As members of the University of Michigan Board of Regents and campus administrators circulated a draft of an op-ed defending institutional independence in the face of attacks by the Trump administration, there was an influential voice missing from the discussion — President Santa J. Ono. Regents didn’t know if Ono disagreed with them, wanted some of the language tweaked, or was completely on board. He was absent from campus, and nobody knew if he was checking emails and messages.
That wasn’t unusual, a dozen sources who had direct, regular contact with Ono told The Chronicle. Throughout his historically short tenure in charge of one of the premier public universities in the nation, Ono often would disappear, sometimes for days at a time, leaving staff, including the university’s top administrators, looking for direction, the sources said.
Those sources spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not cleared to talk to the media. Their accounts were supported by emails and other internal messages shared with The Chronicle.
Ono was also disengaged in some conversations around antisemitism and diversity, equity, and inclusion, five people said, complicating his recent claims in an op-ed published through multiple Florida news organizations as he vies to become the next president of the University of Florida.
Ono, who could not be reached for comment, was named the sole finalist for the open Florida presidency on May 4. A formal vote by Florida’s Board of Trustees has not yet been scheduled, but it is scheduled to meet on June 5.
At least some University of Michigan regents were not informed Ono was interviewing for the Florida job and learned, through a letter to the board chair, that he would be named as the finalist less than an hour before the news was released publicly. No regents would comment on the record about Ono’s performance or his departure.
On Thursday, the Michigan regents will officially name Domenico Grasso, chancellor of the University of Michigan at Dearborn, as interim president. Grasso has said he will not seek the permanent role.
Colleen Mastony, a University of Michigan spokeswoman, called allegations Ono was disengaged “false and absurd” and said Ono’s work ethic was unmatched.
“President Ono’s work ethic and impact are beyond reproach. As anyone who has worked closely with him knows, he starts his day before dawn, continues until late in the evening and typically works seven days a week,” she said in an email response to The Chronicle’s request for an interview with Ono. “He traveled frequently on university business and, while on the road, remained in constant communication with his team. While he served as president of the University of Michigan, he was a tireless advocate for the interests of our university community.
“Importantly, President Ono has been a leading voice in speaking out against antisemitism and in support of the Jewish community. He met regularly with Jewish students and Jewish leaders to hear their concerns and offered strong, public support.”
‘A Chameleon’
Ono’s hiring by Michigan in July 2022 was a joyous occasion. Campus morale was at an all-time low thanks to scandals, including revelations that a football-team doctor had sexually assaulted athletes for decades despite numerous complaints about him to administrators. Ono’s predecessor, Mark Schlissel, had been fired by the board after an inappropriate relationship with a female co-worker. Schlissel and the board had been feuding prior to that.
Ono, having served presidencies at the University of British Columbia and the University of Cincinnati, was seen as the anti-Schlissel. He was touted as having a deep history of connecting with a campus community both in person and online. And he was seen as uncommonly authentic and transparent, having spoken publicly about struggles with his mental health.
“His public enthusiasm for the University of Michigan and Ann Arbor was received as a breath of fresh air,” said John U. Bacon, an Ann Arbor-based journalist and author who has written several books about the university.
But Ono ran into difficulties early on. He was tested by a months-long strike from the Graduate Employees’ Organization, the union representing graduate workers on campus. In April 2023, Ono was eating in a local restaurant when GEO members protested outside. He was escorted to a waiting SUV, but activists surrounded the car and were pounding on it as he was driven away.
Ono, who before that was often seen around town and known to post questions about local restaurants to eat in and stores to shop at on Twitter, became less and less visible. The president “quickly seemed overwhelmed by the scale of the job, the conflicts that come with it, and an unusually tumultuous era,” Bacon said.
In May 2023, Ono bought a house in the far Detroit suburb of West Bloomfield Township — about 45 miles northeast of Ann Arbor — for $575,000. The president’s contract required him to live in the university-owned presidential house on campus, on which the university had just spent $11.5 million in upgrades. Like other presidential houses, it serves a dual purpose — living quarters for the president and their family, but also a venue for university events.
