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Ben Sasse, pictured here during his time in the U.S. Senate, stepped down suddenly last month. Recent reports have raised questions about his spending and unexpected resignation.
Win McNamee/Getty Images
When Ben Sasse was named president of the University of Florida in late 2022, his hire prompted a mix of fanfare and protests. Less than two years later, his abrupt departure last month has raised a string of questions about his spending and the circumstances of his sudden exit.
The former Republican U.S. senator from Nebraska officially cited family health issues as the reason for his resignation, noting his wife’s battle with epilepsy. But a pair of recent stories from The Independent Florida Alligator, UF’s student newspaper, highlighted Sasse’s multimillion-dollar spending spree and suggested that he did not step down voluntarily but was pushed out by the Board of Trustees, an allegation long-standing chair Mori Hosseini has denied.
Now questions abound in the wake of what fellow Florida Republican Matt Gaetz called the “widening Ben Sasse scandal.” State officials are calling for an investigation into his spending. And though he is no longer president, Sasse is in a position to earn millions if he sticks around UF in a tenured faculty role, according to an analysis of his contract.
Sasse’s Spending Spree
In his first year, Sasse spent $17.3 million to hire big-name consulting firms and offer lucrative jobs to former congressional staffers, the Alligator reported.
He tapped McKinsey & Company, where he once worked as an adviser, awarding the consulting firm a $4.7 million contract without publicly explaining its scope. Sasse also dramatically expanded the size of his office, the Alligator found, with the staff ballooning from fewer than 10 under former president Kent Fuchs—who is now back in the job as an interim—to more than 30. Sasse hired several employees who worked with him in the Senate as well as GOP political figures such as former Tennessee commissioner of education Penny Schwinn.
In the immediate aftermath of the story on Sasse’s spending, state officials expressed alarm.
“Reports of @UF’s exorbitant spending by Ben Sasse’s office are concerning,” Jimmy Patronis, Florida’s chief financial officer, wrote online. “As my agency can investigate fraud, waste and abuse, @FLDFS will reach out to [the Florida Board of Governors] to offer auditing support. BOG should investigate this issue to ensure tuition and tax dollars are being properly used.”
Patronis wasn’t the only state Republican to raise concerns. Governor Ron DeSantis soon followed suit; his office has directed the Florida Board of Governors, which oversees the 12 institutions of the State University System, to examine Sasse’s spending in light of recent reporting.
“We take the stewardship of state funds very seriously and have already been in discussions with leadership at the university and with the Board of Governors to look into the matter,” Bryan Griffin, DeSantis’s communications director, wrote in a statement to Inside Higher Ed.
The State University System of Florida seemed to downplay the notion of a new investigation, indicating that UF was already participating in a scheduled audit.
“The State of Florida Auditor General’s office is conducting a regularly scheduled audit at the University of Florida,” spokesperson Cassandra Edwards told Inside Higher Ed by email. “The State Auditor General’s office notified UF’s Chief Audit Executive that the scope of the audit will encompass Office of the President expenditures. The Florida Board of Governors will await the final report.”
Donors have also expressed outrage about Sasse’s fiscal profligacy.
John Morgan, a Florida attorney and UF alumnus and donor, wrote on social media that he had recently donated $1 million to the university and planned a larger gift in the future. However, in the aftermath of the Alligator’s report, Morgan wrote that he “won’t give one penny more until an investigation is completed to tell us how this happened and most importantly … is it criminal?”
But both UF and Sasse have defended the expenditures.
In a statement to the Alligator, UF officials emphasized that Sasse’s spending went through the proper channels for approval. But the student reporter noted that they failed to answer numerous other questions.
The university did not respond to multiple requests for comment from Inside Higher Ed.
Sasse offered a 1,700-word explanation in an online post, writing that allegations of inappropriate spending are “not true.” He defended both the expenditures and his hiring of former staffers into university jobs where some doubled their salaries.
“Now, it is true that there was substantial funding for a number of important new initiatives,” he wrote, arguing that UF needed to invest in big ideas, including launching new campuses and K-12 charter schools, hiring top-tier faculty, expanding study abroad opportunities for students, creating a data analytics unit, and more.
His lengthy response did not dispute the Alligator’s reporting on his spending.
