BY HANK REICHMAN

When the AAUP’s special committee on political interference and academic freedom in Florida’s public higher education system, which I cochaired, issued its report last December, there was little mention of former Nebraska Republican senator Ben Sasse’s appointment as president of the University of Florida.  After all, Governor Ron DeSantis’s unprecedented takeover of the state’s alternative New College and his potentially devastating legislative assault on academic freedom in the classroom and elsewhere were the big headlines.  The report simply acknowledged that Sasse’s hiring had been secretive, if “by the book,” while also conveying the warning of one faculty member that “this is Florida, and it’s a new time for academia in our state.  And if you’re President Sasse and you don’t go along to get along, pretty soon you are going to have to get out.”

Well, Sasse is now out, owing to his wife’s unexpected diagnosis with severe epilepsy, but evidence has now emerged that before his departure he was definitely not only going along but getting along just fine.  Under Sasse, the Florida Alligator now reveals, spending by the UF president’s office exploded from $5.6 million a year under his predecessor to an astonishing $17.3 million in just Sasse’s first year.  And much of the money went to political cronies:

Amid protests over his conservative track record as a Nebraska Republican senator, Sasse promised during his ascension to the UF presidency in Fall 2022 that he would divorce himself from partisan politics under what he called a vow of “political celibacy.”

But the senator-turned-university president quietly broke that promise in his 17-month term at the university’s helm, hiring six ex-Senate staffers and two former Republican officials to high-paying, remote jobs at the university.

Under Sasse’s administration, two of his former Senate staffers — Raymond Sass and James Wegmann — were among the highest-ranking and highest-paid officials at UF.  Both worked remotely from the D.C. area, roughly 800 miles from UF’s main campus in Gainesville.

Sass, Sasse’s former Senate chief of staff, was UF’s vice president for innovation and partnerships — a position which didn’t exist under previous administrations.  His starting salary at UF was $396,000, more than double the $181,677 he made on Capitol Hill.

Wegmann, Sasse’s former Senate communications director, is UF’s vice president of communications, a position he works remotely from his $725,000 home in Washington, D.C.

Salaried at $432,000, Wegmann replaced Steve Orlando, who made $270,000 a year in the position and had nearly 30 years of experience in media relations at UF before he was demoted to be Wegmann’s deputy. . . .

Sasse appointed his former Senate press secretary, Taylor Sliva, as UF’s Assistant Vice President of Presidential Communications and Public Affairs, a new position.  Sliva’s $232,000 salary made him the second-highest-paid employee in UF’s Office of Strategic Communications and Marketing, trailing only Wegmann.

The remaining three ex-Senate staffers — Raven Shirley, Kari Ridder and Kelicia Rice — served as presidential advisers to Sasse, though their specific duties remain unclear.  Rice, Sasse’s Senate scheduler, is listed as a presidential adviser in UF’s salary directory but in practice remained as Sasse’s scheduler, according to her LinkedIn profile.

Sasse raised his former Senate staffs’ salaries at UF by an average of 44% compared to their Capitol Hill pay, contributing to a $4.3 million increase in presidential salary expenses over [former President Kent] Fuchs’ last year in office.

Outside of his Senate staff, Sasse also tapped former Republican Tennessee Commissioner of Education Penny Schwinn as UF’s inaugural vice president of PK-12 and pre-bachelors programs.  Schwinn, with a starting salary of $367,500, worked the newly-created position from her $1 million home in Nashville, Tennessee.

Additionally, Sasse hired Alice James Burns, former scheduler for Sen. Lindsay Graham (R-SC), as Director of Presidential Relations and Major Events.  Burns, salaried at $205,000, also worked for UF outside of Florida. . . .

In our report, the AAUP noted in a footnote that under Sasse UF had, “through a no-bid process, hired McKinsey & Company, a global management consulting firm, on a $4.7 million contract to help develop the university’s vision for the future.”  Now, the Alligator reports,

During his presidency, Sasse spent $7.2 million in university funds to consultants for advice on his strategic planning and to fill leadership gaps — over 40 times more than Fuchs’ total consulting expenses over his eight-year term.

Sasse paid nearly two-thirds of the $7.2 million to McKinsey & Company, where he once worked as an adviser on an hourly contract.  The firm carries prestige as one of the “big three” management consulting giants, but is notoriously secretive about its dealings and shielded its work from public view using records laws protecting trade secrets.

A critical “scope of work” attachment, which would outline McKinsey’s responsibilities to UF, was redacted from a copy of the contract obtained from a public records request.  The redaction, permissible under state public records laws, makes it virtually impossible for the public to know what the firm did to earn its fees.

A UF spokesperson said McKinsey was using data analysis to help Sasse build his strategic plan, but the university hasn’t disclosed further details about its $4.7 million contract with the firm since The Alligator first reported its existence last August.  Public records requests for any reports, presentations and data produced under the contract have yielded no responsive documents. . . .

Beyond the $4.7 million contract, Sasse payrolled three former McKinsey consultants as full-time employees in his office, with salaries ranging from $150,000 to $200,000, according to university records.

It remains unknown who Sasse paid the remaining $2.5 million in consulting expenses to.  Public records requests for the president’s consulting contracts were not fulfilled in time for publication.

McKinsey’s contract allowed for UF to pay additional fees for consulting services until February 2025.  The university has gone months without responding to public records requests for invoices related to the contract.

With respect to the McKinsey contract, the Alligator adds that the only evidence of the firm’s work has come in a series of “roadshows” in which, among other things, Sasse argued on the basis of McKinsey data that many faculty were not pulling their weight and had “quietly retired.”  In a manner that will be familiar to many, especially in the humanities and social sciences, Sasse measured research activity solely by the amount of external research funding that faculty brought in and on that basis concluded that just a small percentage of the faculty accounted for most university research activity.

He didn’t explain, however, how much funding his cronies and consultants had brought in.

Contributing editor Hank Reichman is professor emeritus of history at California State University, East Bay; former AAUP vice-president and chair of the AAUP Foundation; and from 2012-2021 Chair of AAUP’s Committee A on Academic Freedom and Tenure. His book, The Future of Academic Freedom, based in part on posts to this blog, was published in 2019.  His Understanding Academic Freedom was published in October, 2021; a second edition will be published in March 2025.