GAINESVILLE — There were no organized protests, no chants echoing through the hallways, and only a few students milling about the University of Florida’s near-empty campus on Tuesday.
Instead, and unlike three years ago, the scene was relatively sedate as the school’s presumptive new president paid his first visit.
Santa Ono, the University of Michigan president selected as the lone finalist for the job, held panels with students, faculty and staff days after UF’s graduation, and ahead of a trustee decision to hand him the role this summer.
Ono — already looking the part of a UF president, dressed in a Gator-orange tie and UF lapel pin — answered questions on state funding, diversity issues and his vision for the future of liberal arts in his first on-campusappearance since being announced as the only finalist for the role Sunday evening.
Again and again, Ono circled back to his leadership style in response to prepared questions posed by school trustees.
“You deserve to know your president, and I’ll be pretty visible,” Ono said.
“You’re going to see me at football games, at the natural history museum. I want to be a presence on campus,” he said. “I see myself as a servant leader, first listening to everyone before making a decision.”
The day’s quiet proceedings and Ono’s quiet and measured responses stood in stark contrast to former President Ben Sasse’s inaugural visit in October 2022,when protesters lined up to oppose the former Republican senator’s record on same-sex marriage and other issues.
Ono’s answers were “straightforward and on point,” said Juan Gilbert, chairperson of the computer science department at UF’s engineering school.
Ono’s insistence on the importance of liberal arts and the school’s land-grant mission showed that he had done his homework, said Gilbert, who has known Ono since Ono’s time as president at the University of Cincinnati.
“He’s a unique academic who understands the political side of leadership,” he said.
Ono took only prepared questions on forms submitted ahead of the event, but didn’t waver from wading into controversial matters.
“UF did it right” when the school decided to return to in-person learning during the COVID-19 pandemic, Ono said. He stood behind his decision to cut diversity, equity and inclusion, or DEI, programs at the University of Michigan and said that he felt “in alignment” with Gov. Ron DeSantis’ vision for the state’s flagship university.
On climate change, Ono said the university’s role was to “do research that’s based on science” and that he would not “provide any political perspective” on the issue.
“I like his education experience and believe that he’s more qualified than the previous person,” said 19-year-old student Andrew Larsen.
“But I have concerns that he stood behind his decisions regarding DEI,” Larsen said. “I worry that his appointment was politically motivated. He makes a nicer presentation than Sasse, but I still worry it’s about political control.”
Going unmentioned during the three sessions were Ono’s status as sole finalist or what promises to be his record-breaking compensation.
The panels alsodid not address the fact that Ono was the lone finalist in the school’s presidential search. But Rahul Patel, vice chairperson of the board of trustees, made it clear that Ono would not have been a possible candidate had other names been considered.
“Every one of those sitting presidents made it clear: they would only participate if the process guaranteed confidentiality and their name would not be released publicly unless they were the sole finalist,” Patel wrote in an op-ed published Tuesday on tampabay.com.
Last year, the University of Michigan agreed to increase Ono’s salary to $1.3 million, increasing to $3 million by 2032 — more than three times what any Florida public university president earns.
The next steps will be approval from the full board of trustees and confirmation from the state’s board of governors, which oversees the state’s public universities.
Ono has said he expects to take the reins at Florida later this summer.