Free Republic

The University of Florida must not make a mistake in hiring the president who will replace Ben Sasse. To do so could destroy one of the crown jewels of American higher education, a model of excellence and the plain common sense so sorely lacking on campus. The haste with which the Gator trustees will vote upon their sole finalist, Santa Ono, and the Board of Governors will make final their decision is ill-advised. There are cases in which the presentation of a sole finalist to the board ends successfully, but it is a risky procedure. When controversy over a candidate’s...

A preliminary report from the Florida Auditor General found UF failed to prevent former President Ben Sasse from leveraging his executive privileges to inappropriately spend university funds. The Florida Auditor General’s report, obtained by The Alligator, revealed new details about Sasse’s spending practices, including that he used more than $300,000 in university funds to charter flights on the University Athletic Association’s private jets for trips with no clear business purposes.

Former Sen. Pat Toomey (R), who represented the key state of Pennsylvania for 12 years in the Senate, says he won’t vote for former President Trump or Vice President Harris in November’s election. Toomey noted during an interview on CNBC that he voted for Trump in 2016 and 2020 but can’t bring himself to support Trump again because of his efforts to overturn the results of the last presidential election. “When you lose an election and you try to overturn the results so that you can stay in power, you lose me. You lose me at that point,” Toomey said...

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) is pushing his state’s university system to look into former University of Florida (UF) President Ben Sasse’s expenses in the wake of reporting from a student newspaper on the subject. “We take the stewardship of state funds very seriously and have already been in discussions with leadership at the university and with the Board of Governors to look into the matter,” Bryan Griffin, a communications director for DeSantis, said in an emailed statement sent Thursday to The Hill. The Florida Board of Governors “oversees the operation and management of the Florida public university system’s twelve...

In his 17-month stint as UF president, Ben Sasse more than tripled his office’s spending, directing millions in university funds into secretive consulting contracts and high-paying positions for his GOP allies. 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. Citing his wife’s recent epilepsy diagnosis, Sasse abruptly resigned from his post in July — leaving the future of his UF inner circle unclear. The university did not respond to questions about whether his political appointees...

Students and faculty have planned yet another protest as former Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb., prepares to take leadership of the University of Florida. UF President-elect Sasse recently won approval from the Board of Trustees to become the school’s next president. He is one of many Republicans and conservatives who are taking up positions in Florida’s academia amid a much larger push against woke politicization of education. The Gainesville Sun, a local Florida newspaper, reported that the incoming college president "will be greeted by protestors Monday afternoon outside the school's administration building as he officially takes the helm of the top-5...

Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen, a Republican, has tapped former Gov. Pete Ricketts to fill the seat recently vacated by Ben Sasse, who resigned well before the end of his term as a U.S. senator. Sasse, a Republican who would not have come up for reelection until 2026, stepped down earlier this month with plans to become president of the University of Florida. He had served as a senator since early 2015, and had won another term in the 2020 election. He tweeted in November that he was "thrilled to join Gator Nation in February." Sasse was one of the seven...

Republican Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen appointed his immediate predecessor Pete Ricketts on Thursday to serve two years of the term vacated by former Sen. Ben Sasse.“Gov. Ricketts assured me that no matter who calls for a different job, he is committed to the United States Senate,” Pillen said at a press conference. “No matter who calls him to be a vice president of the United States, who calls him to be … Secretary of State or any other thing, he’s committed to this seat; and he and Susanne have committed to winning elections at a minimum of 10 years, and...

Former Republican Sen. Ben Sasse of Nebraska resigned Sunday as he prepares for his next position as president of the University of Florida, which he begins Feb. 6. “thrilled to join Gator Nation in February — very excited about the work ahead,” he tweeted on Nov. 9 after the Florida Board of Governors confirmed him in a 16-1 vote. “Melissa and I have had the great honor of serving Nebraskans in the Senate these 8 yrs — I will finish out the upcoming lameduck session and resign in the first week of January.” “thrilled to join Gator Nation in February...

