U. Florida Faculty Senate Votes No Confidence In Ben Sasse Presidential Selection Process

At a special meeting that lasted more than two hours, the University of Florida Faculty Senate voted Thursday afternoon to express no confidence in the selection process that’s resulted in Nebraska Senator Ben Sasse being recommended as the sole finalist for the presidency of the University of Florida.

The meeting, which can be viewed in its entirety here, took place just days before Sasse, a two-term, Republican senator from Nebraska, is scheduled to be interviewed and presumably approved on Nov. 1 by the university’s Board of Trustees.

At the meeting, senators first posed multiple questions about the search process to two faculty members who were members of the search committee, before they then turned to considering a number of amendments that were proposed to the original no-confidence resolution.

After lengthy parliamentary wrangling, extensive debate, and more than 10 votes on proposed changes to the original resolution, the Faculty Senate passed a slightly modified version of the resolution by a convincing margin; 67-15 was the apparent vote count.

Much of the debate centered on clarifying what a no-confidence vote meant, with several senators arguing that the resolution needed to concentrate not on the merits of Sasse as a finalist, but on the faults of the process mandated by a new Florida law that keeps early stages of a public university’s presidential selection process private.

University of Florida officials and the faculty members on the Search Committee itself have attempted to rebut the criticisms of both the process and Sasse’s selection, claiming that the process was as transparent as allowed by law, but they have not been able to quell the campus backlash that was sparked by the announcement. In addition to faculty opposition, UF students have expressed their strong opposition to the naming of Sasse as a finalist.

The Senate’s no confidence vote does not have any binding effect on the UF Board of Trustees’ decision next week, but in the likely event that the Board does vote to name Sasse as the university’s next president, succeeding the outgoing Kent Fuchs, it illustrates the very tough work he will face in winning over a campus that has suffered considerable political turmoil and campus controversy in the past two years.