Oh, No to Dr. Ono!

Thank goodness the Florida Board of Governors rejected Dr. Santa Ono's bid as the next president of the University of Florida. If this were a university president in NY or CA or any blue state that might fit but, Florida has been designated as the freest state in the union by many.

Governor DeSantis signed a bill into law outlawing DEI at Florida colleges in 2023 when Ono's college was practicing it at the University of Michigan.

Florida cannot have someone who quite recently supported DEI, and who allowed pro-Palestinian protesters to encamp a month in residence at his former position in Ann Arbor, Michigan. 

Ono was apparently the pick of the UF's board of trustees which is not understood by many - as Rick Scott, Byron Donalds, Jimmy Patronis, Greg Steube and even Donald Trump, Jr. questioned whether the decision makers at UF had "lost their minds?"  I have the same question, which is unresolved even though, thankfully, better minds have overridden them.

It is not clear to me where he stands on merit-based admission policy, either. 

Ono sure was close to signing a 5-year contract which potentially could have earned him as much as $15 million of Florida taxpayers' dollars.

I think Florida sure is lucky to have those representatives mentioned above and our governor - else this would be a very expensive mistake.

What do you think?

Audrey Taggart

Hobe Sound

This is an editorial and not the official position of the Martin County Republican Executive Committee.