U of M president Santa Ono leaving for Florida
U of M president Santa Ono is leaving Ann Arbor after less than three years to lead the University of Florida, he wrote Sunday in an email to the U of M community.
The big picture: Ono's departure comes as academic institutions around the country confront President Trump's agenda to influence and revamp the priorities at elite institutions.
What they're saying: Ono focused on the university's accomplishments, such as its $1.2 billion AI research ecosystem, in his campuswide email.
"Serving as your president over these past three academic years has been a distinct honor," he wrote. "Every day, I have been inspired beyond words by the vibrancy, brilliance, and dedication of our faculty, staff, students, and alumni."
Flashback: Ono became U of M's 15th president in October 2022.
He was previously president and vice chancellor of the University of British Columbia and president and provost of the University of Cincinnati.
State of play: U of M announced the closure of its diversity, equity and inclusion office in March, along with the discontinuation of its DEI 2.0 Strategic Plan, after receiving executive orders and federal guidance criticizing DEI programs.
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I refer Heritage True Believers to Mark 10:25 (the camel/rich man/eye-of-needle thing) and Matthew 6:24 (the God and Mammon thing) as well as analyses of our economic system, many written by those embedded in it. Marxism is a political philosophy. Like any other philosophy, it should be studied in universities. Merely hearing about it does not rot your very soul. Ibram X. Kendi is a distinguished scholar, a graduate of Florida A&M University who has gone on to win a National Book Award and a MacArthur Fellowship. Reading his work will not infect you with the Woke Mind Virus. But — agree or disagree with what Kendi says — his book might make you think. Imagine that: college students thinking. Eye-wateringly stupid as Smith's complaints were, they had the intended effect: Martha Saunders resigned, allowing DeSantis to put his education commissioner in as interim president. 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In 2024-25, FAMU's enrollment was 9,980. New College's was 850. FAMU's appropriation was $50 million. New College got $52 million. Even those of us who went to school in Florida can do that math. Not that anyone should be surprised the state spends far more per student at predominantly white New College than at predominantly not-white FAMU. Can't be racism. Oh, no. Perish the thought. Even though on Planet DeSantis, the very existence of a majority-minority student body is DEI gone wild. At any rate, FAMU's no longer flying under the governor's radar. He just got to stick another of his favorites in the top job. The good part: FAMU's presidential search was unusually transparent, at least in comparison to the absurdly hermetic process at UF and other state institutions. The four finalists' names were publicly announced and students, faculty, and community members were invited to meet them. Three had solid-to-excellent qualifications. Contenders included the provost and vice president for academic affairs at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore, the senior vice president for administration and finance at the University of Central Florida, and FAMU's own senior vice president and COO. The not-so-good part: Candidate Number Four. Marva Johnson appeared almost out of nowhere, rumored to be a late addition pushed by trustee Deveron Gibbons, a DeSantis appointee. As you'd expect, she has no higher education experience, but she has far more important qualities: She's a telecom company executive, a MAGA Republican, and a crony of Ron DeSantis'. FAMU has long been a leader in the fight for civil rights and remains the nation's top public HCBU, alma mater of politicians like former Atlanta mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms and U.S. Rep. Al Green, musicians Common and Cannonball Adderley, satirist Roy Wood Jr., Wimbledon champion Althea Gibson, and art collector Bernard Kinsey. Rattlers were horrified Johnson made the short list and held rallies protesting her candidacy. Movie producer, FAMU alum and big-time donor Will Packer said she might 'do irreparable harm to the university's relationship with its community and with its donor base.' Naturally, she got the job. And, like any self-respecting MAGA grifter, immediately demanded a salary of $750,000, nearly $300,000 a year higher than her predecessor. Of course, she won't make as much as the president of New College: He pulls in nearly a $1 million overseeing those 850 students. Taxpayers might wonder why, when legislators and the governor keep whining about the need to cut budgets and save money, there seems to be no problem paying a gaggle of under-qualified nonentities huge amounts to be university presidents. But universities in Florida and other MAGA-controlled states are no longer so much about education as they are about propaganda and power. Republicans want to control curriculum, censoring anything that upsets white folks — topics such as slavery, genocide, colonialism, gender, women's rights. You've seen how Trump is going after Harvard and other universities, cutting off funding, trying to control hiring and admissions, denying foreign students visas. Colleges in Utah, Ohio, Texas, Iowa, and (no surprise) Florida are being told to emphasize Western Civilization, the Constitution, and 'Great Books.' MAGAs might not like it if universities really focused on, say, the Constitution. Students might realize that the current regime regularly violates it. For Ron DeSantis, taming Florida's universities feeds his desperate need for relevance. Spurned by the voters during his disastrous presidential bid, ridiculed by onetime patron Donald Trump, defied by the Legislature, DeSantis figures at least he can run — or ruin — education. It's not quite as smooth a conquest as anticipated. The crash of Santa Ono's UF candidacy was about the Right's fear of DEI. But it was also about giving DeSantis a black eye. The crash of Santa Ono's UF candidacy was about the Right's fear of DEI — they truly do want to Make America White (and Christian and male-dominated) Again — and hysteria over hiring someone who, despite his pathetic attempts to demonstrate that he'd drunk the Trumpy Kool-Aid, clearly knew better. But it was also about giving DeSantis a black eye. Signs indicate Casey DeSantis will run for governor when her husband terms out. But she's got all kinds of political problems, not least an investigation into her dodgy charity, Hope Florida. Her husband is spewing spittle all over Tallahassee, accusing a 'jackass' in the Legislature (the rest of us know him as Rep. Alex Andrade) of taking documents which 'he dropped in a prosecutor's office,' and hollering 'that is not an organic investigation' and any accusation of money laundering is just a 'smear.' Then there's her likely primary opponent, Rep. Byron Donalds. He's been endorsed by Trump. It's no coincidence he led the MAGA campaign against Ono. Higher education has always been political. Governors and legislators have never approved of professors (liberals, mostly) or students (snotty-nosed kids protesting) or faculty (probably Marxists). But DeSantis has taken the politicization of universities to a whole new level of venality, pettiness, and dangerous repression. The 'Free State of Florida' isn't. As that famous novel (which could soon be on the banned books list) says: 'Freedom is slavery' and 'Ignorance is strength.' SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
