Florida university leaders approve $1M salary for Sasse

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — The Board of Governors over Florida’s university system on Wednesday confirmed the hiring of Ben Sasse as the new University of Florida president, marking the final stamp of approval needed for the Republican Senator from Nebraska.

Meeting at the University of South Florida, board members unanimously signed off on a five-year contract for Sasse at the school, which will pay him an annual base salary of $1 million with incentives that could ultimately boost his compensation. Sasse, who was hired by UF trustees Nov. 1 amid student protests, is set to begin his leadership role Feb. 6.

“We aspire for Gainesville to be the center of a revolution in higher education in America,” Sasse said Wednesday. “And we want our graduates to go out and change the world.”

Sasse’s $1 million salary would automatically increase by 4 percent annually if the University of Florida meets certain goals determined by the president and board of trustees, according to the contract. Sasse is also in line for a possible yearly performance bonus worth up to 15 percent of his salary, and contributions to his retirement plan that are also leveled at 15 percent of salary.

UF’s decision to choose Sasse, a conservative politician, as president stirred loud opposition from students who argued the senator lacked experience to run the research university. The University of Florida is the state’s flagship school and is ranked as a top 5 school by U.S. News & World Report, a point of pride among policymakers and leaders.

Sasse, who earned a Ph.D. from Yale University and a Bachelor of Arts from Harvard University, previously served as president of Midland University, a private Lutheran university in Fremont, Neb. Midland enrolls approximately 1,600 students while UF by comparison enrolls more than 60,000 total as a major research university. He also served as a faculty member at the University of Texas.

During the senator’s interview in Gainesville last week, students chanted “Get Sasse out of our swamp” and held up signs saying “Get your bullshit politics out of my education” in protest of his hiring. Sasse’s opposition to same-sex marriage was among the chief concerns raised by students.

Sasse was known as a frequent critic of former President Donald Trump during his time in the Senate and was one of seven senators to vote to convict Trump during his second impeachment trial after the Jan. 6 attacks on the Capitol.

Board members addressed these protests on Wednesday, asking how Sasse can build relationships and a “culture of civility” at the university. Sasse downplayed concerns of a fractured campus, saying that there needs to be a “reality check” about what people are focused on, such as deferred maintenance of buildings, a major concern among faculty.

“It’s important to recognize that we live in a time when the subset of folks that are angriest tend to get the most attention,” Sasse told the Board of Governors. “There is always going to be, in a time as disrupted as ours, a sort of sensationalist tendency to take whatever an angriest moment is and pretend it’s a representative moment. Those are not the representative moments.”

University leaders, in voting to confirm Sasse, touted that hiring the sitting senator is a move that can be a “gamechanger” for the institution and state as a whole. Some expressed disappointment with how students and faculty reacted to the hiring, and suggested that Sasse’s past in politics will aid the system, even though he has pledged to be politically neutral as president.

“I don’t think you should overcorrect here,” said board member Alan Levine. “Part of what is great about you as a candidate is you can open doors for the university, not just for the University of Florida, but as a flagship institution for the entire state university system.”

UF leaders praised Sasse for his “bold vision” of higher education and his “grit, humility, good nature, and ability to relate to people of all backgrounds.”

“Dr. Sasse believes the University of Florida is the most interesting university in the most dynamic state in the county. Our Board of Trustees agrees,” Mori Hosseini, UF’s trustee chair told the Board of Governors Tuesday. “And, we believe unanimously that Dr. Sasse is exactly the right leader, right now, for the University of Florida.”

The Nebraska senator’s selection was controversial from the moment it was announced on Oct. 7, in part because the search was conducted under a new state law shielding presidential applicants from the public eye.

Although the university recruited a “dozen highly qualified diverse” candidates, including nine sitting presidents at major research universities, Sasse was the only finalist announced for the job. This led to the UF faculty senate passing a vote of no confidence in opposition of the search.