DeSantis involved in University of Florida canceling dean search

UF unexpectedly canceled it's search for a new dean for the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences on Friday, as first reported by The Chronicle of Higher Education^[1]. The search was nearly complete with all interviews conducted and feedback on candidates provided. UF President Kent Fuch's sent a memo stating that this was to allow the next president of the university to be involved in the search^[2]. However, a spokesman for the governor's office confirmed to The Chronicle and posted to x.com that the governor's office was involved ^[3]. The post on x.com was in response to a post by user CommiesOnCampus stating that the four finalists were "ALL radical DEI progressives"^[4] based on a series of videos from the public component of the interview process for each dean candidate.

The candidate quotes included in the main CommiesOnCampus video are:

So there's a lot things that we can continue to do within these challenges that are in front of us in terms of what's being banned; what we're not allowed to do.

I find some things that have come out of Tallahasse troubling. [cut in video] The college leadership needs to be cognizant of that in its action and communication. [cut in video] I am first and foremost a faculty member at this university and I understand the anxiety that a lot of this causes and I feel it to.

It's definitely a difficult time and I'm sorry that our country is in the state where this is happening.

There are people in charge of things in our country that don't have any business being in charge of those things.

Now you can never stay completely out of the controversial topics, because every educational institution, part of our purpose, is to talk about difficult things.

The individual videos for the four candidates reflect similar comments^[5].