How did a Leftist almost become president of the University of Florida?

Last Tuesday Florida’s Board of Governors rejected Dr. Santa Ono for president of its flagship school, the University of Florida (UF). This came just one week after UF’s Board of Trustees (BOT) unanimously approved Ono. In what is typically a procedural process, it marked the first time in the 22 years since the Board of Governors was established that it had rejected a candidate in this fashion. It was a blow for not only Ono, but also UF’s BOT.

How did Ono nearly get approved as UF’s next president? The short answer is the almost childish simplicity of UF’s BOT, and especially its chairman, Mori Hosseini. They created a situation where only an establishment education administrator like Ono could be selected.

On October 29, 2024, Hosseini announced the formation of UF’s presidential search committee. In January 2025, the committee selected SP&A, “a boutique woman- and minority-owned executive search firm” to lead the search (SP&A is currently conducting the presidential search at the University of South Florida as well). Soon thereafter, the search firm created a presidential prospectus that made clear they sought a candidate with “professional and administrative” experience at a “research university or comparable setting,” though others with doctorates or who had “national or international scholarly and administrative success outside academia” could be considered.

This job description stacked the deck against hiring anyone from the realm of politics or administration, which had been the pool from which Florida selected university presidents in recent memory. Manny Diaz, Florida’s Director of the Department of Education who oversaw Florida’s rise to become the No. 1 state for education, was thus ineligible to serve as UF’s next president. No one contacted Diaz about the job. Members of Florida’s Board of Governors (BOG) and Chancellor Ray Rodriguez, head of the State University System of Florida, were ineligible too. Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo? Ineligible.