Perry, David: Why did Sasse become a finalist at the U.F. Senate in the first half of the 20th century?
David M.Perry is a journalist, historian and co-author of The Bright Ages: A New History of Medieval Europe. He is an adviser of the history department at the University of Minnesota. Follow him on his verified account on the social networking site. The views he expressed are of his own. CNN has more opinion on it.
By contrast, the University of Florida has over 60,000 students as well as a faculty and staff. On that basis alone, I find it hard to believe that Sasse, with his limited management experience, would have emerged as the sole finalist (or perhaps a finalist at all) in any fair and transparent job process. Qualifications aren’t a big deal in the world of regressive action.
The reputation and political clout of the man is due to his principled criticism of the lies about the 2020 election and his vote to impeach the president for setting the stage for the January 6, 2021, insurrection. But if he has such integrity, why is he potentially aligning himself with DeSantis – who is busy positioning himself as the next generation of Trumpism – by taking this job?
What Do We Need to Know About University Presidents? A View from Senator RJ Della Salle, aka RJ Sasse, on the “Law of the Land”
In the last three years, politicians have been named as college presidents but only 2% of them were from elected or appointed office, and these appointments have been controversial. And as bad as things were in 2014, we’re even more polarized today.
I have a PHD in history and am interested in Sasse since he became a senator. He is one of the most prominent historians in American politics along with Newt Gingrich. He received a doctorate from Yale in 2004, worked for former President George W Bush, and became president of a small Lutheran college in Nebraska.
A current freshman at Florida, RJ Della Salle, told the student newspaper that he didn’t know whether Sasse was really prejudiced against LGBTQ students or was just pretending for political gain. Either way, he said, we either have someone who doesn’t care about the people or a politician that just says what the people want to hear.
Sasse has responded to this criticism by stating that Obergefell is the “law of the land,” so there’s no need to worry, but that kind of reassuring rhetoric was used by conservative nominees to the Supreme Court about Roe v. Wade (and we know how that turned out – those protections of “settled law” are gone).
Speaking of abortion, as president of a major university, Sasse would have significant responsibilities over the reproductive health of students and employees, especially in a college town where so many access health care from university-affiliated sources.
The University of Florida Faculty Senate approved a no-confidence resolution in the selection process for the next president.
When pressed about the comments during an on-campus forum earlier this month, Sasse said the decision was “the law of the land,” adding that it wasn’t going to change in the near future, The Independent Florida Alligator reported.
When asked about promoting diversity at the university, Sasse said she wanted us to figure it out by listening to our community and our conversations and how do we tackle those problems and reduce those barriers, according to the Alligator.
The high court made a decision on same-sex marriage, and Sasse said only a man and a woman should get married.
The Faculty Senate Appointment Committee voted no-confidence resolution to replace Sasse with a clean, transparent university president at the University of Florida
The emergency meeting Thursday included an extensive discussion on the selection process for president, including requests for more clarity on the process. The faculty senate voted on the no-confidence resolution.
The vote is symbolic and will not impact the UF Board of Trustees final vote scheduled for November 1. The university says it won’t allow protests inside the buildings on campus.
Three members of the Board of Trustees selection committee unanimously supported the appointment of Sasse, and they spoke to members of the faculty senate.
When other candidates did not want to be named publicly, they decided to make Sasse the sole candidate and Dr.Lisa Lundy explained how that happened.
“I think the situation was that all of the candidates were in positions that they felt could be compromised if people found that they were in the running for another job,” Lundy said.
After the discussion, many expressed a desire for more transparency in the selection process, acknowledging that a new state law creates a challenge in disclosing the identities of the applicants throughout the selection process.