Just a few years ago, Dr. Santa Ono, the sole finalist for president of the University of Florida, sounded a lot more like New York’s Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez than Florida’s Ron DeSantis.
“Systemic racism is embedded in every corner of any institution, and so the only way to solve it is to have everyone doing their part . . . looking at themselves inside and asking, ‘What parts of me are racist, and what steps do I have to take to move beyond that?’ ” That’s Ono in a 2021 interview while he was president of the University of British Columbia (UBC), a position he held from 2016 to 2022.
So it’s surprising that members of the Board of Governors of the University of Florida—which, several years before Donald Trump, became involved in eliminating diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in education, under Florida governor Ron DeSantis—together with other search committee members, recommended Ono, now president of the University of Michigan, to be the University of Florida’s next president.