Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) accused the search firm that oversaw the failed nomination of former University of Michigan President Santa Ono to lead the University of Florida of not properly vetting and disclosing the candidate’s record. 

“Clearly the search firm didn’t disclose everything to anybody,” Scott told Jewish Insider on Wednesday of SP&A Executive Search, the firm behind the search for UF’s new president. “It sure seems to me, just talking to people on the search committee, they didn’t know all this before their votes. That’s wrong. That’s on the search firm, they didn’t do their job. It appears to me that that’s what happened.”

The vote by Florida’s Board of Governors, which oversees the state’s public universities, to approve Ono’s nomination failed 10-6 on Tuesday, the first time that the Board of Governors has ever voted down a university trustee board’s leadership selection. 

SP&A Executive Search did not respond to a request for comment. The firm also picked former University of Florida President Ben Sasse. 

The Florida senator said he had been “shocked” that Ono was nominated given what Scott described as a failure to deal with “antisemitic and pro-Hamas” activity on Michigan’s campus during Ono’s tenure and his positions on a Supreme Court ruling relating to diversity on campus.

“It just didn’t fit to what I’ve tried my best to do, to make Florida a great example of where people have the opportunity to go get a great education, where it doesn’t matter the color of your skin, and also where people can go learn in a safe environment,” Scott said.

The University of Michigan experienced some of the most disruptive anti-Israel and antisemitic activity on campus in the wake of the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attacks. Ono faced criticism for allowing an anti-Israel encampment to remain in place for over a month last year and admitted he should have engaged with campus Jewish organizations earlier on during protests. 

During the 2024-2025 academic year, Ono took a harder stance against anti-Israel activity on campus and became more vocal in support of Israel — leading to pro-Palestinian vandals attacking his home on the one-year anniversary of the Oct. 7 attacks. Ono wrote in an Inside Higher Ed op-ed last month that the “gold standard” Sasse set in combating antisemitism at UF would “not change under my leadership.”

Scott praised the members of the board for digging into Ono’s background and ultimately rejecting him.

“I’m glad that the Board of Governors made the decision to not confirm him, and I hope, when they do the search they’re going to have to change,” Scott said. “But I’m really appreciative of everybody on the Board of Governors that took this seriously and did the research and voted against him.”

Scott said that he wants to see the next nominee to lead UF be someone more in line with Sasse, a former Senate colleague of Scott’s.

“I was appreciative of what Ben Sasse did and I want somebody like that,” Scott said. “We’ve got to get somebody that fits Florida.”

Sasse’s brief term as president was dogged by accusations of financial mismanagement and other issues and tensions with the Board of Trustees.