Florida’s Governor is standing by the Presidential Search Advisory Committee that selected Dr. Santa J. Ono as the next University of Florida President, despite Ono’s past praise for diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives.
“I trust the people that were involved in that process. They were trustees that I’ve appointed, that have performed exemplary for the state of Florida in those capacities,” Gov. Ron DeSantis said in Tampa.
U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds, a 2026 candidate for Governor, disagrees. He criticized Ono, the former University of Michigan President.
The Naples Republican urged the “Board of Trustees at UF to go back and do an evaluation of where they think they are on this one” and “to go back and figure out somebody else.”
Ono was the sole finalist announced by the university.
DeSantis delineated his expectations but stood by the process and the product.
“We reject woke indoctrination. We were the first state in the country to eliminate ‘DE and I’ from our public universities. We’ve done more than any state to restore the mission of universities to the classical sense of what a university should be: teach people to think for themselves, pursue truth, prepare our students to be citizens of our republic. And we’re proud of that,” he said.
“Those expectations are clear, and I don’t think that a candidate would have been selected who is not going to abide by those expectations. And I think that you will likely see that that’ll be very clear in this instance, but I’ll let the process play out. But we have put a real serious stake in the ground on this.”
Ono’s inaugural address lauded the school’s DEI initiative, but DeSantis gave him a pass, saying it was the style at the time and that Ono eventually closed the DEI office.
“I disagree with those comments, but I also understand when we were leading against DEI, we were the only state to do so. It was everywhere. It was the price of admission to be involved in these universities at the time.”
DeSantis also suggested Ono’s move was proof of UF’s quality and reputation.
“I don’t know the candidate. But if we were here five years, 10 years ago, and I told you that the President of the University of Michigan was going to leave Michigan to come to Gainesville, most people probably would not think that that would be a move that someone would want to make, right?” DeSantis said.
“Michigan has traditionally been viewed as the best or one of the top 2 or 3 public universities in the entire United States of America.”
The post Ron DeSantis breaks with Byron Donalds, backs UF presidential pick despite DEI past appeared first on Florida Politics – Campaigns & Elections. Lobbying & Government..