The UF Board of Trustees, who govern the state’s flagship university, put in place policies Thursday that bolster their authority over key decisions on top-level hiring decisions.
The new measures include strict rules that could allow Morteza “Mori” Hosseini, UF’s long-serving board chair and a close ally of Gov. Ron DeSantis, to tamp down on spending out of the president’s office.
The trustees’ move to tighten Hosseini’s grip on UF’s budget — which is funded by tuition, donors and taxpayer dollars — comes amid bipartisan scrutiny over alleged wasteful spending and nepotistic hiring practices under Ben Sasse, the university’s embattled ex-president.
Sasse, a former Republican U.S. Senator from Nebraska, directed millions of university funds toward contracts with boutique consulting firms and high-salaried positions for political allies, many of whom worked remotely, The Alligator first reported in August. Overall, Sasse tripled annual spending out of the president’s office compared to his predecessor and current interim president Kent Fuchs.
The report sparked an outcry from state lawmakers, who oversee UF’s state funding. The governor’s office subsequently called for an audit of Sasse’s office.
Under the policies unanimously approved by trustees Thursday, administrative appointments with a salary exceeding $200,000 now require Hosseini’s final approval. A separate provision said that the president needs Hosseini’s sign-off on all hires, regardless of salary. Both rules apply to appointments with “deviation[s]” from existing human resources guidelines.
Sasse, who had set out to overhaul the state’s flagship university, unexpectedly resigned from the presidency in July, citing his wife’s health and a need to spend time with family. He defended his use of university funds in August, writing in a lengthy statement that big spending was necessary for his “go bigger” approach.
Hiring trusted colleagues and consultants, he said, is something that “basically all arriving CEOs do.”
A university spokesperson didn’t answer a question on Thursday about whether reports of Sasse’s hiring habits informed the new policies. Hosseini, reached by email through the spokesperson, did not respond to a question about whether he had personally approved Sasse’s staff.
“The University always looks to improve governance standards and best practices in consultation with the General Counsel’s office,” the spokesperson wrote in a statement. “Under longstanding governance standards, members of the President’s cabinet are hired with the approval of the Chairman of the Board of Trustees."
Sasse’s leadership team at UF included a half dozen of his former Senate aides, all of whom received six-figure salaries far exceeding their Capitol Hill pay. The university has non-renewed most of the staffers, with the exception of James Wegmann, Sasse’s former Senate spokesperson who now serves as UF’s vice president of communications.
Another new measure allows Hosseini to vet consulting contracts that exceed $1 million. Under university procurement procedures in place during Sasse’s presidency, Hosseini was required to approve contracts that cost more than $2 million per year or totaled $10 million, but it is unclear whether those rules encompassed consulting services.
Sasse awarded $10.3 million in university-funded contracts to a “cadre of consultants” who helped craft his vision for UF — a figure more than 60 times higher than his predecessor’s combined spending on contractual services over eight years.
Sasse’s controversial $4.7 million contract with McKinsey & Company, a globally recognized firm known for its secrecy, made up more than half of his office’s total consulting expenses. Newly released records show that the university paid McKinsey for additional consulting, bringing the total cost of the firm’s services to $6.3 million.
According to an email obtained by The Alligator, Hosseini told UF’s general counsel that he was “good with” the McKinsey contract. He sent the email more than a week after the university signed its agreement with the firm.
Under Sasse, the university withheld or heavily redacted documents that could have shed light on McKinsey's work at UF, citing public records laws that protect trade secrets. Less than a month after Sasse stepped down, the university released a 520-page dossier of the firm’s reports, which outline trends across higher education. Among McKinsey’s findings: college students “have larger preparedness gaps and mental-health challenges than we’ve seen in decades” and the average tenure of a university president is “lower than ever before.”
The remaining $3.8 million of Sasse’s contractual expenses were paid to Huron Consulting Group, which has attracted criticisms from faculty and students at other universities, who say the firm is a harbinger of layoffs and department cuts. It is unclear whether Hosseini authorized the contract.
Kent Fuchs, who returned as interim president in August, has said that the university ended the contracts. Fuchs also scrapped some of Sasse’s key initiatives, including a plan to create K-12 charter schools across the state.
“He had a different vision that I'm sure required an investment,” Fuchs told The Alligator in August. “I just have a different style.”
Garrett Shanley is a fourth-year journalism major and the Spring 2025 university editor for The Alligator. Email him at gshanley@alligator.org and follow him on X @garrettshanley.
Garrett Shanley is a fourth-year journalism major and the Summer 2024 university editor for The Alligator. Outside of the newsroom, you can find him watching Wong Kar-Wai movies and talking to his house plants.
