The University of Florida’s Board of Trustees unanimously approved Republican U.S. Sen. Ben Sasse of Nebraska as the university’s new president Tuesday amid criticism from faculty and students over the secretive search process, his limited relevant experience and past criticism of gay marriages .
Before the vote, Sasse addressed the board Tuesday and outlined his reasons for taking the job and his plans to position UF to succeed in what he called an era of technological disruption.
“I’m here and not at some other school, or instead of trying to stay in the United States Senate for decades, because I think this is the most interesting institution in the state that has the most things going on right now, and therefore, it’s best positioned to help lead our country through an era of unprecedented change,” Sasse told the board Tuesday.
When asked about his plans regarding LGBTQ faculty and students, Sasse said he expected his positions to be the same as outgoing President Kent Fuchs. He also declared his intention to observe “political celibacy”, saying he would renounce all party activities.
“I’m not a partisan figure in this role,” he said.
Trustees approved Sasse’s appointment by a 13-0 vote. The Board of Governors meets on November 10 for final approval.
“I’m incredibly pleased with the engagement,” Sasse said after the vote. “In such a large community, there will be a wide variety of opinions and that’s a good thing – not a bad thing.”
The appointment is a sharp career change for Sasse, a sitting senator who was elected in 2014 and re-elected to another six-year term just two years ago. A conservative who voted to impeach former President Donald Trump after the attack on the U.S. Capitol, Sasse said he plans to resign his Senate seat for the UF position.
Before his election to the Senate in 2014, Sasse was president of Midland University, a private Lutheran liberal arts school in Nebraska with an enrollment of about 1,600 students. He graduated from Harvard and earned a doctorate in American history from Yale and also worked at Boston Consulting Group, McKinsey and private equity firms, according to his website.
In contrast, UF, one of the nation’s top public universities, has over 60,000 students enrolled on a 2,000-acre campus with over a thousand buildings. Unlike Sasse, UF’s most recent presidents had extensive, decades-long careers as administrators at major universities before assuming the school’s top job.
His appointment comes amid concerns about undue political influence at the University of Florida under Republican Gov. Ron DeSandis. Last year, three professors were barred from testifying as paid experts in a voting rights lawsuit that challenged a new voting law signed by DeSantis, a decision that was later overturned.
The University of Florida’s 15-person Presidential Search Committee announced Sasse as the sole finalist to become UF president last month.
“Ben brings intellectual curiosity, a belief in the power and potential of American universities, and an unparalleled record of leadership in higher education, government and the private sector,” committee chairman Rahul Patel said in the statement.
The committee said in a statement that they had approached more than 700 candidates and unanimously chose Sasse.
His nomination sparked protests and backlash from students and faculty. Last month, student protesters entered an open forum with Sasse and chanted against his appointment. The university announced it would enforce its rule banning protests inside buildings on campus for Sasse’s public appearance on campus on Tuesday.
Additionally, the UF Faculty Senate last week passed a 67-15 no-confidence motion rejecting the process that led to Sasse’s selection.
About a dozen students spoke against the endorsement Tuesday morning before the Board of Trustees, questioning why Sasse — a partisan politician with limited experience and no apparent connection to Florida — was the committee’s only nominee.
“It’s hard for many students to envision a leader who has negative things to say about members of our community,” said Paul Wassel, graduate student council president. “For others, their minds are clouded by wondering how Dr. Sasse may be the most suitable candidate for the position, given what he claimed was an exhaustive search. I myself have doubts in these two areas about Dr. Sasse”.
Outside the building where the meeting was taking place, UF police set up barricades to prevent potential protests. About 70 people gathered outside, loudly shouting phrases such as “Hey hey, ho ho, Ben Sasse must go”.
Dayanna Peek, a third-year UF student, was among those who gathered outside to protest Sasse’s selection. He said Sasse was a “homophobe” and a “puppet of Ron DeSantis” whose beliefs were not aligned with the university.
“They put up barriers here because they know we’re trying to come in and show our voice, we’re trying to come in and show that he’s not welcome here,” Peek said. “After that, if he decides to accept, we’ll just have to protest, protest constantly and make sure he’s aware that we don’t want him here.”
Last year, DeSantis signed a bill that would have exempted the names of presidential candidates for Florida’s public universities and colleges from being released under public records laws through much of the selection process.
Dr. Lisa Lundy, a professor who served on the search committee, said last month Sasse was the only candidate because the other candidates did not want to be named publicly unless they were the only finalists.
“I think the situation was that all the candidates were in positions that they felt could be compromised if people found out they were applying for another job,” Lundy said.
Mori Hosseini, chairman of the board, said other candidates would not have interviewed for the position without the promise of secrecy in the new law.
After the Supreme Court’s landmark decision legalizing same-sex marriage in 2015, Sasse took the position that only one man and one woman should marry. Speaking Tuesday, he said the high court ruling was “the law of the land” and irrelevant to his role at UF.
According to Dr. David Bloom, a member of the selection committee, Sasse explained his opposition to same-sex marriage by saying that he “supports his constituency in Nebraska, but he would support the constituency of faculty, staff and students at UF if was becoming president.”