Ono’s purchase sparked local controversy. He is registered to vote at the West Bloomfield Township house, has his driver’s license tied to that address, and claimed a tax exemption where he stated that was his primary residence. But he told a local newspaper that uncovered the purchase he was only at the house on the occasional weekend or holiday.
He was there much more often, multiple sources told The Chronicle, even when meetings were scheduled on campus. He missed numerous executive-officer-council meetings in the past several months, said three people with direct knowledge of them. That led to a leadership void and squabbles in some cases, those same sources said.
On most routine matters, Ono was engaged and making decisions. Donors loved his personal approach. Before football games, he would stop into tailgates for donors and other VIPs and a long line would form to greet him and get pictures taken.
But it was the big issues of the day that caused friction. And there were plenty of them, including the war in Gaza and President Trump’s election, which led to pressure to dismantle the university’s huge DEI apparatus. Ono’s house and those of other top administrators and regents were vandalized by pro-Palestinian protesters.
It’s unclear when Ono began the process to become Florida’s president. Florida had contacted him in 2024, but Ono didn’t bite at their offer, instead using it to get a pay increase to $1.3 million annually and an extension on his contract that would have kept him at Michigan through 2032, three sources said. Florida did not respond to a request for comment.
He did not notify Michigan’s board he was searching for a new job this time around, sources said. Once his name was announced as the sole finalist, he resigned from Michigan’s presidency, even though he has yet to be formally approved by Florida’s board. The Florida job has not yet officially set a salary, but the committee doing the hiring approved up to $3 million a year for the job.
The sudden nature of the move has left many wondering if some moves in the last days of his tenure were something of an audition for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and his Republican allies, who wield considerable control over presidential selection at the state’s public universities.
For example, in late April, the University of Michigan was asked to meet with the White House’s task force on antisemitism. A cluster of university administrators and consultants, along with Ono, recommended attending the meeting, according to an email obtained by The Chronicle. Some regents pushed back against it, saying the university should defy what they saw as improper overreach by the government. That followed a request from the task force asking for a letter detailing Michigan’s antisemitism efforts — an idea also greeted negatively by some regents.
“I am confident and comfortable with our actions on antisemitism, and would deeply oppose sending any sort of letter or response,” Regent Jordan B. Acker wrote in an April 10 email obtained by The Chronicle to his fellow board members, Ono, and a variety of high-ranking administrators. “Pretextual attacks on the institution are unacceptable and we should be prepared, and now, to fight for our independence.”
After he was tapped as the top choice to lead Florida’s flagship, there was backlash about whether Ono was conservative enough, including from Christopher F. Rufo, an activist who has been leading the conservative charge in higher education. He wrote: “The finalist for the University of Florida presidency is a left-wing administrator who recently declared his support for ‘DEI 2.0’ and claimed that ‘the climate crisis is the existential challenge of our time.’ Florida deserves better than a standard-issue college president.”
Ono touched on some of those concerns in an op-ed published on various news sites. In it, he said he had been talking for several weeks to Florida’s leadership. “I believe deeply in their vision: ambitious, anchored in a culture of excellence and laser-focused on student success. The passion I’ve seen for this institution — including during my visit to campus earlier this week to meet its students, faculty and administrators — is infectious, and the alignment between the Board of Trustees, the Board of Governors, the governor and the Legislature is rare in higher education,” he wrote. “My alignment is rooted in principles — like the renewed emphasis on merit, the strengthening of civics and foundational learning, and the belief that our universities should prepare students not just for careers, but for informed citizenship in a free society.”
He touted his moves to curb DEI at Michigan and said his viewpoints on the subject morphed over time.
“Like many, I supported what I believed to be the original intent of DEI — ensuring equal opportunity and fairness for every student. That’s something on which most everyone agrees. But over time, I saw how DEI became something else — more about ideology, division and bureaucracy, not student success,” he wrote.
That was a different stance than he took privately a couple of years before.
