- Ben Sasse announced he was diagnosed with stage 4 metastatic pancreatic cancer in June 2024 and stated he will fight the illness.
- Sasse resigned as University of Florida president in July 2024 to support his wife's epilepsy diagnosis and family needs.
- His spending at UF tripled compared to his predecessor, leading to calls for investigation into the use of tuition and tax dollars.
Former U.S. Sen. and University of Florida President Ben Sasse announced Tuesday that he has been diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer.
In a post on X, Sasse, 53, said he received the news of his diagnosis last week.
“This is a tough note to write, but since a bunch of you have started to suspect something, I’ll cut to the chase: Last week I was diagnosed with metastasized, stage-four pancreatic cancer, and am gonna die,” Sasse wrote in the post. “Advanced pancreatic is nasty stuff; it’s a death sentence. But I already had a death sentence before last week too – we all do.
“I’m blessed with amazing siblings and half-a-dozen buddies that are genuinely brothers. As one of them put it, ‘Sure, you’re on the clock, but we’re all on the clock.’ Death is a wicked thief, and the bastard pursues us all.”
Toward the end of the post, Sasse said, “I’ll have more to say. I’m not going down without a fight.”
UF Board of Trustees Chair Mori Hosseini and interim President Donald Landry released the following statement on Tuesday afternoon regarding Sasse’s diagnosis.
“On behalf of the Board of Trustees and the entire Gator Nation, we extend our sincerest thoughts and prayers to President Sasse, his wife Melissa and their lovely children. We were shocked and saddened by the news of President Sasse’s illness. This was staggering news. And yet, true to his character, Ben’s first instinct is to give comfort and reassurance to those of us who have known and admired him.”
Sasse, who is from Nebraska, holds a doctorate and two master’s degrees from Yale University. He also has a master’s degree from St. John’s College and a bachelor’s degree from Harvard University.
Sasse was a presidential appointee in the George W. Bush administration. He later served on the faculty at the University of Texas at Austin and was appointed the president of Nebraska’s Midland University in 2010.
After a five-year stint at Midland, Sasse joined the U.S. Senate as a Republican in 2015, representing his home state of Nebraska. In October 2022, Sasse was named the sole finalist to become UF’s 13th president.
Just days after the UF presidential search committee’s unanimous recommendation, protestors stormed Emerson Alumni Hall, where Sasse was holding public forums, to protest his nomination and the search process.
Despite backlash, Sasse ultimately received approval from the UF Board of Trustees and the Florida Board of Governors. He resigned from the Senate in January 2023 to assume the UF president role in February 2023, with his official inauguration ceremony held in November 2023.
After just 17 months on the job, Sasse unexpectedly announced his resignation in July 2024, citing his wife’s health issues and a need to spend more time with family.
In a post on X, Sasse said at the time that Melissa had been diagnosed with epilepsy in the recent months and “has been struggling with a new batch of memory issues.”
Not long after he stepped down as president, questions about Sasse’s spending at UF surfaced after The Independent Florida Alligator reported in August 2024 that he more than tripled his predecessor’s spending during his short stint in office.
The Alligator said at the time that most of the spending increase “was driven by lucrative contracts with big-name consulting firms and high-salaried, remote positions for Sasse’s former U.S. Senate staff and Republican officials.”
Sasse defended his administration’s spending after Jimmy Patronis, then-Chief Financial Officer (CFO) for the state of Florida, called for an investigation “to ensure tuition and tax dollars are being properly used.”
According to his UF bio page, Sasse transitioned to serving as president emeritus and professor in UF’s Hamilton School for Classical and Civic Education after Melissa’s epilepsy diagnosis.
His bio on the Hamilton School’s website states that the “Sasse family continues to reside in Gainesville, and they are passionate about UF’s success.”
Nick Anschultz is a Report for America corps member and writes about education for Mainstreet Daily News. This position is supported by local donations through the Community Catalyst for Local Journalism Fund at the Community Foundation of North Central Florida.