University of Florida presidential pick rejected after criticism of past DEI support
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Several Florida Republicans, including Senator Rick Scott and Donald Trump Jr., encouraged the
Board of Governors to vote against Ono's candidacy. Republican Representative Jimmy Patronis in
a
post on X this week accused Ono of being 'a DEI acolyte.'
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'Leave the Ann Arbor thinking in Ann Arbor,' Patronis said, referring to Ono's time at the University of Michigan.
Ono was being offered a contract at the state's flagship university
with a base salary of $1.5 million that could have grown to as much as $15 million over five years with performance and retention bonuses. That would have made him one of the highest-paid university presidents in the country.
Mori Hosseini, chairman of the University of Florida's Board of Trustees, said before Tuesday's vote that
Ono is 'one of the most respected leaders in higher education' and would elevate the school in national rankings.
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'There are very few people with the combination of ideological alignment with Florida, and the operational expertise to run a research powerhouse like UF,' Hosseini said at the Board of Governors meeting in Orlando.
But several board members questioned Ono's views on DEI policies and other issues his critics have called 'woke.' Florida passed a law in 2023 prohibiting colleges from spending money on DEI efforts.
Ono wrote in an opinion piece for Inside Higher Ed last month that while he supported what he 'believed to be the original intent of DEI,' he saw it become 'something else - more about ideology, division, and bureaucracy, not student success.'
'That's why, as president of the University of Michigan, I made the decision to eliminate centralized DEI offices and redirect resources toward academic support and merit-based achievement,' Ono wrote. 'It wasn't universally popular, but it was necessary.'
Still, Carson Good, who was appointed to serve on the Florida Board of Governors by Governor Ron DeSantis, pressed
Ono to explain his past support of DEI. Good challenged Ono to
define the terms 'anti-racism' and 'decolonization,' language that appeared in diversity
materials at Ono's previous campuses.
'I've been overwhelmed by calls from Bull Gators,' Good said, referring to UF alumni who donate large sums of money to the school. 'I've heard from friends, doctors, lawyers…and 99 percent were expressing concern' about Ono's appointment, he added before voting against Ono's appointment.
Ono had also pledged to support Jewish students at the University of Florida after criticism of his handling of pro-Palestinian protests and encampments in Michigan.
But his explanations did not sway the 10 board members who voted against him.
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'Your recent reversal on the entire architecture of ideology is nothing short of incredible,' said board member and former state House speaker Jose Oliva, who voted against Ono.
UF has been led by an interim president since Ben Sasse, a former senator from Nebraska, resigned in 2024 after less than two years on the job.
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