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belated disambig? 1119

n his 17-month stint as UF president, Ben Sasse more than tripled his office’s spending, directing millions in university funds into secretive consulting contracts and high-paying positions for his GOP allies.

Sasse ballooned spending under the president’s office to $17.3 million in his first year in office — up from $5.6 million in former UF President Kent Fuchs’ last year, according to publicly available administrative budget data.

A majority of the spending surge was driven by lucrative contracts with big-name consulting firms and high-salaried, remote positions for Sasse’s former U.S. Senate staff and Republican officials.

Sasse’s consulting contracts have been kept largely under wraps, leaving the public in the dark about what the contracted firms did to earn their fees. The university also declined to clarify specific duties carried out by Sasse’s ex-Senate staff, several of whom were salaried as presidential advisers.

The university said Sasse’s budget expansion went through the “appropriate approval process” but did not answer questions about how Sasse bankrolled his splurges, where the funds originated or who authorized the spending.

Keeping friends close

Amid protests over his conservative track record as a Nebraska Republican senator, Sasse promised during his ascension to the UF presidency in Fall 2022 that he would divorce himself from partisan politics under what he called a vow of “political celibacy.”

But the senator-turned-university president quietly broke that promise in his 17-month term at the university’s helm, hiring six ex-Senate staffers and two former Republican officials to high-paying, remote jobs at the university.

Under Sasse’s administration, two of his former Senate staffers — Raymond Sass and James Wegmann — were among the highest-ranking and highest-paid officials at UF. Both worked remotely from the D.C. area, roughly 800 miles from UF’s main campus in Gainesville.

Sass, Sasse’s former Senate chief of staff, was UF’s vice president for innovation and partnerships — a position which didn’t exist under previous administrations. His starting salary at UF was $396,000, more than double the $181,677 he made on Capitol Hill.

Wegmann, Sasse’s former Senate communications director, is UF’s vice president of communications, a position he works remotely from his $725,000 home in Washington, D.C.

Salaried at $432,000, Wegmann replaced Steve Orlando, who made $270,000 a year in the position and had nearly 30 years of experience in media relations at UF before he was demoted to be Wegmann’s deputy.

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The Alligator first reported on Wegmann and Sass’ appointments last October, but an additional four who followed Sasse from the Senate to the Swamp have gone unnoticed by the press.

Sasse appointed his former Senate press secretary, Taylor Sliva, as UF’s Assistant Vice President of Presidential Communications and Public Affairs, a new position. Sliva’s $232,000 salary made him the second-highest-paid employee in UF’s Office of Strategic Communications and Marketing, trailing only Wegmann.

The remaining three ex-Senate staffers — Raven Shirley, Kari Ridder and Kelicia Rice — served as presidential advisers to Sasse, though their specific duties remain unclear. Rice, Sasse’s Senate scheduler, is listed as a presidential adviser in UF’s salary directory but in practice remained as Sasse’s scheduler, according to her LinkedIn profile.

Sasse raised his former Senate staffs’ salaries at UF by an average of 44% compared to their Capitol Hill pay, contributing to a $4.3 million increase in presidential salary expenses over Fuchs’ last year in office.

Outside of his Senate staff, Sasse also tapped former Republican Tennessee Commissioner of Education Penny Schwinn as UF’s inaugural vice president of PK-12 and pre-bachelors programs. Schwinn, with a starting salary of $367,500, worked the newly-created position from her $1 million home in Nashville, Tennessee.

Additionally, Sasse hired Alice James Burns, former scheduler for Sen. Lindsay Graham (R-SC), as Director of Presidential Relations and Major Events. Burns, salaried at $205,000, also worked for UF outside of Florida.

Citing his wife’s recent epilepsy diagnosis, Sasse abruptly resigned from his post in July — leaving the future of his UF inner circle unclear. The university did not respond to questions about whether his political appointees were fired, non-renewed or resigned following his departure.

