Now “Anti-DEI” Santa Ono Faces GOP Headwinds at Univ. of Florida Over UM DEI 2.0 Program

by Jay Waagmeester

University of Florida President-elect Santa Ono could receive $3 million per year if the Florida State University System’s Board of Governors confirms him this week.

The proposed contract between UF and Ono includes a $1.5 million base salary for serving as president, $500,000 for serving as UF Health chair, more than $400,000 in annual performance bonuses, and another half-a-million in retirement contributions and retention payments.

Despite unanimous approval by UF trustees, Ono’s presidency is being protested by some Republicans, while Gov. Ron DeSantis says he is leaving it up to the board he appointed to make the right decision.

The 17-member Board of Governors will vote on Ono, who received unanimous approval from UF trustees last week. He is the sole finalist for the position.

“I appointed all those folks, so they’ll make the judgement,” DeSantis said of the Board of Governors’ final vote.

Former Gov. Rick Scott, U.S. Rep. Greg Steube, and U.S. Rep. and GOP gubernatorial candidate Byron Donalds have publicly questioned Ono’s candidacy, as has Donald Trump Jr., who took to X to express his feelings on the candidate.

“WTF! Have the decision makers at @UF lost their minds!??? This woke psycho might be a perfect fit for a Communist school in California, but how is he even being considered for this role in Florida?” Trump Jr. posted Wednesday. “Every single member of the Florida Board of Governors should vote against him!!!”

Ono supported diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives in his previous job as president of the University of Michigan, guiding its “DEI 2.0” initiative and touting benefits of such programs but ultimately closed DEI offices earlier this year. Some Republicans question the legitimacy of Ono’s new-found anti-DEI convictions.

“Now people have pointed out a lot of statements that he has made that are not exactly what we’re looking for in a state where woke goes to die and I cringe at some of these statements,” DeSantis said Thursday, during a news conference in Fort Myers about medical negligence.

“But basically, I think the folks that were involved in the search, after having interviewed him, spent time with him, it’s their judgement that he’s really kind of reached the limit on the campus leftism and he would want to leave Michigan where that’s prevalent to Florida where it’s frowned upon,” DeSantis said.

Ono told trustees that he developed his new stance on DEI in the last year and a half after talking with students and other members of the university community. Before, he wasn’t an expert on the topic, which had been universal in higher education, he said.

Florida Republicans and President Donald Trump’s administration have focused heavily on removing diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives from higher education, including banning state expenditures on such initiatives.

“He will lose his job” if he promotes “a fountain of activism or leftist indoctrination,” DeSantis said.