Ben Sasse’s appointment as president of the College of Florida in late 2022 was hailed by his supporters as a chance to remake a flagship establishment. Lower than two years later, he’s stepping down earlier than having time to meaningfully affect the college’s course.
Sasse introduced his resignation late on Thursday with a social-media publish on X (previously Twitter) explaining that he wanted to spend extra time serving to his spouse, Melissa, cope with the continuing results of an aneurysm she suffered in 2007.
“In current months, Melissa has been identified with epilepsy and has been fighting a brand new batch of reminiscence points. It’s been laborious, however we’ve confronted it collectively,” Sasse wrote. The calls for of caring for his spouse and three youngsters are actually at odds with the calls for of working a college, Sasse stated, and he had to select.
Sasse’s appointment was controversial largely due to his opposition to homosexual marriage and abortion — stances he took as a Republican U.S. senator from Nebraska. Many college members have been additionally upset that the method of choosing a president was extremely confidential, and Sasse was recognized as a sole finalist for the place. That stemmed from a Republican-backed change in state regulation that allowed public schools to maintain the names of candidates secret till they have been named as finalists.
However some on campus additionally seen Sasse, who has a Ph.D. in historical past from Yale College and was president of a small, personal faculty in Nebraska, as a possible buffer from the far-right politics of Gov. Ron DeSantis, a frequent critic of upper training. DeSantis and his allies have sought to limit how matters associated to race, sexuality, and gender are taught within the state’s school rooms and manufactured an ideological takeover of the state’s public liberal-arts establishment, New Faculty of Florida.
When Sasse took the Florida job, he stated he was taking a vow of “political celibacy” and declined to debate his previous stances.
As his presidency started in early February 2023, Sasse’s tenure was comparatively quiet. Pupil leaders stated he wasn’t seen on campus. A spokesperson advised the Tampa Bay Occasions a yr in the past that he normally went on early morning runs via campus earlier than arriving at his workplace round 5 a.m., and that he usually took calls and conferences whereas strolling a further 10 to 12 miles a day.
Sasse did comply with via on one vital measure, serving to to create the Hamilton Middle for Classical and Civic Training, an educational unit created on the urging of DeSantis’s allies and dedicated to “analysis and educating on Western civilization and the ideas of a free society.” The preliminary plans for the middle have been seen as a option to counter “cancel tradition and uniformity of opinion on campus.” However many college members noticed it as a option to set up a foothold for conservative ideology on the college.
Sasse stepped into the nationwide highlight after Hamas’s assaults on Israel in October. He proclaimed himself, together with the college, as a champion of Zionism and issued harsh critiques of school leaders who sought to steadiness college students’ free-speech rights with the bodily security of Jews and others on campus.
In a column Sasse wrote for The Atlantic, for instance, he slammed the congressional testimony of three college presidents at a listening to on how they have been responding to reported antisemitism, describing the leaders as evasive and missing ethical readability. He in contrast their remarks to these of tobacco-company executives within the Nineteen Nineties, who sought to deceive the general public in regards to the well being risks of smoking cigarettes.
Aligning with DeSantis’s stance on pupil pro-Palestinian activism, Sasse took a strict strategy to dealing with protests at Florida. Shortly after October 7, he issued a press release to Jewish college students and alumni in assist of Israel. He promised to safeguard college students from any “anti-Israel” protests and bashed different college leaders and college members for not publicly condemning Hamas. He additionally spoke at a campus vigil for victims of the Hamas assault and was interviewed on Fox Information.
This month the college suspended six college students for 3 to 4 years after they have been arrested at an April 29 campus demonstration. Florida’s punishments are among the many harshest that faculties have handed down to date to college students who participated in a nationwide surge of pro-Palestinian activism on the finish of the spring time period.
In a written assertion on Friday, the departing chair of the college’s College Senate praised Sasse’s work ethic but in addition hinted at reservations about his coverage objectives and the necessity for extra college involvement within the subsequent management search.
“I consider the college actually appreciated all of his laborious work and transformative concepts and they’re trying ahead to persevering with the momentum the place acceptable,” Danaya C. Wright, professor of constitutional regulation, wrote in an e mail. “They’re additionally desirous to take part within the subsequent section of UF’s rise,” she added.
Whereas Sasse is stepping apart as president, he’s not leaving the college however will proceed to show. His contract permits him to function a full-time college member, after approval by the college’s Board of Trustees, although with out the advantage of tenure.
Within the quick time period, Sasse’s resignation means a return to a well-recognized face: Kent Fuchs, his instant predecessor, is anticipated to be named interim president, in keeping with a social media publish from The Alligator, the college’s pupil newspaper.
In the end, the opening presents one other alternative for the state’s conservative leaders to push for the appointment of somebody who shares their objectives for public increased training.
The overhaul of New Faculty by DeSantis’s allies has made headlines nationally as an overt effort to reshape the college and curriculum. Different presidential searches within the state have additionally been affected by the political winds, together with at Florida Atlantic College, the place the seek for its subsequent president was referred to as off final yr amid prices of political favoritism. Now the college is attempting once more, and an influential Republican lawyer with ties to DeSantis has been added to the search committee.
Amanda Friedman contributed reporting to this story.
