Former UF President Ben Sasse stepped down unexpectedly in July, citing concerns about his wife’s health. But nine current and former administrators and top donors say there was more to the story.
Danaya Wright had plans and papers to write. After chairing the UF Faculty Senate during Ben Sasse’s tumultuous first year at the university’s helm, she was behind on her duties as a law professor. The sun was low as she drove home from campus, moments before she received the call that changed everything: “Sasse is resigning.”
Following UF President Ben Sasse's abrupt resignation from the university's top post, several top state politicians took to Twitter to offer their condolences to Sasse and honor his leadership's legacy.
Sasse, who has led the university since February 2023, announced his resignation in a UF news release Thursday night. He leaves office effective July 31.
The UF Faculty Senate held its first-ever summer meeting Friday over Zoom to vote on approval of two degree proposals for the Hamilton Center, the university's state-mandated civic center which has been fast-tracked to become a college by 2025.
Tulane University Vice President Randy Philipson will replace Dave Kratzer as UF’s vice president for construction and facilities beginning July 22, according to a news release.
Within the past year, UF has filled positions from the shifting vacancies that followed after Ben Sasse was announced as UF’s new president in February 2023.
A UF employee who coached a university-affiliated water polo club is no longer working at the university after he was accused of being “overly touchy” and sharing a bed with student athletes.
After losing his top pick for a postdoctoral assistantship, UF professor Zhengfei Guan is suing top state officials to block a law restricting international student employment at Florida public universities.
The dean of UF’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences will be stepping down from his position effective June 30, according to a UF news release.
A new Florida law requiring all humanities General Education core courses include “selections from the Western canon” will take effect Fall 2024. The requirement was added to Florida statutes in May as part of Senate Bill 266, the same sweeping education reform bill that cut state funding for diversity, equity and inclusion programs.
The university announced it has closed the Office of the Chief Diversity Officer and halted DEI-focused contracts with outside vendors in a memo published March 1. The university also fired 13 full-time DEI positions and ended 15 administrative appointments for faculty, according to UF Spokesperson Cynthia Roldan.
Called “cultivated meat” by researchers and “lab-grown meat” by critics, the alternative protein is developed directly from animal cells. Scientists collect tissue samples from live animals without killing them. Then, they allow the cells to multiply and mature in a lab before processing them into a food product.
On Feb. 7, around 50 students received an email whose first line read, “We appreciate how hard our faculty and students work, but it’s Malachowsky Hall, not Malachowsky Hotel.”
After a search committee announced Sasse as the sole finalist for the presidency in October 2022, the campus erupted in protests that the former United States Republican senator would bring a conservative agenda to campus. Instead, Sasse spent his first year putting his head down to learn the workings of what Danaya Wright called the most complicated institution in the country.
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