Former Sen. Ben Sasse Takes Office as University of Florida President

He’s watching you slayerxing….lol
Too soon?

 

The pool must be finished

 

Bring back "gatorbait" !

 

Good luck, Mr. Sasse. Hope he does a good job.

 

Guess the faculty wanted Corky

 

He’s got his work cut out for him:

1. Navigating through academic freedom during a Culture War where his university professors align against DeSantis, the most powerful, not to mention polarizing, governor we have ever had.

2. Navigating through the disparity of high-achieving students who view their rights being diminished against the very government that ultimately oversees the school.

3. Maintaining academic excellence, the revenue stream of research funding, and the Top 5 academic standing, when much if the academic world views our state leadership, and thus UF, as suppressing the academics arts and diversity.

4. Navigating through the reputational battles when the Surgeon General, who’s an employee of UF, spouts recommendations running against the grain of the scientific community and peer review studies.

5. An athletic department besmirched with allegations of scandal over Rashada pay-for-play.

6. An athletic department under-performing its brand expectations in all money-making sports.

7. And last, but certainly not least, battling through the construction nightmares of having a new $300,000 pool being built as he moves into the residence.

 

Should have been jeered and then rode out on rail just for this

 

Yeah, that is not an encouraging paragraph. That is basically "Let me find any technological fad/buzzword that I can to latch onto in order to sound innovative."

 

He is a lot of things, but dumb isn’t one of them.
He will read the room and temper down some of the crazier talk. He knows his first and far way most important task is to get the faculty back to a relative comfort level on a number of fronts, he won’t upset that Apple cart early.
The question for me is the fold:
1- is he in over his head given the size and complexity of UF?
2- will the perception of the hire nationally hurt our ranking no matter how well he does?
3- the two strengths that he is expected to show, being a reasonable liaison with a strident governor, and fund raising, can he at least do those well?

 

Also implying we should copy Arizona State at anything should get you fired

 

Some very smart people can be bad fits for certain positions but he is certainly smart.

 

I mean he has the credentials of a smart person, but so do Donald Trump and George W Bush.

 

Hope this dude cleans house at the UAA

 

I mean, I guess a guy who got into Harvard from podunk Nebraska, then got an MA and Phd from Yale, taught at UT, got elected to the senate and ran a small college could be dumb, but I would say the odds seem slim.

 

Because they have Ivy League degrees? It's not that difficult to get accepted when you are from very wealthy families. He was the son of a high school teacher so he actually had to get in on his own credentials. He was a HS valedictorian. He has a degree from Harvard, 2 masters degrees, and a PHD from Yale. Studied at Oxford, won numerous academic awards. There is no comparison between his academic achievements and Bush/Trump.

 

Look, I dont think Sasse is drooling on himself or is barely literate, but I think too often people conflate being good at school and ambition with "smart." Anyways saying stuff like "we should do classes in the metaverse" seems like something a dumb person's idea of a smart guy would say.

 

His statements today.
You can see in reading the faculty one how he impressed the committee.

February - President Ben Sasse - Statements - University of Florida

 

FWIW, its also easier to get into Harvard if you are from Nebraska than say, California or New York