Ex-U-M President Santa Ono
Santa Ono, the former University of Michigan president, was shot down this week for the job as president of the University of Florida by the the Florida Board of Governors — the 17-member body that oversees the state’s 12 public universities.
The decision came after the University of Florida's trustees had given the go-ahead for his appointment.
In a column titled "Ono too right for Michigan, too wrong for Florida," Nolan Finley, head of the Detroit News editorial page, writes:
Santa Ono was too right for Michigan, not right enough for Florida, and after his groveling performance in Gainesville Tuesday it's questionable whether there's a place suitable for him anywhere in the academic world he was sitting atop of just a few weeks ago.
It's a shame. Ono is a good man. He just played the game poorly...
Over the course of a full afternoon, Ono was grilled, humiliated and vilified by board members who were certain they could smell on him the progressive stench of Ann Arbor. He was blocked on a 10-6 vote.
The majority of board members were appointed by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, who was very anti-DEI and had expressed concerns about Ono's appointment.
To read the full column click here.
