Nobody said it was unprecedented. Its been done many times in the past, often with poor results which has been pointed out by others. Fsu with Thrasher and Baylor chosing Ken Starr who was a huge failure come to mind. .
David Boren was a three term Senator from Oklahoma who resigned from the Senate in his third term to take over as President of the University of Oklahoma. All of my OU friends think he did a great job.
OU is not UF. This student body will not abide someone anti-gay marriage or against a woman's right to choose. And I agree with them.
Do you think the student body who you assume won’t like him will leave UF? Do students really care that much about who the President of the university is?
No, they’ll briefly complain and then not care in a week. Similar to how, while Machen’s endorsement of McCain was (I guess) somewhat controversial, it was his anti-drinking campaign that any students actually cared about for any length of time.
Instead of sensitivity, I would suggest it’s a matter of values. These people may value the liberal cause more than they value the University of Florida. Such political boycotts seem commonplace on both sides at this point. I personally find it regrettable that politics has become so central a value for so many. While I think being a liberal or a conservative is a fine thing, I do not think either represents a moral virtue. As for DeSantis, indeed it is proper for him to guide the use public of public resources but not for any reason he chooses. It isn’t proper to use public funds to build himself a mansion or to give favors to other people that built him a mansion. Similarly, it isn’t proper to use the powers of the state to punish a private entity due to their political speech. That’s basically the core of the first amendment. Would DeSantis have punished DeSantis for gushing about his law? Of course not, and yet that would have been every much as engaging in the “culture war”.
i agree with the way kids attention spans are, but if UF starts becoming known as the school that conservative politicians are using for their “anti-woke” political agendas, I fear it may have an effect on faculty and students. Anecdotal, but was briefly taking with a PHD student last night when at the bar at the Top, and first thing she mentioned was this hire, and how there was a huge negative buzz on campus about it, and how they were already preparing questions for his open forum. Sasse isn’t your average president whose politics are more private. Students and faculty knowing his stance on choice, lgbt, climate science, etc is going to make it harder to just move past.
The buzz will fade, but he'll need to recognize that he's under the microscope. Stakeholders won't give him any benefit of the doubt if he starts doing things that appear political. If he avoids conflicts on those subjects, his background will be less of an issue.