GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Nebraska Sen. Ben Sasse faced pointed questions and loud protests Monday during his first visit to the University of Florida as the sole finalist for the school’s presidency.
Sasse, a Republican in his second term in the Senate, has drawn criticism from some at the Gainesville, Fla., school for his stance on same-sex marriage and other LBGTQ issues. Others question his qualifications to lead such a sprawling school of more than 50,000 students.
Separate meetings on Monday were with students, teachers and employees of the university campus. During these sessions, Gainesville Sun a crowd of about 1,000 was reported to have gathered, shouting “Hey, hey, ho, ho, Ben Sass has to go” and disrupting at least one of the meetings.
“Sasse doesn’t really believe in equality based on sexual orientation,” said Nathan Norst, a senior at the university. “So how can he adequately represent the student body and faculty and UF’s core values of diversity, equity and inclusion?”
Sasse, 50, was previously president of Midland University in Fremont, Neb., which has just over 1,600 students. At a meeting Monday, when asked if he opposed same-sex marriage, he said it was a national law based on a U.S. Supreme Court ruling and that its goal was to create a “place of respect and inclusion for all alligators.” mentioning the Southeastern Conference school’s athletic mascot.
“I have had policy positions and policy positions that represent the views of the people of Nebraska. It’s a completely different job to be president of UF,” Sasse said, according to the Sun. “The job of the UF president is to celebrate everything that’s going on in this community and to be a storyteller, a resource finder and a marketer.”
Sasse also said he believes in human causes of climate change, but doesn’t always support federal efforts to combat it.
Among the organizations that organized Monday’s protest were the UF College Democrats, Young Democratic Socialists and Graduate Assistants United, the newspaper reported.
Some students were concerned about the secretive selection process used to select Sasse. Florida’s new law allows universities to conduct much of the process outside of the state’s open meetings and public records laws.
R. J. Della Salle, a freshman at UF, said the closed system “makes me feel like my voice doesn’t matter.”
Sasse, who has also been a rare GOP critic of former President Donald Trump, said the students had every right to protest.
“Of course I wish they didn’t have the position they have, but I strongly support people’s right to protest and exercise their rights to free speech,” he said.
Sasse, who resigned from the Senate to take the position, was recommended by the search committee for the school president. It still awaits a vote by the school’s board of trustees and must then be confirmed by the state board of governors.