As most are well aware by now, the disgraced founder of FTX Sam Bankman-Fried was the Democrat party’s second-largest donor just behind George Soros. As reported by The Gateway Pundit, in the 2020 presidential election, Bankman-Fried dished millions to the Biden campaign and followed it up by handing out over $40 million dollars to democrats in the 2022 primaries and midterms. Forbes reported last year that Bankman-Fried also donated to six RINOs who voted to impeach President Trump. Forbes reported : Since July, Bankman-Fried has made $5,800 contributions, the maximum individuals can give directly to Congressional campaigns, to the committees...

So the red wave ended up not happening, being something more of a pink puddle instead. Has America just become too gerrymandered and partisan for there to be “yuge” wave elections like there used to be? Perhaps. Maybe we need to also not run horrible candidates.Regardless, there are fortunately a few salty letfist tears to sip on after yesterday.Those would be the tears of one of the biggest Democrat donors, Sam Bankman-Fried. He ran a crypto company called FTX that was first valued in 2021 at $18 billion, then exploded upward to a whopping $40 billion, at which point Bankman-Fried...

Nebraska U.S. Sen. Ben Sasse won approval Tuesday from the University of Florida Board of Trustees to be the school's next president despite vocal opposition from some faculty and students. Sasse, a Republican, was recommended for the top post by a unanimous vote of the trustees. A final vote to elevate Sasse as the school's 13th president is set for Nov. 10 by the state university system Board of Governors. During a four-hour meeting Tuesday on the Gainesville campus, Sasse sought to allay concerns that he's more a creature of politics than academia by saying he will take a "pledge...

University of Florida (UF) Board of Trustees will meet with prospective university president Ben Sasse tomorrow. The trustees are expected to vote on Sasse’s candidacy following the 10:00 AM interview. If approved, Sasse, who currently serves in the United States Senate (NE-R), would become the 13th president of the Gainesville school. Sasse’s potential appointment struck a nerve on campus as left-wing students opposed his candidacy. After students protested outside of his Q&A forum earlier this month, UF announced it would enforce a ban on indoor protests. Students, however, are still intent on making their grievances known. UF’s Young Democratic Socialists...

University of Florida faculty members have issued a no-confidence vote in the selection of Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.) as the SEC school’s next president. UF’s Faculty Senate held an emergency meeting Thursday night and railed against the administration’s decision to make Sasse the sole finalist for the role. The group voted 72-16 in favor of the no-confidence declaration, and called for school brass to more fully explain why the lawmaker emerged as their top choice. While not binding, the tally could complicate Sasse’s appointment, which was considered a formality at this stage. The university’s Board of Trustees unanimously voted to...

Republicans who think they’ll be protected by appeasing liberals have another thing coming..

College students organized a protest in response to their university’s nomination of a sole finalist for president of the school. The University of Florida announced on October 6 that Senator Ben Sasse, R-Neb, was unanimously nominated to be the only contender to serve as the 13th president of the public institution.

Miami Correspondent Leonardo Feldman reports on the uproar at the University of Florida, where students are protesting over their new school President, Republican Sen. Ben Sasse..

Sen. Ben Sasse’s (R-Neb.) expected retirement from the Senate is the latest sign that is it harder to be a Republican critic of former President Trump in Congress than a loyal ally. Sasse is one of seven Senate Republicans who voted to convict former President Trump last year during his impeachment trial over the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. He’s the third to retire. The Nebraskan senator not that long ago was also seen as a rising star in his party and a possible presidential candidate. But that possibility seemed more and more faint as Sasse’s opposition to...

Ben Sasse is brilliant, a consensus builder and will be a great leader of a great University. Ben and family, welcome to Florida! https://t.co/FMlssqdT9q— Jeb Bush (@JebBush) October 6, 2022

Ben Sasse is likely to accept a job at the University of Florida and resign his Senate seat in the near future, according to two people familiar with the Nebraska Republican’s plans. The Nebraska governor would then appoint a replacement for Sasse under state law. The second-term Sasse made a name for himself as a consistent Trump critic in Congress as well as a reliable conservative vote.