University of Florida faculty members on Thursday expressed their displeasure with two-term Nebraska Republican U-S Senator Ben Sasse being named as the lone finalist for the school’s presidency.
The Faculty Senate met in emergency session and approved a no-confidence vote on the selection process by a margin of 67-15.
Breann Garbas, the member who drafted the motion, said the problem for many of them isn’t that Sasse was selected, it was the way in which he was named as the only finalist under a new Florida law that allowed the university to act without public knowledge.
Garbas says no one except the search committee knows who the other candidates were, adding that the faculty members had no input in the process and would likely have raised the same objections over whoever was picked as the lone finalist.
Sasse has drawn criticism from some at the school in Gainesville for his stance on same-sex marriage and other LBGTQ issues, despite his assurances that his personal beliefs won’t influence his actions as president.
For example, Sasse told an on-campus meeting earlier this month that same-sex marriage is the national law and his goal is to create a “place of respect and inclusion for all Gators,” mentioning the Southeastern Conference school’s sports mascot.
Other opponents question his qualifications to run such a sprawling school as Florida, which had an enrollment of over 60,000 students last year, since his previous experience as a president was at Midland University, which had 1,600 students.
The 50-year old Sasse does hold a PhD in history from Yale and had two brief stints as a faculty member at the University of Texas-Austin.