The College Fix

A cacophony of top conservatives is sounding the alarm over plans by the University of Florida’s Board of Trustees to name Santa Ono as the next campus president at their meeting Tuesday.

The board announced Thursday it is prepared to officially tap Ono, president of the University of Michigan, and rejected concerns over his past support of diversity, equity, and inclusion.

“Dr. Ono is not shifting his views to fit Florida. He has been evolving his perspective over time,” the chair and vice chair of the board, Mori Hosseini and Rahul Patel, stated in their news release, adding they believe he is now committed to merit.

But many top conservatives are calling on trustees to strongly reconsider, including Florida Republicans U.S. Sen. Rick Scott and U.S. Rep. Greg Steube.

Steube, in a May 21 memo to the board, wrote he has “grave concerns” about the selection of Ono, that the scholar “has a history of discriminatorily charged comments that would undermine the integrity of the curriculum.”

“His 2023 inaugural address at the University of Michigan was a snapshot of his vision for ‘DEI 2.0’ and ‘wrestling with racism and inequity and injustice,’” Steube wrote, adding Ono also allowed antisemitism protests at the University of Michigan to illegally fester out of control.

Sen. Scott on Saturday reposted his colleague’s memo on X, stating Steube raised “important points,” and that the UF Board of Trustees—as well as the Florida Board of Governors—needs to investigate. The Board of Governors oversees the State University System of Florida.

Over the last week, several videos of Ono have also gone viral thanks to posts on X by conservative firebrands Christopher Rufo and Charlie Kirk. The videos show Ono praising DEI tenets and progressive gender ideology, among other topics.

“Santa Ono is a supporter of virtually every left-wing social fad—‘indigenous strategic plan,’ ‘climate action,’ ‘antiracism’—and believes that universities should devote public dollars toward advancing them. This would be a bad direction for University of Florida,” Rufo posted on X on May 20 along with a video of Ono’s past statements.

In another post, Rufo pointed out how Ono once “promised students that he would ‘strive to make sharing [his] pronouns part of regular introductory greetings’ and start ‘centering the voices’ of ‘Two-Spirit, transgender, and non-binary people.’”

Kirk also reposted a video of Ono and stated: “Under no circumstances should this lunatic be allowed to be the President of the University of Florida. Governor DeSantis, who has been great on education, must intervene immediately.”

An op-ed published May 16 in The Wall Street Journal by Peter Wood, president of the center-right National Association of Scholars, also criticized the choice of Ono, pointing out he oversaw a vast expansion of DEI during his tenure at the University of Michigan and his prior posts at other universities.

“Now that Florida’s multimillion-dollar compensation package is on the table, Mr. Ono claims he favored DEI only because he believed its original intent was ‘ensuring equal opportunity and fairness.’ This is patently absurd,” Wood wrote. “As the leader of two universities, Mr. Ono championed DEI regimes that explicitly sought to indoctrinate students, punish thoughtcrime, and hire based on race.”

As president at the University of British Columbia, Ono also led the institution to divest from fossil fuels, Wood added.

The Palm Beach Freedom Institute, an influential Florida think tank, has also come out against Ono. Its President Paul du Quenoy argued in a Newsmax op-ed that the Board of Governors may have to intervene.

“Ono must be approved by the Florida state system’s board of governors, who are perhaps the last line of defense to protect our free state from a return to woke influence,” he wrote. “Confirming Ono’s appointment will be a major setback to educational reform in Florida and throughout the country.”

University of Florida trustees did not respond to two emailed requests for comment from The College Fix over the last several days asking about Ono’s past tenure and the many concerns raised by observers.

Ono, for his part, has recently publicly disavowed DEI.

“My alignment is rooted in principles—like the renewed emphasis on merit, the strengthening of civics and foundational learning, and the belief that our universities should prepare students not just for careers, but for informed citizenship in a free society,” Ono stated in an Inside Higher Ed op-ed in early May.

He called on public universities to prioritize “academic excellence, intellectual diversity, and student achievement,” which he argued involves resisting ideological bias, adhering to the law, and welcoming open debate.

MORE: New research identifies more than 1,100 DEI-related jobs at University of Michigan

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