Perhaps you know that Florida GOP politicians have a destructive ball in the state’s university system. And the story is that they are on a noble crusade to drive away evil.
But if you believe that is the only goal here, you are being fooled. This is not about politicians chasing liberal doctrines as much as liberal doctrines pursue taxes.
They turned the university system into a political plunder system. There, politicians with no experience in higher education can get their own advantages.
It has been going on for a while, but over the past week the glyft has been fully exposed. That’s when it was revealed that one of the political Harvenes bubbly about diversity played secretly to get a $3 million job a year for herself, a presumed reason to deny the University of Florida president to qualified applicants.
Look, the theatre needs to be separated from the glyft. The theatre was a bunch of privileged men who grasped the concepts of diversity and inclusion. Grift was one of the same guys playing secretly for the very work he had grasped.
More details about it immediately, let’s first remember where this started. Richard Corcoran and New College in Florida. Two years ago, the former House Speaker was eager to earn a fatty salary. The problem was that Corcoran had Ed’s experience as high as my dead cat, Farball.
So, to divert his lack of qualification, Corcoran fumed – about Day, CRT and other horrifyingly sounding acronyms. It was lean meat for the troll. And Corcoran laughed all the way to the bank. He received a million dollar deal to run a small university with 698 students. Elementary school principals supervise more students.
Corcoran and Co. later invited other political Husbeans to feed in the new valley of the University. They awarded the former Senate speaker a $500 legal contract, a $15,000 PR contract by a former governor’s spokesman, and $175,000 to the wife of the former Republican chairman of Florida.
With Chaubellang, politicians began to run. Former Nebraska Sen. Ben Sasse won a $10 million contract in a short-lived and disastrous tenure at UF, and the student newspaper found he was quickly blown away with $17 million in public funds, including $38,000 spent on a sushi bar.
Lt. Col. Janet Nunez took over the top position at Florida International University. Administration and Friendly Cable – Corporate lobbyists line up to lead FAMU.
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One university had to actually remove the requirement that the president had an advanced degree.
But then, over the past week, the scheme has been fully exposed in a way suitable for a cruinge.
Sheen was smoking at a Governor’s Conference in Orlando when Governor Ron DeSantis’s appointees were once again suspected of a bad diversity and inclusion. Their reason for this time was to try and reject President UF by former University of Michigan President Santa J. Ono. For some reason, the qualified candidates actually made progress through the secret application process, but that is not acceptable.
Thus, political appointees denounced Ono’s horrors of all sorts, including accepting equality and believing in science. Former House Speaker Paul Renner led a counter-war war.
However, it seems that after that, it has been heard that there has been a clear enough attitude.
Eric Shirazy, former CEO of Florida Power and Light, asked if his fellow board members (who save Ono because they woke up too much) had applied for the job Ono was looking for.
Yes, Chairman Mori Hosseini replied. “Paul Renner.”
It turns out that Florida wanted a warrior who would face a breach of the $3 million job that year, it was spitting his salivation in the post.
Renner was visibly furious when exposed. He insulted that he only asked about the job, as others suggested he would do so and decided not to accept a well-paid job even if it was offered to him. Certainly the speaker. Your nobles are attracting attention.
In most cases, qualified candidates like Ono don’t even get a shot. But sometimes, the well-intentioned leaders of individual schools try to give one when the trustees of Florida Atlantic University appointed Admiral Shawnback, the U.S. Naval Academy president, to president of the FAU.
But Buck didn’t maintain his chances in this environment. Desantis Allies saved the reputation of the respected admiral, allowing yet another GOP MP, Randy Fine, to shoot at work.
Desantis admitted that he normally endorsed in a moment of incredible candidity because he disliked the other GOP lawmakers well and wanted him to go away. “They wanted him to get out of Congress,” DeSantis said. “So they asked me to stand him for the Atlantic President of Florida, and I did.”
That’s how these people deal with these positions.
The fine and DeSantis later fell, and the fines did not get a gig. However, the rules of the game were clear. Qualified applicants do not need to apply.
Ironically, former politicians can actually become an impressive university leader. John Thrasher, a former GOP house speaker at Florida State University, was one of them. I respected him. So did many others.
But Thrasher, who sadly passed away last week, was a different kind of man from today’s Florida politicians. He was a politician – not simply someone willing to save others’ reputations in order to enrich himself.
©2025 Orlando Sentinel.