Haddock said the programs took a life of their own.
Board member Timothy Cerio said changing a long-held belief is fine, but the board typically votes on a candidate’s body of work. In this case, the board has to ask if Ono means what he says about his change in thinking, Cerio said.
Lydecker said he chooses to believe Ono, and Hosseini asked the board to give Ono a chance.
Hosseini referenced Ronald Reagan’s political views that changed, but he said Reagan was given a shot.
Board member Carson Good said he got a lot of phone calls from people concerned following the Board of Trustees’ vote of approval. Good said there weren’t a lot of tough questions asked at that meeting.
During the vote, Good said he’d like to get to a “yes” on Ono, but he said Ono’s philosophical differences were too great. He said Ono’s answers to his questions were also weak.
After the vote, Lamb ended the meeting.
Total embarrassment!
Great reporting, as usual!
I guess, like with the other universities in the system, we’re going to end up with a DeSantis crony with an IQ lower than stale bread. With all due apologies to stale bread.
Much worse your going to end up with a Donalds DJT approved candidate.
What reputable leader of the stature needed for UF would apply now? And then to read that the main antagonist in the BOG had expressed interest in the job! One more example of the slide in higher education in Florida.
DEI, DEI, DEI.
That is a political straw man constructed to divide us, to further the current “us versus them” attitude which has taken over and torn apart our society. There’s not a darned thing wrong with striving to achieve diversity, equity and inclusion. After all, this is the United States. You know? Declaration of Independence, Constitution,, Statue of Liberty, all that stuff? And since we are supposed to be “a Christian nation,” the Sermon on the Mount, turn the other cheek, the good Samaritan, etc.?
But oh no, such meetings as this farcical Board of Governors flying circus focus on nothings such as DEI, woke and the like. Where were the question concerning Dr. Ono’s leadership in making a university great and successful? On raising the school’s reputation and endowment? On ability to lead deans, department chairs, faculty, staff and students? On personal research activities? It’s questions such as these that are important to a university, not how closely the candidate adheres to the latest “in” politically made-up divisive “thing.”
(And just how many Communists are there in the State Department these days?)
This meeting was controlled by puppet masters and their names aren’t DeSantis. He is as embarrassed and ashamed of what went on as the rest of us speaking here today.
excellent reporting. Excellent writing.
I’d wondered what the whole story was on this, since the local tv news reported the outcome but with no explanation. I thank you Main Street Daily!!
This decision is very bad news for the University of Florida
I regard Florida as basically a fascist leaning state due to the authoritarian governor and his lock on the thinking of the legislature. The board of trustees should think more about what a university really represents and less about fleeting socio-political events. I recommend “The Idea of a University” by Cardinal Newman.
I believe what you saw at the Board of Governors has its origin in another arm of the Republican Party, one that has had conflict with DeSantis and on that supports a very vocal candidate for Floridia’s next governor. This “vote” seemed like a “ hit” mob prepared and coached by people not at the meeting. In my opinion this opposition did not originate with DeSantis.
The meeting was a total embarrassment to the State of Florida and I doubt the proxy “executioners” acting at the meeting can even comprehend the great and long long lasting harm they have done to education in the state.
I am a life long Republican, a conservative and very anti DEI but I am astonished, stunned and ashamed at the conduct of some of the voters.
This was almost Neanderthal and I wonder in the next administration post DeSantis will we be denying the existence of evolution and banning the teaching of evolution. I really question the composition of the Board of Governors in its present form.
Thanks for the reply.
I dare say all of you bashing this & supporting DEI are liberals possibly associated with UF, probably professors.
Those of us who fight back, who have a conservative view & don’t want this crap to continue are then called fascist, dumb, trump clones, etc. Not true, we think differently. We want a merit based system, like it used to be, rather than promises everything based on skin color, gender, etc. We are none of those things, not racists, not biased in any way except toward merit.
Normal people aren’t wrapped up in your radical ideology. Guess what—we are bright & even have Ph.D.s.
Hopefully, Florida and UF will now have a chance of being part of the cure for American academia’s affliction with the social contagion of obsession with DEI and woke virtue signaling.
There is no such thing as “obsession with DEI and woke virtue signaling.” Those are made-up concepts that deny , history, reality and to cause division.
So, not ‘conservative’ enough? Not MAGA enough? Not hostile enough to minorities and equality? Well, anyway, we just saved a cool $1.5m a year.
I thought this was Florida 2025 not Salem, Massachusetts 1692-93. Shame on you BOG DeSantis sycophants!
This rejection may ultimately be for the best. The fact that he was willing to sign a contract with strong “anti-DEI” provisions and required to hire people closely aligned with DeSantis says more about his beliefs (or lack thereof) than any past statements. We don’t need someone to give a veneer of academic integrity or a cloak of respectability to these people. Make these MAGAs do their own dirty work out in the open.
I disagree. Ono was an outstanding candidate that was an academic.
Any candidate that even makes it to that stage of the hiring process under the Desantis regime will have to claim to concede to their fascist demands to get the job.
Ideally, we elect a competent governor in 2026 that will allow our schools and universities to operate without fascist interference.
Sadly because of this disgraceful mistake by the Board of Governors, we will not find any high-level candidates who will apply for the job because of our state government interference.
The scariest issue now is the real fear that the Desantis regime will force an unqualified political hack into the position of UF president, as they have with FAU, FIU, New College and are trying to do with FAMU now.
NM
Shameful.