Dr. Santa Ono and the UF president search. What we know about his rejection
For the first time ever, the body that governs Florida's 12 public universities, the Florida Board of governors (BOG), rejected a university trustee board's leadership selection.
Last week, the University of Florida's board of trustees unanimously chose a new president for the university, just shy of a year after the last president stepped down. UF's trustees selected Dr. Santa Ono, who came to Florida from the University of Michigan, where he recently closed the university's DEI office after spending a good portion of his career supporting DEI efforts.
And in a shocking turn of events for those paying attention to higher education in Florida, the vote to confirm Ono failed (6-10), after a three-hour questioning in which the board pointed out his unclear stances on issues like DEI and merit-based admissions.
ere's why Dr. Ono was rejected by the Florida Board of Governors, what to know about his career and how he ended up as UF's top choice for its 14th president.
More on Ono's rejection: Florida higher ed board stuns UF, blocks Santa Ono from becoming president
It's the Florida Board of Governors' job to confirm or deny university president appointments for all of Florida's public universities. Each university's board of trustees makes a selection and waits for confirmation from the BOG before they can hire the person they've chosen.
The BOG's rejection of Dr. Ono as the next president of UF was the first time the 17-member governing body has rejected a university BOT's leadership selection.
Before he was rejected by the governing board this week, Dr. Ono was on track to become one of the highest-paid university presidents in the U.S., The Gainesville Sun reported.
'Newly named University of Florida President Dr. Santa Ono is set to receive a five-year compensation package worth up to $15 million, making him one of the highest-paid public university presidents in the country,' The Sun reported last week.
'The contract, part of the Florida Board of Governors' agenda packet for its June 3 meeting — when it is expected to formally approve the hire — includes an annual base salary of $1.5 million, along with an annual 3% raise and an annual 20% retention bonus.'
More on UF and Dr. Ono: Here's how much Dr. Santa Ono would have received as president of the University of Florida
Just one week after Dr. Santa Ono was unanimously selected by UF's Board of Trustees to become the president-elect, the Florida Board of Governors rejected the selection in a 6-10 vote on Tuesday, June 3.
Ono was questioned for three hours on his past support of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs during his time leading the University of Michigan, his views on merit-based admissions, gender-affirming care, climate change and his response to the COVID-19 pandemic — all of which have been flashpoints among Florida's ruling conservatives, the Sun reported.
Ono also was asked about an encampment of pro-Palestine protesters that remained on the Michigan campus for a month, and about his position on antisemitism.
Some BOG members bucked against the grilling session, saying that it felt 'unfair' to 'interrogate somebody who hasn't had a chance to review the materials in advance.'
Board Chair Brian Lamb said it would have been appropriate for Ono to receive the materials in advance, and Board of Governors member Charles H. Lydecker, who served on UF's presidential search committee, said "this is not a court of law," The Sun reported.
UF's Presidential Search Committee will now restart the process to select a new finalist for the Board of Trustees and the Board of Governors to either confirm or reject. It's unclear who UF is considering for the position now that Ono has been rejected.
Former UF President Kent Fuchs was appointed as the interim president of the university in August 2024 and will hold the position until a new president is confirmed. Fuchs was the president of UF for a little less than 10 years.
Ono was the president of three other universities before being selected by the University of Florida: the University of Michigan, the University of British Columbia in Canada and the University of Cincinnati.
He also previously held faculty appointments at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Harvard University and University College London. Ono's doctorate degree is in experimental medicine from McGill University.
'We recognize that, for most of the past year, he was not setting 'policy' in consideration of the best interests of our community but was trashing and burning our institutional values and norms as a performance for University of Florida trustees,' Rebekah Modrak, a UM professor who served as Faculty Senate chair from May 1, 2024, through April 30, 2025, told The Gainesville Sun.
'On March 27, President Ono, who we now know was being considered to be the next president of the University of Florida, discontinued the DEI 2.0 plan, closed the Office of DEI at UM, and fired valuable staff who led key assessment and strategy work for DEI, among other measures that took the university more than two steps back.'
Here's a list of UF's past presidents, from 1904 through present day, from the UF Website:
Andrew Sledd, 1904-1909
Albert Murphree, 1909-1927
James Farr, interim president, 1927-1928
John J. Tigert, 1928-1947
Harold Hume, interim president, 1947-1948
J. Hillis Miller, 1948-1953
John Allen, interim president, 1953-1955
J. Wayne Reitz, 1955-1967
Stephen C. O'Connell, 1967-1973
E.T. York, interim president, 1973-1974
Robert Q. Marston, 1974-1984
Marshall Criser, 1984-1989
Robert Bryan, interim president, 1989-1990
John Lombardi, 1990-1999
Charles E. Young, 1999-2003
Bernie Machen, 2004-2014
Kent Fuchs, 2015-2023 (interim 2024-25)
Ben Sasse, 2023-2024
Contributing: Alan Festo, Elliot Tritto, The Gainesville Sun
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Florida colleges board rejects UF president selection Santa Ono
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