OT: Santa Ono

855 Views | 12 Replies | Last: 4 days ago by Anarchistbear
okaydo
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Why would you leave one job for another job if you don't have your new job secured?

BearSD
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okaydo said:

Why would you leave one job for another job if you don't have your new job secured?
Maybe because you want to resign from the first job before you get fired from it?
BearBoarBlarney
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Was he in trouble at University of Michigan? I can't really grasp why someone would leave Michigan for the University of Florida unless the powers-that-be wanted him out at Ann Arbor.

juarezbear
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BearBoarBlarney said:

Was he in trouble at University of Michigan? I can't really grasp why someone would leave Michigan for the University of Florida unless the powers-that-be wanted him out at Ann Arbor.


UM is a political **** show and bound to get worse. UF is paying big money to upgrade academics and there's virtually zero Pro-Palestinian BS on their campus so there's a lot less stress on that side of things. I'm sure UF is paying him a ton of money where he can only be a hero.
okaydo
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juarezbear said:

BearBoarBlarney said:

Was he in trouble at University of Michigan? I can't really grasp why someone would leave Michigan for the University of Florida unless the powers-that-be wanted him out at Ann Arbor.


UM is a political **** show and bound to get worse. UF is paying big money to upgrade academics and there's virtually zero Pro-Palestinian BS on their campus so there's a lot less stress on that side of things. I'm sure UF is paying him a ton of money where he can only be a hero.

Florida looks even worse, unless you li,e working for DeSantis and Trump.
BearSD
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juarezbear said:

BearBoarBlarney said:

Was he in trouble at University of Michigan? I can't really grasp why someone would leave Michigan for the University of Florida unless the powers-that-be wanted him out at Ann Arbor.


UM is a political **** show
Florida is a political **** show as emphasized by exactly what this thread is about -- the state of Florida rejecting the hiring of Santa Ono for entirely political reasons.

https://www.gainesville.com/story/news/education/2025/06/03/board-of-governors-rejects-santa-ono-as-university-of-florida-president/84007003007/

Quote:

The Florida Board of Governors during its June 3 meeting in Orlando voted against the confirmation of Dr. Santa Ono as the University of Florida's next president.

The decision by the 17-member board, which serves as the governing body for the state's 12 public universities, comes a week after UF's Board of Trustees unanimously approved Ono for president on May 27.

Quote:

The selection of Ono had faced intense backlash from some Republican lawmakers after he was announced on May 4 as the sole finalist by UF's Presidential Search Committee, including from U.S. Reps. Greg Steube, R-Bradenton, Byron Donalds, R-Naples, and Jimmy Patronis, R-Panama City.

Quote:

Former Florida governor and current U.S. Sen. Rick Scott in a June 2 press release said he has "serious concerns about Santa Ono's nomination," and Donald Trump Jr. questioned on X whether "the decision makers at @UF lost their minds!???"
Bobodeluxe
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They'll find some Billy-Bob to toe the line.
juarezbear
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okaydo said:

juarezbear said:

BearBoarBlarney said:

Was he in trouble at University of Michigan? I can't really grasp why someone would leave Michigan for the University of Florida unless the powers-that-be wanted him out at Ann Arbor.


UM is a political **** show and bound to get worse. UF is paying big money to upgrade academics and there's virtually zero Pro-Palestinian BS on their campus so there's a lot less stress on that side of things. I'm sure UF is paying him a ton of money where he can only be a hero.

Florida looks even worse, unless you li,e working for DeSantis and Trump.
I was responding to the question of why he'd leave UM and surmised that he probably wasn't enjoying the stress of managing a school that's under political attack both from students and faculty with a hard left agenda and the Trump administration at the opposite end of the horseshoe. I certainly don't agree with Trump's attacks on higher ed, but all you have to do is look at how many Ivy presidents have quit or been fired to get a sense of what's involved in those jobs at this point in history. Ono was rejected by UF because of UM's active DEI initiatives and the fact that they allowed encampments to stick around for a while. UM has one of the most robust, highly funded DEI programs that doesn't try to mince words about its objectives, the honest of which I frankly appreciate. I'm not here to debate the merit of such a program, but am simply stating the truth. I'm admittedly not very tolerant of the undertones of some of these protests because of what I've seen at UCLA specifically in regards to how Jewish students and faculty have been treated over the past 18 months. To be clear, I'm not a Bibi supporter and I'm against the way that Trump has used antisemitism as a red herring to force his political agenda on higher education. The situation in Gaza and elsewhere in the Middle East goes way deeper than just student and street protests in the US and elsewhere.
juarezbear
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BearSD said:

juarezbear said:

BearBoarBlarney said:

Was he in trouble at University of Michigan? I can't really grasp why someone would leave Michigan for the University of Florida unless the powers-that-be wanted him out at Ann Arbor.


UM is a political **** show
Florida is a political **** show as emphasized by exactly what this thread is about -- the state of Florida rejecting the hiring of Santa Ono for entirely political reasons.

https://www.gainesville.com/story/news/education/2025/06/03/board-of-governors-rejects-santa-ono-as-university-of-florida-president/84007003007/

Quote:

The Florida Board of Governors during its June 3 meeting in Orlando voted against the confirmation of Dr. Santa Ono as the University of Florida's next president.

The decision by the 17-member board, which serves as the governing body for the state's 12 public universities, comes a week after UF's Board of Trustees unanimously approved Ono for president on May 27.

Quote:

The selection of Ono had faced intense backlash from some Republican lawmakers after he was announced on May 4 as the sole finalist by UF's Presidential Search Committee, including from U.S. Reps. Greg Steube, R-Bradenton, Byron Donalds, R-Naples, and Jimmy Patronis, R-Panama City.

Quote:

Former Florida governor and current U.S. Sen. Rick Scott in a June 2 press release said he has "serious concerns about Santa Ono's nomination," and Donald Trump Jr. questioned on X whether "the decision makers at @UF lost their minds!???"

What's ironic about this situation is that UF desperately wants to elevate its academic profile and has spent a ton of money doing so. Rejecting Ono on the basis of UM's DEI program and the lack of an immediate crackdown on encampments would on the surface seem to work against this goal. Dartmouth, which I've never much respected, seems to have threaded the needle better than any other high profile school in allowing free speech while still protecting the right of all students to attend class and pursue their education. I'm sure the remote setting of the school makes it easier to achieve unlike Columbia which is within a subway ride for non-students to show up and get their ya-yas off.
BearBoarBlarney
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Let's stick to respecting Dartmouth College for being the inspiration for Animal House. That place is so far from civilization that I'm not sure they even have needles to thread up there.
prospeCt
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okaydo
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Here's what's going on:

The Republicans in Florida hate Ron DeSantis, particularly the House speaker and his (DeSantis') likely successor.

The DeSantis-backed University of Florida board backed the hiring on Ono.

But the state of Florida board that oversees the state's universities is influenced by DeSantis' Republican rivals. So they essentially rejected DeSantis' pick.

So Santa Ono is essentially the victim of a Republican Civil War in Florida.
Anarchistbear
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Move this back to wherever it came from
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