TALLAHASSEE—Days after Florida's top higher education board shot down a presidential finalist for the first time ever, House Speaker Danny Perez called the move "embarrassing" and preventable had a bill despised by Gov. Ron DeSantis passed the legislature.
Perez, a Miami Republican who's clashed with DeSantis for months, spoke to reporters on Thursday, two days after the Board of Governors blocked Dr. Santa Ono from becoming the next president of the University of Florida. The 10-6 rejection was the first in the board's 22-year history, and leaves the state's top public university captainless and with no runner-up in sight.
The shock rejection comes a month after the House passed a controversial measure banning the governor from interfering with vacant university presidencies and forcing presidential searches—currently exempt from public record—into the open. DeSantis had railed against its "rewokification" of universities and the measure never made it past the Senate.
But Perez says it would have helped Florida avoid the "very embarassing moment" felt by Ono, the Board of Governors, and UF on Tuesday.
"Here we are with a presidential candidate for a major university, a flagship university, for the state of Florida, and a very embarrassing moment for the entire state of Florida," Perez said. "Our bill, the House's bill, would have avoided that.
"We have one of our top universities in the country in a position where they will struggle to find a candidate to replace the last president," he continued, noting that while many of Ono's characteristics were "deficient" and his past "questionable," the public rejection leaves UF hurting.
HB 1321, sponsored by Republican Rep. Michelle Salzman, drew a firestorm of criticism for cutting DeSantis out of the presidential search process, a system shrouded in secrecy and sparking controversy since a public records exemption passed the legislature in 2022.
Since then, three of the four most recent university presidents selected have been former GOP lawmakers tied to DeSantis: Manny Diaz, Jr. for University of West Florida, Adam Hasner for Florida Atlantic University, and Jeanette Nuñez for Florida International University. The fourth, Marva Johnson at Florida A&M University, is a DeSantis ally.
Salzman's bill would have repealed that law, allowing the names of candidates and finalists to be available to the public.
"Who is going to want to apply for this position now?" Perez added, hoping that the legislature can "once again" consider the House's dead bill during the next legislative session.
But Senate President Ben Albritton, a Wauchula Republican, appeared to disagree in comments to reporters on Thursday.
"One way to look at it would be [Perez's way]...Another way to look at it would say that the system worked," Albritton said. "When was the last time the university president candidate was voted down?...I've been involved for a period of time and I've never seen that, so I would say that is some evidence that the system works pretty well."
Ono, the former president of the University of Michigan, abruptly left his Ann Arbor post after he became the sole finalist for Gainesville's top job.
Complete with a five-year contract worth up to $15 million, the position became dubious for the 62-year-old immunologist once Trump world—including Donald Trump, Jr. and Sen. Rick Scott—started to push back on Ono's past support of diversity, equity, and inclusion initatives.
