UF's DeSantis-aligned board chair backed a star president and lost. Now what?

MIAMI — The University of Florida is staying the course — and so too, for now, is Mori Hosseini.

That’s the message Gov. Ron DeSantis sent this week when he reappointed Hosseini — a strong-willed and politically formidable Volusia County real estate magnate — as chairman of UF’s board of trustees, even after prominent conservatives called for his resignation over the failed effort to install Santa J. Ono as UF’s next president.

The reappointment injects fresh certainty into an volatile moment for Florida’s flagship university, which remains without a permanent president and with no clear plan for finding one after the state university system’s Board of Governors voted 10-6 last Tuesday to reject Ono’s nomination.

At a UF board meeting last Thursday — just two days after Ono’s candidacy was torpedoed — Hosseini read a prepared statement later blasted out through the university’s social media accounts. He defended the search process and called Ono’s rejection “deeply disappointing,” but urged the board and the broader university community to “move forward with strength, purpose, and an unshakable belief in UF’s future — with or without Mori Hosseini.”

A week later, that future remains murky.

Interim President Kent Fuchs has previously said he does not plan to extend his contract beyond its July 31 expiration. As of Thursday, UF has not announced any contingency plan or next steps for restarting the presidential search — raising questions about how the university will navigate a pivotal budgetary and academic planning stretch without a permanent leader in place, as well as how its influential board chairman will be able to regain his footing and continue his mission to make UF the top-ranking state school after losing a battle with Florida’s ideological purists.

A ‘laserfocus’ on prestige

The rejection of Ono — a three-time university president and the sitting president of the University of Michigan — came as a shock to many in academia. Hosseini, along with the rest of the UF board, had framed their poaching of Ono as a signal of the university’s rising national stature. UF has long aspired to surpass Michigan in U.S. News & World Report’s public university rankings, where Michigan currently holds the No. 3 spot; UF sits at No. 7.

Hosseini, for his part, has not hidden his ambitions to raise UF’s national standing vis-à-vis rankings. The board chair proudly declared in December that he was “laser-focused” on the rankings climb, pulling language from a recent New York Times article that suggested former President Ben Sasse’s resignation that summer had to do with a disagreement with Hosseini over rankings. Under Sasse, UF lost its heralded No. 5 title.

For Hosseini, losing out on Ono is also potentially bruising on a personal level. He once lamented in a Tampa Bay Times op-ed that his eldest daughter refused to consider any Florida university and instead enrolled at — and graduated from — the University of Michigan. In his remarks on Thursday, Hosseini’s frustration over Ono’s ouster was palpable.

“We believe Dr. Ono was uniquely qualified to lead this University at this moment,” Hosseini said. “The symbolism and substance of a sitting president of a university as prestigious as the University of Michigan choosing to come to the University of Florida should not be lost.”

Ideology versus academic results

For critics of Ono’s appointment this was a concerted victory. Christopher Rufo, a New College of Florida trustee who celebrated Ono’s rejection as “another scalp on the wall,” and on Friday urged Hosseini to resign as UF’s board chairman, calling him prestige-obsessed and “delusional” for backing an “ultra-leftwing ideologue” to lead the state’s flagship university.

But those on the Board of Governors who voted against Ono pointed to what they saw as a lack of conviction and honesty, pointing out his wishy-washy reversal on diversity and climate change initiatives, as well as his delayed response to antisemitism and pro-Palestinian encampments that sprung up on campus under his watch at Michigan. By the end of last Tuesday’s grueling three-hour interview, the board’s view was clear: Ono wasn’t the right ideological fit for Florida.

Scott Yenor, a Boise State University political science professor and leading conservative critic of higher education, faulted UF’s board for prioritizing prestige over ideology, calling their enthusiasm for Ono a sign of the state’s continued “obsession” with elite validation — a mismatch with Florida’s new political mission for public universities. He called Ono a “confirmation convert” who had softened his left-leaning edges to win over Florida’s conservative academic leaders.

Within the Board of Governors — which Hosseini once chaired — several current members appeared to challenge not only Ono’s unanimous recommendation by UF trustees, but Hosseini’s influence. Hosseini, visibly frustrated, called the push to derail Ono “heartbreaking” and accused fellow board members of trying to “take somebody down” for political sport.

The episode more broadly sets the stage for future clashes between Hosseini and those who opposed Ono — including members of the Board of Governors — who effectively challenged the trustees’ unanimous pick and, by extension, Hosseini’s judgment and authority.

Boardroom beef

Aubrey Jewett, a political science professor at University of Central Florida, said the public nature of the breakdown has created awkward crosscurrents for Republican-aligned power players who are normally in lockstep.

“It was a pretty unusual situation to have such a high-profile conflict between people who supposedly are all representing the same party and ideology and all beholden to the same governor, DeSantis, and yet they came up with quite different conclusions on the suitability of Ono,” Jewett said. “It’s a slap in the face to the UF board to have come to an agreement unanimously and then have the state board overturn them.”

Jewett said he suspects Hosseini is not only frustrated but personally insulted by the vote and the implications it carried.

“Personally, you feel like, ‘we’re supposed to all be on the same team, right? I’m a conservative Republican who’s given a ton of money and golf machines to DeSantis. And now we get this group that’s calling into question our judgment and suggesting somehow that we would install a liberal or progressive who would work against those ideas. It’s insulting on a personal level, I’m sure.”

“I’m sure he is pretty disappointed and ticked about what happened,” Jewett added. “It’s a lot of work to see undone.”

Yet DeSantis’ reappointment of Hosseini — made public Monday — signaled that the governor is standing by one of his closest allies. Their relationship runs deep; Hosseini lent his private jet to the DeSantis’ 2024 presidential campaign and helped bankroll a golf simulator at the governor’s mansion.

But Hosseini’s now-precarious standing with other prominent Republicans underscore the growing fissures within the party over UF’s leadership. He’s been a major donor to Republican politicians like U.S. Senator Rick Scott, who publicly condemned Ono’s nomination and criticized UF’s search team.

Now, as UF’s de facto leader, Hosseini faces the twin challenge of winning back conservative confidence while trying to restart a presidential search that’s become a national cautionary tale.

UF may struggle to find a qualified leader after Ono’s bid embarrassingly collapsed on a national stage. Moreover, at least two executive search firms have sworn off working for Florida universities because of the ordeal, The Chronicle of Higher Education reported Friday. And given that the UF board’s composition is staying intact, Yenor said “it’s not clear that a conservative would want to come.”