Here is my analysis from 8/16/2024 of the story that was published last August:
As an alumni, let me ask a few questions and make a few points:
- When I was there in the 1970s, I would read the Alligators for movie and concert reviews, and not much else. That was back in the time when people still knew how to talk to each other.
- The Hill is reporting that the Alligator made a series of allegations of exorbitant spending to employ Sasse's former Senate staffers. DeSantis said that he wants a review of Sasse's spending. Is it possible that DeSantis might think a review would exonerate Sasse if the spending was in line with the projects that Sasse was putting in place? We will have to wait and see.
- Just read the Alligator's story for yourself: Sasse’s spending spree: Former UF president channeled millions to GOP allies, secretive contracts. It's full of typical leftist student agitprop hyperbole. That doesn't mean that there isn't a fire where there might be some smoke, but I wouldn't leap just because student-journalists at The Alligator got all bothered by something.
- Don't chief executives at major corporations have leadership teams that they've built over the years? When a CEO moves to another company, isn't it common for them to bring their trusted team with them? How else do these executives do what the Board of Directors brought them on to do, with the disgruntled senior VP's that the former CEO left behind?
- If Sasse tripled the hiring budget for his team, isn't it possible that he's making significant strategic changes to the University that warrant the salaries of those involved in instituting those changes? Shouldn't people wait and see the results (or at least the strategic plan) before jumping to conclusions, especially conclusions reached by post-adolescent students who are living away from home for the first times in their lives?
- Some changes don't come cheap, and people tend to get what they paid for. And besides, what do these kids know about multi-year plans, hundred million dollar budgets, multi-million dollar projects, vendors, contractors, contingencies, etc.? Maybe a Senator might know a thing or two about these things?
- Here is a related story by the more mature (relatively) The Gainesville Sun: Ben Sasse will resign as UF president effective July 31. In it, the Sun reports (emphasis mine):
During his tenure, UF received $130 million in new funding from the state. Sasse established that more than half, for the first time, will be used for strategic purposes.
The university announced in October 2023 that it would fund 19 new projects related to research, technology, AI and student life through strategic funding from the state legislature. Officials said the goal of the funding initiative is to create a better student experience and increase interdisciplinary scholarship at the university.
In September 2023, a 10-year strategic plan for UF, which highlighted Sasse’s vision for the future of the university, was released. However, it was criticized as the full plan had still not been released publicly. The Sun reported in November 2023 that finalization of the strategic plan, and then consideration by the board of trustees, is planned for fall 2024.
Sasse named his former Senate communications director, James Wegmann, as UF’S vice president for communications and his former Senate chief of staff, Raymond Sass, as UF’s vice president for innovation and partnerships. He made several notable hires among his 10 leadership-level moves, which include hiring people who live out of state and firing Charlie Lane.
Sasse also created a new position to hire Penny Schwinn, former Tennessee commissioner of education, as UF’s vice president of PK-12 and pre-bachelor programs. Schwinn lives out of state and works part time and had no plan to move to Florida as of November 2023.
In September 2023 UF got good news when the Wall Street Journal ranked it the No. 1 public university in the nation. Since Sasse became president UF dropped one spot on the U.S. News & World Report list, losing its status as a Top 5 public university.
Another controversy during Sasse's tenure was the elimination of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) employee positions at UF.
The drastic change, announced in March 2024 through an emailed administrative memo, came after the Florida Board of Governors labeled expenditures related to DEI programs as prohibited expenditures. Approximately $5 million was reallocated into a faculty recruitment fund to be administered by the Office of the Provost.
- It sounds like Sasse was putting that $130 million in new state funding to good use. The Alligator said (emphasis mine):
Sasse ballooned spending under the president’s office to $17.3 million in his first year in office — up from $5.6 million in former UF President Kent Fuchs’ last year, according to publicly available administrative budget data.
A majority of the spending surge was driven by lucrative contracts with big-name consulting firms and high-salaried, remote positions for Sasse’s former U.S. Senate staff and Republican officials.
Sasse’s consulting contracts have been kept largely under wraps, leaving the public in the dark about what the contracted firms did to earn their fees. The university also declined to clarify specific duties carried out by Sasse’s ex-Senate staff, several of whom were salaried as presidential advisers.
The university said Sasse’s budget expansion went through the “appropriate approval process” but did not answer questions about how Sasse bankrolled his splurges, where the funds originated or who authorized the spending.
- The students at The Alligator are in a frenzy over an increase of $11.7 million in spending from the President's office from the $130 million in new funding from the state. That's roughly 9% of the new funding, which is not out of line for administrative expenses to manage the projects that the $130 million in new state money is going to be put towards.
- I look forward to seeing what the DeSantis review turns up. My hunch is that the money is being properly spent to bring U of F up to modern technology standards.
I also think the students at the Alligator are continuing their agitation over Sasse, most recently due to his crackdown on the Hamas protests. The Gainesville Sun story linked above goes into that in some detail as well.
Go Gators!
