Ron DeSantis chalked up another major win against diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives on Tuesday with the rejection of Santa Ono as the next president of the University of Florida.
The controversial potential hire ran into trouble some weeks prior after Ono's history of pushing DEI and Critical Race Theory entered the discussion. While the UF Board of Trustees predictably gave their stamp of approval to the former president of Michigan University, among several other stops in his background, they ultimately needed the support of the Florida Board of Governors.
That's where DeSantis comes in, if a bit indirectly in this case. The vote to reject Ono was 10-6, and while the Florida governor wasn't on the decision board, he did appoint most of the current members of it. It's safe to assume he made some good choices because they upheld the governor's pledge to root out DEI in the state's education system.
ALSO SEE: DeSantis Nukes DEI at University of Florida, Staffers Fired and Department Shuttered
In a stunning move, the board that oversees Florida's higher education system voted against the confirmation of Dr. Santa Ono, formerly president of the University of Michigan, as the University of Florida's 14th president.
It's the first time in the history of the 17-member Florida Board of Governors (BOG), the governing body for the state's 12 public universities, that it voted down a university trustee board's leadership selection. The vote to confirm Ono failed 6-10, with member Craig Mateer absent...
...Ono was grilled for roughly three hours on his past support of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs during his time leading the University of Michigan, his views on holistic versus merit-based admissions, gender-affirming care, climate change and his response to the COVID-19 pandemic — all of which have been flashpoints in the culture wars waged by Florida's ruling conservatives.
Ono has a long history of pushing DEI programs at the schools he's led. He's also been at the forefront of various affirmative action programs that take a "holistic" view (as described above) of admissions. Those policies would be comparable to the games schools like Harvard play in giving significant weight to essays describing one's "lived experience" as a backdoor around the Supreme Court's ruling involving affirmative action and universities. Not surprisingly, Ono was also big on lockdowns and mandates during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Here's a sampling of his woke background as presented by Christoper Rufo, an education advisor to DeSantis who has led the charge against Ono.
Santa Ono is a supporter of virtually every left-wing social fad—"indigenous strategic plan," "climate action," "antiracism"—and believes that universities should devote public dollars toward advancing them. This would be a bad direction for University of Florida. pic.twitter.com/pr4gQHMeDm
— Christopher F. Rufo ⚔️ (@realchrisrufo) May 20, 2025
Santa Ono has pronouns in his bio. He’s bought into every left-wing fad imaginable. pic.twitter.com/BOnGAswFTB
— Christopher F. Rufo ⚔️ (@realchrisrufo) May 20, 2025
If you want to become president of a Florida public university, you should not:
— Christopher F. Rufo ⚔️ (@realchrisrufo) June 3, 2025
• Put pronouns in your bio
• Do land acknowledgements
• Promote "two-spirit" genders
• Accuse America of "systemic racism"
• Operationalize "DEI 2.0"
• Oversee child sex-change procedures
Would Ono have kept up that same energy for wokeness as the president of UF? I can't answer that question, and to be transparent, he did praise DeSantis' education policies in an attempt to moderate his stances. What I do know is that it was not a risk that was worth taking. Too often, we've seen left-wingers pretend to be converted only to revert when they gain power and a contract to protect them.
Even if Ono had outwardly abided by regulations regarding the promotion of DEI in Florida, does anyone truly believe he wouldn't have kept pushing it under the table? A person doesn't go from promoting "two-spirit genders" and child "sex-change" operations to moderating essentially overnight. That's just not a thing, and Ono was not the right choice for such a high-profile position. Now, hopefully, the UF Board of Trustees has gotten the message and doesn't bother trying to hire another woke left-winger as they continue their search for their next president.
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