Ono told councillors he accepted Day with his appointment in Michigan, but during the review of the summer 2023 program, he had a change of heart.
The former University of Michigan president is one step closer to Florida’s major flagship university.
The University of Florida Council of Trustees voted unanimously on Monday in favor of Ono’s appointment. Chairman Mori Hosseini said the university system board is expected to hold a final vote on the issue next week, but no dates were specified.
In a series of questions Tuesday prior to the vote, the trustee asked Ono to identify a timeline as it was related to the university’s principal when it called off the DEI program in Wolverine State.
Ono, the only finalist in the position, previously led the University of Michigan’s DEI 2.0 plan. It follows President Donald Trump’s Presidential Singing orders, including diversity, equity and diversity training, race and gender affinity groups, and ideological indoctrination across most school programs.
Ono also pushed curriculum changes to promote equal outcomes by race, according to a review by the Epoch Times of DEI 2.0 before it was removed from the university’s website.
The University of Florida ended its DEI program last year, months before Trump’s executive order to terminate federal funds for universities that continued such programs, which the Trump administration said were in violation of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
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Ono told councillors he accepted Day with his appointment in Michigan, but during the review of the summer 2023 program, he had a change of heart. Students and faculty of various races complained about feeling left out, he said, showing that the DEI program’s financial review had a low return on investment for at least 10 years.
He said the diversity employment statement and decision to end the Sunset DEI program came before Trump’s election, but it was ahead of his candidacy in months.
“The best universities are not meant to be Echo Chambers,” said Ono, who served in leadership roles at various Canadian and US universities before studying at the University of Chicago and then at McGill University in Montreal.
“I didn’t come to get Day back. I made sure it never came back.”
Ono’s official statement on these procedures was issued on March 27th, and the DEI 2.0 page was also removed from the university’s website around that time.
The University of Florida president search was announced in December 2024.
President Santa Ono of the University of Michigan will speak at the ADL Never Is Never Is In Now event at the Javits Center in New York City on March 3, 2025. Brian Bedder/Getty Images Antiformation League
The trustee praised Ono for ending the DEI initiative, fighting campus anti-Semitism and overseeing groundbreaking research in medicine and artificial intelligence.
“He has excellent consensus building and is an easy way to inspire everyone he has come into contact with,” said Councilman Rahul Patel, who chaired the search committee.
Savannah Pointer contributed to this report.
