Ben Sasse

[mahagonny]

Ben Sasse did some questionable things as Midland's president, liking hiring an athletic director with no experience who was arrested for misconduct with student athletes https://theindependent.com/news/local/former-gicc-coach-arrested-for-soliciting-sex-from-midland-athletes/article_015ba6f4-e45d-11e2-a670-0019bb2963f4.html, investing heavily in athletics, eliminating tenure, and pushing fundraising while retention fell and graduation rates didn't improve (https://www.tampabay.com/news/education/2022/10/07/sen-ben-sasse-was-university-president-nebraska-how-will-he-be-uf/). I can't imagine any reason other that politics that someone would go from a tiny religious LAC to a huge R1.

I would be pretty furious with this hire if I worked at UF (and equally upset if a Dem with similarly limited qualifications was appointed).

Can anyone name a democrat who would eliminate academic tenure?

[Mobius]

Sasse seems to be a fan of stackable credentials.

[Hegemony]

The big one to keep an eye on going forward is the post-tenure review business. That is currently being hashed out between the unions/admins/government officials. It's the rare case where the union and the admins are both on the same side.

What are they advocating?

[jimbogumbo]

Didn't know this. From a Jennifer Rubin op ed in WaPo on Sasse:

He's also done an about-face on academic tenure, which he eliminated while serving as president of Midland University in Nebraska before running for Senate. The Gainesville Sun reports, "Questioned about his criticism of tenure while at Midland, Sasse [said] that the school and a major research university such as UF are 'obviously hugely different institutions.'"

[Hibush]

Sasse seems to be a fan of stackable credentials.

Could they be interchangable among Florida universities?

[Mobius]

Here's an article from a month ago. I agree with him regarding loss of community. I don't see how his model works without significant einvestment. You still need dorms and cafeterias in his model of intensive short-term on-campus modules.

https://www.deseret.com/2022/9/8/23319117/nebraska-republican-ben-sasse-vision-for-higher-education?_amp=true

[AJ_Katz]

This is going to be interesting.

Yep.

[mythbuster]

No confidence vote in the presidential search process at UF.

https://www.news4jax.com/news/local/2022/10/27/uf-presidential-search-process-draws-no-confidence-vote/