Race on Campus

A college-presidency transition defined by a pivot on DEI

A presidential shift on DEI. Three years ago, when Santa J. Ono became president of the University of Michigan, he told the campus that it was essential to “believe in and promote diversity, equity, and inclusion.” This month, after he was announced as the sole finalist to lead the University of Florida, he said that he had been wrong. In an opinion essay for Inside Higher Ed, Ono wrote that DEI had become, “more about ideology, division, and bureaucracy, not student success.” A half-dozen Michigan faculty members spoke with The Chronicle about Ono’s leadership, describing a leader who seemed to sway with the political winds. Our Alissa Gary has the story.

A DeSantis lobbyist will be Florida A&M’s next president. Marva Johnson, a former political appointee of Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, will be the next president of Florida A&M University, the state’s only public HBCU. Her appointment was criticized by alumni, faculty members, and students for her work with the DeSantis administration — which has championed legislative bans on diversity, equity, and inclusion offices and identity-based hiring preferences at public colleges, among other things. Our Jasper Smith has more.