On May 4, a search committee at the University of Florida recommended current University of Michigan President Santa Ono to succeed Ben Sasse as UF’s president. Ono’s appointment is subject to confirmation by UF’s Board of Trustees and the Florida State University System’s Board of Governors. Heretofore, the Board of Governors has wisely confirmed multiple appointments to carry out Governor Ron DeSantis’s praiseworthy vision of a state education system free of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), critical race theory (CRT), radical gender ideology, and other pernicious policies that have marred education across the United States and the English-speaking world.

Yet Ono, who was curiously the only finalist for UF’s presidency, is by all available public accounts a passionate advocate of DEI—an explicitly racist set of theories that espouses anti-white and anti-Asian discrimination—assigns immutable oppressor and victim statuses spuriously based on race, and perniciously seeks to divide Americans by these categories. Ono has stated his DEI-inspired belief that “systemic racism” is “embedded in every corner of any institution” and called for universities to “dismantle the tools of oppression and white supremacy” that he believes “remain entrenched in our everyday systems.”

These do not sound like the words of a man who should be entrusted with the leadership of the flagship public university in a free state where “woke goes to die.” In case there was any doubt, in Ono’s role as President of the University of Michigan, as recently as March 2023 he introduced a program called “DEI 2.0,” which sought to “fully institutionalize DEI” everywhere on Michigan’s campus with the intent to change “who has power, influence, and voice in priorities and decision-making.” The prestigious Manhattan Institute has called his program “the most aggressive diversity initiative in the country.” The New York Times reported that Ono’s administration “doubled down” on DEI even while many other universities, including Florida’s entire system, was actively dismantling it.