In January 2023, a donor wrote to a regent asking for clarification on university spending on DEI programs. That regent, Denise Ilitch, emailed Ono and others, asking for a report, according to a copy of the email obtained by The Chronicle. Ono replied by asking the board secretary to schedule an update on spending at an upcoming board meeting. He then wrote: “I’m very proud of what has been accomplished and I’m excited about what’s going to happen with DEI 2.0.”
Ono also said in his op-ed he had worked hard to curb antisemitism on campus. In December 2023, he announced the formation of a new Raoul Wallenberg Institute to “combat antisemitism and advance religious inclusion.” More details would be forthcoming, he said.
A few months later, the regents were hoping for one more large detail to be announced — the inclusion of the word “antisemitism” in the center’s name, something they thought they had agreed on. In an email chain among regents and a variety of top administrators, including Ono, regents pushed for the word to be included.
“If we’re going to talk about, study, and hopefully lessen antisemitism, we need to be able to say it,” Regent Michael J. Behm wrote. He was echoing the thoughts of Regent Paul W. Brown, who wrote a few minutes earlier: “I understand the theory behind leaving antisemitism out of the title, it may seem more inclusive etc, but that sentiment takes political correctness, inclusion, hand ringing, etc to an absurd level. Leaving antisemitism may result in the name no longer making any point.”
That wasn’t the only, or first, time that regents felt like they had to push Ono on the issue of antisemitism.
For example, in January 2023, a then-university spokesperson, Rick Fitzgerald, emailed a draft statement responding to protests at an event with Vice President Kamala Harris on campus that was interrupted by pro-Palestinan protesters. He sent it to a number of staff members and regents, as well as Ono, according to a copy of the email chain shared with The Chronicle. Regent Mark J. Bernstein responded quickly, asking if various Jewish organizations had been consulted. Three days later, still seeking a response, Bernstein emailed again. Fitzgerald responded later that afternoon with an updated statement.
It didn’t sit well with Bernstein, who wrote: “How is it possible that this statement does not include any reference to Jewish, Jews or antisemitism? To omit these stakeholders, many of whom justifiably feel targeted by this activity, is hard if not impossible to defend.”
Several other board members chimed in to agree with Bernstein. Ono never responded in emails or in conversation with the regents, several sources said.
In October 2024, board members received a detailed briefing of complaints against Rachel Dawson, director of the university’s office of academic multicultural initiatives, who was alleged to have made a series of antisemitic comments at a conference. In an email chain among regents and top administrators, Ono faced heavy criticism for his lack of action on antisemitism.
“Santa, you assured me that you would take antisemitism seriously and made a commitment to do so in the future,” Bernstein wrote in the emails, a copy of which was obtained by The Chronicle. “How you handle this matter represents an opportunity to honor your promise; a promise you have also made to many other stakeholders who care deeply about this issue.”
Several regents were also disgruntled with the way Ono handled sweeping changes to its DEI program, announced in March 2025, which included the dismantling of much of the system-wide offices and programs. The university said it would be following up with more details of how it was going to pivot those resources to more student-focused programs, including increased spending on its Go Blue Guarantee, a free-tuition program for those meeting income guidelines. At the beginning of April, Richie C. Hunter, a university spokesperson, emailed a variety of people, including regents, to say they had a communications plan ready for fall 2025. That didn’t sit well with regents, who emailed to say they wanted swifter action and asking Ono why it wasn’t happening. Ono never replied, the email chain shows.
This has left the impression with some in Ann Arbor of a leader willing to be fluid in the positions he takes, depending on the direction of the political winds. That impression was reinforced after he was named the Florida finalist, when Ono’s name was removed from a statement denouncing the Trump administration for its “unprecedented government overreach and political interference” in higher education, issued by the American Association of Colleges and Universities.
Ono’s apparent reluctance to weigh in on the regents’ op-ed supporting institutional independence looks different after his resignation. “Contrary to public opinion, Ono never refused to sign it — he simply ignored the regents who asked,” Bacon said.
“He knew if he signed the UM regents’ op-ed, UF’s offer would be immediately rescinded. So he was not making some principled political stand, but simply looking out for his own self-interest. He is a chameleon.”
