Published November 27, 2024
Earlier this month, the New York Times published a story critiquing Ben Sasse’s tenure as the University of Florida president and framing the school’s attempt to climb the U.S. News and World Report rankings as fraught with internal discord. The piece offers some interesting insights into the internal dynamics of the university, but it gets three key points wrong. First, the internal debate at Florida is healthy, natural, and productive as the school tries to secure a relatively unique role in academia. Second, doubting that the primary reason behind Sasse’s resignation was his wife’s declining health should require more substantive evidence. Third, even taken on its own terms, the piece examines too narrow a timeframe. While the Times describes recent minor drops in Florida’s rankings as “embarrassing,” a broader perspective reveals significant progress over the past decade.
Concerning Sasse, it is clear that he and other administrators did not always see eye-to-eye. Sasse did not share the fixation with rankings that had been part of the school’s strategy since 2017. As Sasse reportedly argued, the methodology can change (and last year, it did, perhaps explaining Florida’s drop). Sasse also certainly took an unconventional approach to his job, bringing in some of the staff from his Senate office who had little experience in higher education, but given the state of higher education today, perhaps a shake-up is just what’s needed.
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