Fuchs, who began as interim president Aug. 1, kept a relatively small staff of less than 10, compared to Sasse who employed more than 30 in his office.

Jet-setting on UF’s dime

All but one of Sasse’s political appointees worked for UF outside of Florida and commuted to Gainesville on the university’s dollar when needed — a move reflected in his office’s travel expenses.

In Sasse’s first full fiscal year at the university’s helm, travel expenses for the president’s office soared to $633,000 — over 20 times higher than Fuchs’ annual average of $28,000. Sasse spent more on travel in his 17 months at UF than Fuchs’ entire eight-year tenure.

It is not unprecedented for UF employees to work outside of Florida, but out-of-state positions have typically been reserved for those representing the university as federal lobbyists in its Washington, D.C. office. It is virtually unprecedented for top UF officials and rank-and-file administrators to work outside of Florida.

The university hasn’t responded to requests for a complete log of Sasse’s travel expenses, leaving it unclear how much of his sky-high travel expenditures were spent shuttling his remote hires to campus. A partial report shows Sasse spent over $20,000 between April 29 and July 29 to fly his employees to campus.

Taylor Sliva, Sasse’s press secretary, was the only one of Sasse’s political hires to work in Florida. His employment contract, obtained from a public records request, included a $15,000 relocation stipend. He currently rents out a house in Gainesville.

McKinsey comes to the Swamp

When Sasse took over UF in February 2023, he knew he’d need a hand.

His track record in higher education administration was limited to his five-year presidency at Midland University, a small, private liberal arts college in Fremont, Nebraska. At UF, which enrolls over 60,000 students and pulls in an annual $1 billion in research grants, Sasse faced a steep learning curve.

He turned to consultants for help.

During his presidency, Sasse spent $7.2 million in university funds to consultants for advice on his strategic planning and to fill leadership gaps — over 40 times more than Fuchs’ total consulting expenses over his eight-year term.

Sasse paid nearly two-thirds of the $7.2 million to McKinsey & Company, where he once worked as an adviser on an hourly contract. The firm carries prestige as one of the “big three” management consulting giants, but is notoriously secretive about its dealings and shielded its work from public view using records laws protecting trade secrets.

A critical “scope of work” attachment, which would outline McKinsey's responsibilities to UF, was redacted from a copy of the contract obtained from a public records request. The redaction, permissible under state public records laws, makes it virtually impossible for the public to know what the firm did to earn its fees.

A UF spokesperson said McKinsey was using data analysis to help Sasse build his strategic plan, but the university hasn’t disclosed further details about its $4.7 million contract with the firm since The Alligator first reported its existencelast August. Public records requests for any reports, presentations and data produced under the contract have yielded no responsive documents.

Sasse offered the only public glimpse of McKinsey’s work at UF last fall during “roadshows” of his strategic plan. Accompanied by slides displaying “sobriety data” provided by McKinsey, Sasse argued some faculty weren’t pulling their weight and had “quiet retired.”

One slide showed only 10% of research faculty drove 39% of research awards on campus. Another showed in one unidentified 47-person department, only 13 were engaged in research.

In two roadshows that were open to the press, Sasse skipped over a slide that sparked controversy after the Alligator reported on anonymous faculty accounts of previous presentations. The slide suggested reducing UF's total number of departments from 200 to an ideal number of 140.

Beyond the $4.7 million contract, Sasse payrolled three former McKinsey consultants as full-time employees in his office, with salaries ranging from $150,000 to $200,000, according to university records.

It remains unknown who Sasse paid the remaining $2.5 million in consulting expenses to. Public records requests for the president’s consulting contracts were not fulfilled in time for publication.

McKinsey’s contract allowed for UF to pay additional fees for consulting services until February 2025. The university has gone months without responding to public records requests for invoices related to the contract.

*This is a developing story. Check back for updates.

