University of Florida president Ben Sasse abruptly resigns, citing wife’s health

University of Florida’s president, Ben Sasse, unexpectedly announced his resignation late Thursday after just 17 months at the helm of the state’s flagship university, citing his wife’s health issues and a need to spend more time with his family.

In a short statement emailed across campus, Sasse — the former Republican U.S. senator for Nebraska — said he would leave his job on July 31, less than two weeks away. The surprise announcement comes during a period of a fraught relationship between Sasse and the longtime chairman of UF’s board of trustees, developer Mori Hosseini, chairman of Daytona Beach-based ICI Homes Inc.

Sasse, 52, attributed his decision to a recent epilepsy diagnosis and new memory issues facing his wife, Melissa, who suffered an aneurysm and series of strokes in 2007. He said he also wanted to spend more time with his children, including his college-age daughters and 13-year-old son.

Sasse said he asked Hosseini earlier Thursday “after extensive prayer and lots of family tears” to search for his replacement. He called UF “the best dang public university in America.” Sasse’s employment contract — including a base salary of $1 million plus a performance bonus of up to $150,000 each year — guaranteed him the job through at least February 2028.

The same contract required six months’ notice for Sasse to resign unless Hosseini waived that provision.

“Gator Nation needs a president who can keep charging hard,” Sasse said in a statement. “Melissa deserves a husband who can pull his weight, and my kids need a dad who can be home many more nights. I need to step back and rebuild more stable household systems for a time.”

In a four-sentence statement, Hosseini thanked Sasse and wished him well. “Under his leadership, UF has continued to advance on the national and international stage, benefiting our students, faculty, alumni, community and state,” the statement said. “He has left a lasting impact on the university and all of those associated with it.”

Sasse said his family would remain in Gainesville, and he will serve as president emeritus and teach classes as a professor at the university. As president, Sasse and his family have been living in a gated, multi-million-dollar mansion on campus next to the law school.

Sasse was the only finalist to replace the school’s previous president, Kent Fuchs, and become its 13th president. Sasse was president of a small private university for five years in Nebraska and holds a doctoral degree in history from Yale.

Fuchs, who remained at UF as president emeritus and taught classes, could be tapped as interim president.

The news of Sasse’s resignation was first reported by Florida Politics.

Sasse’s political positions – including his opposition to abortion rights and same-sex marriages – were deeply troubling to some students and faculty on the campus in one of Florida’s most progressive cities.

Former President Donald Trump — who coincidentally was accepting his party’s nomination as the GOP presidential candidate later Thursday night just after Sasse’s announcement — is no fan of Sasse, once calling him a “grandstanding, little respected senator” following Sasse’s vote to convict Trump in his second impeachment trial.

Sasse drew national attention to the university over its aggressive handling of pro-Palestinian protests on campus earlier this year. Campus police arrested nine protesters in April, including six current UF students who were suspended for years, banned from campus and now are fighting state criminal charges. In a statement, UF said it was “not a daycare,” and Sasse defended the actions on conservative cable news programs.

In the year since Sasse took over, the university fell one position to No. 6 among public universities in the annual, national rankings published by U.S. News & World Report, even as it climbed one spot to No. 28 in the magazine’s rankings of top public and private universities overall. Separately, in September, the Wall Street Journal named UF the No. 1 public university in the country.

Florida selected Sasse as the sole finalist for the job under a new state law passed by the Republican-led Legislature and signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis that allowed the process — and the upcoming search for Sasse’s successor — to take place in secrecy.
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This story was produced by Fresh Take Florida, a news service of the University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications. The reporter can be reached at vivienneserret@ufl.edu. You can donate to support our students here.
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This article appears in Jul 18-24, 2024.