President of the University of Michigan, Santa Ono, goes to the University of Florida

The University of Florida is ready to call the president of the University of Michigan, Santa Ono, as the next leader, after months of uncertainty and increasing concern about political pressure on top campuses.

Dr. Ono was announced on Sunday as the only finalist for Florida’s best job and said he would take on the role this summer. He could receive up to $ 3 million in total cash compensation annually and become the best paid public university president in the United States.

Although Michigan and Florida belong to one of the best registered schools in the country, both have had to deal with considerable unrest in recent years, and Dr. Ono, whose style frustrated many in Ann Arbor, moves from one lightning distance to another.

In March, the University of Michigan announced that this would do closes its primary diversity, fairness and inclusion -effortA program that the Subject of internal dispute But was nevertheless considered a model for the higher education industry. Last week eight people brought a federal lawsuit that accused the University of Retaliation because they participated in pro-Palestinian protests.

Dr. Ono is planning to get into a presidency of Florida that Ben Sasse, a Republican who had represented Nebraska in the US Senate, Abruptly left last summer.

The boards of both the university and the university system still have to recruit Dr. Ratifying ono, but those steps are seen as formalities. The university, that Dr. ONO is planning to visit Tuesday, has not released contract conditions. However, a management committee voted in February to offer up to $ 3 million in what it described as “total cash compensation”.

In October Dr. Voted Ono in with a contract extension in Michigan who would have held him in Ann Arbor until 2032 and would increase his basic salary to $ 1.3 million. Now Dr. Ono leave the university after less than three years in his presidency, the shortest term of office of a permanent leader of Michigan.

James H. Finkelstein, a professor Emeritus of public policy at George Mason University who studied the contracts of university leaders, said that Dr. Ono was able to have the highest wage of a public school president in the country, perhaps earn as much within a year or two in Florida as he would have in the early 2030s in Michigan.

In the past year, Michigan has had to deal with a number of problems that have divided the campus. It An administrator of a diversity programs dismissed After being accused of making anti -Semitic comments. Last spring the university allowed a champion with regard to the war in Gaza to stand for weeks before the authorities dismantled it.

And conflict about the war expanded into the student government after Pro-Palestinian activists had won elections and the financing for campus groups stopped, unless the university of certain companies has been divested. The university refused and the leaders of the student government were ultimately deposited and deleted. Earlier in the presidency of Dr. Ono was confronted with a five -month strike by graduated student instructors.

Florida has also been involved in fighting that resonated outside the campus. The administration of Gov. Ron Desantis recently said that it had intervened in the search of the University of Florida for a new College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Dean after a social media account accused the four finalists of being ‘Radical Dei Progressives’.

The university has quickly suspended its search, and the interim president of Florida, knows Fuchs, said that it was not advisable to appoint a new dean without the full participation of the next president. “

But one of the assistants of Governor Desantis promoted a social media that the candidates had castigated. The assistant, Bryan Griffin, added that the administration had “collaborated” the university and that the search was “stopped”.

“UF leadership was cooperative and has committed itself to keep it,” wrote Mr. Griffin, communication director of Mr. Desantis, on social media.

Dr. Ono will play a role that Mr Sasse left for less than 18 months in a five -year contract of $ 10 million. After Mr. Sasse stopped, he was fired for the expenditure and acceptance of the university during his term of office. The Florida board had also been worried About the decline of the university – From no. 5 to no. 6 – In the US News & World Report Rankings of public universities. The university later fell at number 7.

Florida would be the fourth presidency of Dr. Be ono. In addition to Michigan, he also led the University of British Columbia and the University of Cincinnati.

“Ono is today one of the few presidents who is a professional president,” said Dr. Finkelstein.

Judith A. Wilde, a research professor at George Mason who cooperates with Dr. Finkelstein, noted that around 80 percent of the university leaders only have one top job in their career. About 18 percent, she said, go to a second presidency.

In a statement by Florida, Dr. Ono enthusiasm for his latest role.

“No other public university combines the momentum of UF, its role as the flagship of one of the most important states of the nation, the extraordinary support of state leaders and a shared vision throughout the community,” he said.