Contact Garrett Shanley at*gshanley@alligator.org**. Follow him on X @garrettshanley.

https://www.alternet.org/2019/11/don-jr-and-kimberly-guilfoyle-received-50000-for-university-of-florida-speaking-event-at-trump-campaign-officials-request-student-newspaper/

no lnx

Don Jr and Kimberly Guilfoyle received $50,000 for University of Florida speaking event at Trump campaign official’s request: Student newspaper

Written by Alex Henderson November 1, 2019

During an October 9, 2006 appearance on Larry King’s show on CNN — ten years before he was elected president of the United States — Donald Trump declared, “I like nepotism.” That is among the most honest things Trump has ever said; he likes nepotism a lot — so much that, according to the student newspaper at the University of Florida, his reelection campaign urged the student body to bring in his son, Donald Trump Jr., for a paid speech given on October 10.

Trump’s fondness for nepotism has been impossible to miss. His daughter, Ivanka Trump, and his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, are both senior advisers in his administration — and Donald Trump Jr. is a prominent figure on his 2020 reelection campaign. And as affluent as Trump Jr. is, his father’s campaign was happy to help him earn thousands more, according to the University of Florida’s student newspaper, The Alligator.

Trump campaign official Caroline Wren, The Alligator reports, directly e-mailed the University of Florida’s student body president, Michael Murphy, in September and asked him to bring in Donald Trump Jr. to speak along with GOP operative Kimberly Guilfoyle (who previously co-hosted “The Five” on Fox News), and Republican National Committee (RNC) official Tommy Hicks. Although Guilfoyle has been very involved in Republican politics, she was once married to a prominent Democrat: California Gov. Gavin Newsom.

@radleybalko

Student newspaper finds evidence that the Trump campaign arranged for Trump Jr. and Guilfoyle to speak on the UF campus. Which means that Trump Jr. got $50K in mandatory student dues to come campaign for his dad.

https://twitter.com/AdamWeinstein/status/1189746365745770497?s=20 …

Adam Weinstein

@AdamWeinstein

“Emails show a Donald Trump re-election campaign official personally asked UF Student Body President Michael Murphy in September to bring Donald Trump Jr. and Kimberly Guilfoyle to campus the following month.”

Get yourself an indy school paper like UF’s https://www.alligator.org/news/emails-released-between-student-body-president-and-donald-trump-campaign/article_7dad41f0-fb7a-11e9-9b4f-3795b8d7df23.html …

@AdamWeinstein

“Emails show a Donald Trump re-election campaign official personally asked UF Student Body President Michael Murphy in September to bring Donald Trump Jr. and Kimberly Guilfoyle to campus the following month.”

Emails released between Student Body President and Donald Trump campaign official

Donald Trump Jr. and Kimberly Guilfoyle spoke at UF on Oct. 10

alligator.org

Brad Po-sometimes-scum-BOO??

@brad_polumbo

I feel like Don Jr. isn't the best guy to make the case against nepotism... https://twitter.com/thehill/status/1189896064486252546 …

The Hill

@thehill

"I wish my name was Hunter Biden. I could go abroad, make millions off my father’s presidency. I’d be a really rich guy." http://hill.cm/gndFg4I

6:25 AM - Oct 31, 2019

Twitter Ads info and privacy

See Brad Po-sometimes-scum-BOO??'s other Tweets

The $50,000 payment for Trump Jr., Guilfoyle and Hicks (described by The Alligator as a “joint payment”) for the October 10 event was funded by student tuition.

In a September 10 e-mail, according to The Alligator, Wren told Murphy, “We met at my house on the 4th of July. I wanted to follow up with you regarding a speaking engagement at the University of Florida for Donald Trump Jr.” And on September 11, Murphy responded and said he would to “love to hop on a phone call” to discuss bringing Trump Jr., Guilfoyle and Hicks to the campus.

Wren told The Alligator that, in her e-mails to the University of Florida, she used a Trump campaign-related e-mail signature by accident and that she was communicating “via my private e-mail in my personal capacity and mistakenly forgot to remove my Trump Victory signature.”