“With each new initiative comes new staff—and new investment expenditures,” Sasse wrote. “So did we hire some new staff? Yep. And did all of them move immediately to Gainesville full-time? Nope. And did some top-tier consulting firms compete to advise on important initiatives like those itemized above? Of course.”
He described his actions as similar to what “all arriving CEOs do.”
The former UF president added that he “also cut spending and consulting expenses in some areas,” but that “countervailing accounting realities aren’t sexy amid breathless social media.”
Sasse did not respond to an interview request from Inside Higher Ed.
An Abrupt Exit
Less than a week after the Alligator published the spending story, it dropped another bombshell: Sasse’s departure was not voluntary, the student publication reported; he had been forced out.
Sasse clashed with Hosseini—the powerful board chair who has held the top trustee seat since 2018—over the president’s direct communications with the governor’s office and other state officials and agencies, the newspaper reported. The two also espoused different philosophies on college rankings—Hosseini has said such efforts add value, while Sasse argued the scores are arbitrary—and battled over Sasse’s request for latitude in dealing with his wife’s health issues. The Alligator also alleged that Sasse did not engage donors, at times failing to return messages or take meetings.
A UF spokesperson disputed the allegation that Sasse’s exit was involuntary, telling the Alligator that claims of Sasse being pushed out by the board chair “are completely unfounded.”
Current and former UF trustees contacted by Inside Higher Ed did not respond to inquiries.
A Profitable Post-Presidency
When Sasse was hired at UF, academics James Finkelstein and Judith Wilde—who analyze presidential contracts as a research area—wrote that the then-senator had “hit the jackpot.”
Specifically, they highlighted his $1 million base salary with a maximum annual raise of 4 percent, plus potential performance bonuses of more than $200,000 a year and fringe benefits totaling $1.7 million. Sasse was also provided housing and housekeeping services, as well as tuition waivers for his children—fairly common in presidential contracts—his parents and any grandchildren.
“This was certainly one of the most lucrative contracts for a public university president,” said Finkelstein, professor emeritus of public policy at George Mason University.
But of particular interest to the researchers was Sasse’s post-presidency benefits.
While presidential contracts commonly include a tenure appointment, a sabbatical and a predetermined salary, those terms were absent from the deal Sasse signed. Instead, Sasse—who previously served as president of Midland University in Nebraska and lectured at the University of Texas at Austin—was guaranteed appointment in a full-time faculty role “in an appropriate rank and academic department with the specific arrangement for his initial post-presidency faculty appointment, assignment and salary being subject to approval by the Board Chair,” according to his contract.
That means Sasse’s specific role and salary at UF will be decided between him and Hosseini, which Finkelstein said is unusual and does not comport with best board governance practices because it precludes other trustees from having a say in Sasse’s position and compensation.
Already Sasse has been named a professor in UF’s Hamilton Center, a nascent institute created by Florida’s Republican-dominated state Legislature.
Sasse has also been named president emeritus at UF. But so far the university has not released details on whether he has been granted tenure or what his new salary may be.
“His contract is unusual in that none of those things are addressed,” Finkelstein said.
Now, even after his sudden exit and with a potential investigation pending, Sasse is in line to receive millions or even tens of millions of dollars over his lifetime if he stays at UF, depending on how his post-presidency is structured.
That calculus, said Finkelstein, likely means Sasse’s salary will be matched to the highest paid faculty member in the department where he lands, or it could be three-quarters of his presidential base salary. If Sasse were to receive a salary similar to that of top-paid professors and stay at UF over his expected life span, that would add up to between $14 million and $15 million, including fringe benefits and 3 percent compounded annual raises, according to Finkelstein’s calculation. If Sasse receives three-quarters of his presidential salary for life, as is common in some cases, UF’s obligation could be more than $45 million.
If Sasse has tenure, another possibility is for the university to buy out his tenure rights. And if UF does want to push out the former president for good, Finkelstein said that option makes sense.
Regardless of whether he stays or goes, Sasse is set to cash in while stepping down.
“Based on what I’ve seen over the years, he’s not going to leave with just a handshake and a gift basket. He’s going to leave with his pockets stuffed with money,” Finkelstein said.
