UF presidential nominee Santa Ono's rejection by the BOG is a bad omen for Florida A&M University

Get the Point!

There are plenty of lessons in yesterday's massive news that the Florida Board of Governors rejected University of Florida President-select Santa Ono by a 10-6 vote on the basis of being "too woke," or too liberal in a decidedly conservative climate in the Sunshine State.

Former UF President-select Santa Ono

For those unfamiliar with his background, Dr. Ono, the immediate past president of the University of Michigan, possesses an impressive resume as a professor, researcher, and administrator, including:

• An earned PhD in experimental medicine before pursuing post-doctoral work and earning faculty tenure while conducting medical research at New College of London and Emory University;

• Past service as senior vice president, provost, and president at the University of Cincinnati, a Research One university according to the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education;

• Service as president at the University of Michigan, the #3 public university per U.S. News & World Report's 2024 rankings.

There's no wonder that the University of Florida's Board of Trustees almost unanimously recommended him to replace Ben Sasse, the former Republican Senator whose short tenure was marked by allegations of cronyism and financial corruption.

But here's where things went wrong for Dr. Ono; perhaps in an attempt to make himself more palatable as a candidate at UF, the flagship university in a state whose MAGA governor, Ron Desantis, has waged a public war against "woke," Critical Race Theory, and DEI for years, Ono closed DEI offices at Michigan this past March, and separately promised to "embrace institutional neutrality" if selected to become the head Florida Gator.

If you've been keeping score, then you know that "institutional neutrality" once was the goal of conservative education reformers who believed that America's colleges and universities employed far too many liberal professors and researchers and were hostile to conservative academicians and thoughts.

But “neutrality” is outdated in today's conservative climate, as MAGA politicians are seeking to wholly reshape higher education into incubators for right wing Christian Conservative dogma. Vice President J.D. Vance articulated this vision in a 2021 podcast by saying, "We should seize the institutions of the left and turn them against the left. We need a de-Baathification program, a de-wokeification program. Basically my strategy is to deinstitutionalize the left, reinstitutionalize the right. It’s very hard. It will require men and women of incredible courage. But I don’t see another way out."

To Vance's point, when Dr. Ono's selection was announced, Christopher Rufo, a member of the conservative New College of Florida's Trustees, posted on (X) that, "Woke is threatening a return to power," while adding, "The University of Florida deserves better than a president who, throughout his career, has sounded more like Ibram X. Kendi and Greta Thunberg than Ron DeSantis and Ben Sasse."

In a far less articulate manner, Donald Trump Jr. called Ono a "Woke Psycho" on social media while urging the Florida Board of Governors to reject his nomination.

Thus, the problem for Dr. Ono as far choosing to close Michigan's DEI office after being a prior proponent, and cracking down on student protests after previously supporting First Amendment rights to the same, is that his efforts were too little, too late for the madding MAGA crowd who took one look at his resume...and how he "looked"...and deemed him a liberal trying to masquerade as a MAGA conservative!

And trust, the Florida BOG is solidly MAGA, as 14 of the 17 members were appointed by Gov. DeSantis since 2019. Such is why there was little surprise that the group grilled Ono yesterday about diversity programs, antisemitism, gender views and other topics that MAGAs now use to pretend as if they are arbiters of actual diversity when, by word and deeds, they're really trying to forge America into a Christian Nationalist enclave.

Despite these regrettable Red State realities, Dr. Ono must have felt comfortable that he would be confirmed by the BOG because within days of being selected by the UF BOT, he resigned his position at Michigan despite having signed a contract extension for $1.3 million per year through 2032. Ono's proposed contract at UF would have paid him $1.5 million per year plus perks, but now that's moot as he faces the specter of searching for a new job—while the UF BOT goes back to square one to search for a new president!

Sadly, the painful lesson that I am sure Ono has repeated in his head in the hours since his candidacy was ambushed at the BOG meeting is that he betrayed his own past accomplishments and drew the enmity of students and faculty at Michigan who once supported him—all to appease the anti-woke MAGAs in Florida—only to be rejected as an imposter liberal in MAGA clothing!

And as I’ve written time and again while analyzing the concurrent Florida A&M University presidential search, MAGA politics now completely dominate the public education construct in Florida, and just as UF has spent the past two decades rising up the ranks of public universities in America (as high as #4), it is descending back down under Gov. Desantis due to a political culture that's leading to a brain drain among talented faculty and students who are choosing to work and study elsewhere to avoid the conservative culture clashes. Which is why I conclude with a reminder that the Florida MAGAs who objected to a distinguished scholar like Dr. Ono serving as president at UF, are the same MAGAs who strongly support an undistinguished and inexperienced Atty. Marva Johnson serving as president of Florida A&M University—and it doesn't take a Fulbright Fellowship or Rhodes Scholarship to figure out "why"...