Photo: Kirthmon F. Dozier ~ USA TODAY NETWORK
ANN ARBOR, June 4, 2025 ~ University of Florida’s Board of Governors has voted to block former University of Michigan President Santa Ono from becoming the school’s next president.
It is the first time in its history that the board voted to overturn a university’s presidential selection, following a month-long campaign by conservative politicians and activists who were opposed to Ono’s prior position on DEI, and his handling of pro-Palestinian protests on the U-M campus. His supporters had praised Ono as a researcher and academic leader to lead the University of Florida into national prominence.
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June 4, 2025 ~ WJR Senior News Analyst Marie Osborne discusses former U-M President Santa Ono being blocked from being hired as president of the University of Florida.
(CONTINUED) Many student activists have also been highly critical of Ono’s crackdown on pro-Palestine activists, who have called on U-M to divest university funds from Israel during the country’s brutal assault on Gaza that has left at least 54,000 dead. Many arrests have been made over the past year and a half at protests, the most notable instance was the shutdown of the month-long student encampment on the university’s Diag last year, which ended in a violent police teardown.
Ono had announced in a letter on May 4 that he was the lone finalist for the University of Florida job and would accept it if confirmed. His letter contained no formal resignation from the U-M, but U-M Dearborn Chancellor Domenico Grasso was named interim president to replace Ono with immediate effect.
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