New Story The Alligator: Sasse not so clean a president

[PragmaticGator]

Typically, I don’t like even discussing politics as it brings out the irrational in everyone. That said, I figured this article exposing some of what occurred while under Sasse to be both eye-opening and Gator-related. Give it a read. But please keep things…civil.

Really bad look on the school however you lean.

Sasse’s spending spree: Former UF president channeled millions to GOP allies, secretive contracts - The Independent Florida Alligator

In his 17-month stint as UF president, Ben Sasse more than tripled his office’s spending, directing millions in university funds into secretive consulting contracts and high-paying positions for his GOP allies.

www.alligator.org

 

[Gator5000e]

Holy sh*t!....totally ripped off UF if any of this is true. But he liked football.

 

[Gators2924]

Typically, I don’t like even discussing politics as it brings out the irrational in everyone. That said, I figured this article exposing some of what occurred while under Sasse to be both eye-opening and Gator-related. Give it a read. But please keep things…civil.

Really bad look on the school however you lean.

Sasse’s spending spree: Former UF president channeled millions to GOP allies, secretive contracts - The Independent Florida Alligator

In his 17-month stint as UF president, Ben Sasse more than tripled his office’s spending, directing millions in university funds into secretive consulting contracts and high-paying positions for his GOP allies.

www.alligator.org

To me this is just a poorly written article that desperately tries to tie politics into increased spending for people Sasse was familiar with. It is also clear the lack of knowledge at how many schools hire McKinsey for consulting and pay a lot more. Maybe you can claim he was spending to much on travel, but I would also imagine that was an incentive to get him here in the first place. Just like you do with coaches.

UF was making some great moves and investing a lot into the University under Sasse. Hope we find someone as intelligent and forward thinking to replace him.

 

[armbar73]

A few thoughts:

I don’t think it is unusual for very successful people to bring people who have worked for them to a new job. I see zero issue in surrounding yourself with people you know and trust. The question to me is where they paid the market rate for the respective jobs? I don’t know the answer and the author only stated what the previous person made, not the current cost to replace. Often, those are two different numbers.

He lost me pretty early when he stated to price of the home someone owns. He also has zero context into how that person purchased the home. How many have they owned and sold at a profit? In the right market, it could be a significant sum. The statement was done purely to generate an emotional response that the employee is well off or rich - neither of which should have anything to do with your employment value. Your value is your value.

It immediately caused me to look at everything in the remainder of the article with skepticism. Maybe it’s true and there was overspending? Maybe it was true and necessary spending? I’m not sure either way, but I’ll wait for an additional source before making up my mind.

 

[FresnoGator]

I think it's unfortunate that the article came across like a hit job. Maybe there is some validity to it, but it's hard to know contextually when you present one side so heavily. I have a strong preference for balanced reporting. For instance, why not include how much he saved the university by getting rid of all of the DEI personnel and initiatives, as an example?

I will wait to see what response comes to this and decide what's up when more information is out ...

 

[PragmaticGator]

It would be interesting to get a university admin position (doesn’t have to be UF) to comment their opinions on this. I understand that some guys bring in guys they know they can work with, but I don’t necessarily like seeing a lot of high six figure salaries being directed to former co-workers if you will and they aren’t even in the same regional area as UF. I get there are a lot of worthless admin positions present at baseline, but that simply gives me the ‘money funneling to friends for nothing’ feeling right off the get-go.

 

[AlphaGator1906]

Just finished the article and this is actually embarrassing for the University.

 

[GainesvilleGreen]

DEI hire?

 

[GatorTheo]

Wasn't the Alligator vehemently against Sasse when he was hired?

 

[E3PO]

UF was making some great moves and investing a lot into the University under Sasse. Hope we find someone as intelligent and forward thinking to replace him.

What were some of these "great moves" specifically?

 

[Gators2924]

What were some of these "great moves" specifically?

Well the NASA and NSA partnerships were finalized under him. He was working on expanding UF’s public policy and speaking programs that he was personally leading from my understanding. No clue if those are still going forward or not.

 

[Gators2924]

What were some of these "great moves" specifically?

Also I personally like the Hamilton center idea that he led, but I imagine that is probably my political leanings showing some.

 

[GatorMark89]

Wasn't the Alligator vehemently against Sasse when he was hired?

I don’t the answer to that, but it doesn’t mean anything in the article is not factual. If they were against it, apparently they were wise in their opinion.

 

[Steveerino]

Holy sh*t!....totally ripped off UF if any of this is true. But he liked football.

What did he do for football?

 

[Steveerino]

Wasn't the Alligator vehemently against Sasse when he was hired?

So what? I wasn''t sure about his hire but wasn't vehement one way or the other. His experience in higher education sure wasn't worthy of being president of a noted university. Anyway you cut it this thing has a stink about it. A lot of folks were only gung ho about him because he "liked" football. Now maybe the University might be to get a person can actually run the university and like football.

 

[Gator Fever]

Typically, I don’t like even discussing politics as it brings out the irrational in everyone. That said, I figured this article exposing some of what occurred while under Sasse to be both eye-opening and Gator-related. Give it a read. But please keep things…civil.

Really bad look on the school however you lean.

Sasse’s spending spree: Former UF president channeled millions to GOP allies, secretive contracts - The Independent Florida Alligator

In his 17-month stint as UF president, Ben Sasse more than tripled his office’s spending, directing millions in university funds into secretive consulting contracts and high-paying positions for his GOP allies.

www.alligator.org

It looks bad. I never really cared for him before he came to UF because of his smug arrogance.

 

[Gator Fever]

I don’t the answer to that, but it doesn’t mean anything in the article is not factual. If they were against it, apparently they were wise in their opinion.

They were likely to be against anyone on the right though so I am not sure if they had any real warning on him.

 

[DC407]