In a highly anticipated announcement following a year of tumult on campus, the University of Florida said Thursday it has zeroed in on a national political figure to be its next president: Republican U.S. Sen. Ben Sasse of Nebraska.
Sasse, 50, emerged as the sole finalist in a search that took place under a new Florida law that keeps the key early stages of a public university’s presidential selection process out of the public eye. But UF officials sought to allay any concerns, calling their process “exhaustive.”
Members of the school’s presidential search committee reached out to more than 700 leaders, narrowing the field to what they called “a dozen highly qualified diverse candidates,” including nine who were sitting presidents at major research universities. The university declined to name anyone in that group.
Sasse, who is two years into his second Senate term, was the search committee’s first choice by unanimous vote. He has five academic degrees and was president of a small Lutheran university in Nebraska before becoming a senator. He is sometimes mentioned as a future candidate for U.S. president and has faced backlash from his party for rebuking former president Donald Trump. He was one of seven Republican senators who voted to convict Trump of inciting an insurrection in February 2021.
Sasse is scheduled to visit the Gainesville campus on Monday to meet with students, faculty and community members, who are invited to submit questions in advance and feedback afterwards. He will return Nov. 1 to be interviewed by the university’s board of trustees.
If approved by the trustees, he would become UF’s 13th president, replacing Kent Fuchs, who announced in January he will step down to take a faculty position after a successor is chosen.
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