Over the weekend, University of Michigan President Santa Ono announced that he was leaving his post to take up the leadership of the University of Florida. It was an interesting choice. It’s been reported that Ono had been warier of resisting or challenging the dictates of the Trump administration than the majority of the University’s Board of Regents, the members of which are elected in statewide elections. The majority of appointees to the University of Florida’s board are appointed by the state’s governor, Ron DeSantis.
So on quite a few levels it’s a very different operation and a pretty different job. Florida has essentially given professional anti-woke hard boy Chris Rufo the run of the state university system. It’s not unfair to say that if you’re the President of the University of Florida you work for Ron DeSantis. But they pay well. The Times reported that Ono is slated to make up to $3 million a year in compensation, more than any other public university president in the country. That’s more than twice what he made at Michigan.
Ono had been one of the signatories of the public letter in defense of academic freedom organized by American Association of Colleges and Universities and signed by the presidents and leaders of more than 150 colleges and universities (original version of signatory list here). Along with Harvard’s decision to sue the Trump administration, the AACU letter was seen as a key sign of mounting resistance to Trump administration attacks by the leaders of American higher education. But I’m told that today Ono contacted the AACU and asked that his name be removed from the list of signatories. And, indeed, the public version of the letter hosted on the AACU website no longer lists his name.
New boss, new rules.
