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VOLUME 117 ISSUE 11
MONDAY, OCTOBER 31, 2022
Not officially associated with the University of Florida
Published by Campus Communications, Inc. of Gainesville, Florida
Mistreatment persisted under Sasse for years at Midland, his former faculty say Some say Midland presidential search was predetermined By Christian Casale Alligator Staff Writer
An untransparent search process, elimination of tenure and pressure to take a retirement buyout — Ben Sasse’s presidency didn’t please everyone at Midland University. One policy under Sasse’s administration stands out to two professors: a loyalty oath faculty were allegedly forced to sign. This oath promised faculty they wouldn’t speak negatively of the university or of Sasse. Now, these two individuals, who were Midland faculty members at the time of Sasse’s presidency, spoke to The Alligator under the condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation. They said the oath, along with a long line of other policies, define what some who were at Midland called a toxic workplace under Sasse. One professor shared their notes from the time with The Alligator, which detail faculty needing to sign the oath by Oct. 12, 2012 — around two years after Sasse became Midland president. The professor referred to it as “the blood oath” faculty had to sign in order to keep working at Midland. Looking back at Sasse’s presidency, some at Midland felt the bottom line was profit —
not faculty well-being. Midland faculty recall periods of buyouts and a shake-up of leadership as Sasse cleared out long-time professors. His later run for office also didn’t come as a surprise to some. In the five years before Sasse arrived, freshmen enrollment at Midland dropped by nearly 60%. In February 2010, the school was worried it wouldn’t make payroll, according to reporting by The Omaha World-Herald. Midland had gone through a series of interim presidents since 2007, when president Steve Titus resigned in the face of a faculty vote of no confidence. Sasse was initially contacted by the Midland Board of Trustees as an informal advisor while the college was in dire straits, according to reporting by the Fremont Tribune. Conversations began to soon revolve around Sasse taking a larger role, and he was soon selected to become the president. "It really was an accelerated process," Board of Trustees President Steve Bullock told the Tribune. "Since the early part of the fall we moved very quickly." Alcyone Scott, who at the time was an English professor and the faculty chair, described
Sasse’s hiring process to Mother Jones in 2016 as predetermined. “[Bullock] called a meeting of the faculty and staff,” Scott said. “The option was the college would close, or we would go along with the plan of some of the city fathers to hire this guy who actually grew up in Fremont to come in and turn the college around.” Bill Staley, the chair of sociology at the time, said from his perspective, it wasn’t a search. “We didn't go through a system of elimination and interviews and all that type of stuff,” Staley told The Alligator. “We were basically asked to waive all the protocol and all the procedures and just go with it.” Faculty was essentially given two options: the end of Midland or taking a chance on Sasse, Scott said. Sasse’s path to power at Midland and UF were similar. The search for the new president before Sasse came down to three final candidates. Midland University communications didn’t respond to multiple phone calls and emails. UF was also unable to comment in time for publication. In May when Sasse arrived, he gathered
Fuchs leaves behind legacy marked by controversy, rankings ascension 8-YEAR TENURE FEATURED FAIR SHARE OF CHALLENGES
Fuchs has full confidence in Sasse Sasse must address LGBTQ community, Fuchs said Alligator Staff Writer
Alligator Staff Writer
SEE FUCHS, PAGE 6
SEE MIDLAND, PAGE 5
By Siena Duncan
By Alissa Gary As his eight-year tenure comes to an end, UF President Kent Fuchs is leaving behind a complicated legacy. In a sit-down interview with The Alligator, Fuchs shared his thoughts on how extensive he wished COVID-19 regulations at UF could have been, the scariest moment of his presidency and his personal disagreement with officials about perceived indoctrination on campus. At Fuchs’ inauguration ceremony in 2015, he said creating a more diverse student body and making UF academics nationally recognized were among his presidential goals. From handling COVID-19 on campus to achieving top-five public university status, Fuchs’ years at UF were eventful. “I’ll miss the job,” Fuchs said. “But it’s also fun to be around this university and to be able to engage with all of it.” Fuchs, 67, announced in January he’d step down from the presidency at the end of the Fall semester, and the university launched a search for his successor. Fuchs’ decision to step down came in summer 2019,
the school’s longest tenured faculty and announced that many of them would be offered an early-retirement buyout or asked to restructure their contracts, as reported by the Omaha World-Herald. The only way Midland could get rid of long established professors like Staley or his friend Scott was a buyout, Staley said, because they had tenure. Once tenured faculty were gone, they were replaced with non-tenured, adjunct faculty. Staley thought at least part of the reason Sasse put some pressure on senior faculty to go was because of his ambition to abolish tenure, he said. Staley was recovering from a heart surgery at the time and ready for retirement, so he took a buyout in 2011 but only on a few conditions after he saw the initial contract. “I said, ‘Whoever wrote this was a pretty shady lawyer,’” Staley said. “‘You want me to sign this? If you want me to sign an agreement, let’s rewrite this thing. This is pathetic, and you’ve been giving this to other faculty?’” Staley, a former county judge, said the language in the initial contact was unprofessional. He met with Sasse personally in Omaha and the two rewrote the buyout agreement over lunch. Joanne Bracker coached Midland Univer-
Ashleigh Lucas // Alligator Staff
President Fuchs talks about his legacy at UF after he will step down at the end of this year Friday, Oct. 28, 2022.
UF President Kent Fuchs found sole presidential nominee Sen. Ben Sasse’s search more effective than his own. While there are three weeks between Sasse’s announcement and the Board of Trustees’ vote on him, there were only about three days between Fuchs’, he said. The extra time allowed the presidential search committee to do more research and more thoroughly understand Sasse before his confirmation. “This search committee had what my search committee didn’t have,” Fuchs said. “That is, opportunity to talk to references, to grill, to ask tough questions as a group.” Ideally, Fuchs said the search process should be completely confidential: The president would
SPORTS/SPECIAL/CUTOUT
Check in on candidate finances before Nov. 8
Bulldogs overpower Gators in River Story description finish with comma, pg# City
The Alligator compared competing local candidates’ contributions and spending, pg. 4
Top-ranked Georgia prevailed despite Florida’s comeback attempt. Read more on pg. 11.
Domestic Violence Awareness Month prompts reflection
A victim weighs in on why educating the community is vital to see change, pg. 8
be selected behind the scenes and announced to the public without their input, mimicking the selection process at top-ranked public and private universities. An outside consultant said all top five public universities — University of California, Berkeley; University of California, Los Angeles; University of Michigan Ann Arbor and the University of Virginia — also named a sole finalist in their recent presidential searches, UF spokesperson Steve Orlando said. “People say, ‘Well we ended up with you, so it must be an OK process. And I say, ‘You could’ve gotten somebody much better,” Fuchs joked. The presidential search was largely kept under wraps due to a new state law passed in March — SB520 — allowing the process to stay private. In comparison,
SEE SASSE, PAGE 5
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