H,I’m Mike Sanderson. As many of you know, I’m a New College alum and I’ve been very involved in the Board of Governors over the past three years. This comment restates my opinion that I gave on Monday at the UF Board of Trustees meeting.
But If you’d like a splash of normalcy in this unprecedented time, you can see my comment on the metrics mocking Richard Corcoran for his metrics failure.
I appreciate the work the Board of Governors does for the people and State of Florida, and the members of the Board new and old all had great points. I appreciate Board members standing up for themselves and for the Board.
My comments should not be taken as ad hominem against Alan Levine. There’s a lot of water under the bridge already, and I think Alan knows that. My criticism is from a point of frustration.
My three points still stand. Especially about the letter. My complaint had three objections.:
Point 1. The interim President Contract was in the Board of Governors Materials. you saw it. I saw it. The full board saw it. Credit to Gov. Haddock for admitting he didn’t look in the packet.
Point 2. the unilateral action by a chair, objecting to the unilateral action by the chair. In the name of good governance.
Point 3. the authority to hold items off. again, this was a written statement so we can see it.
Your decision on June 17 inflicts damage on the University of Florida on top of years of turmoil. We cannot strip the context.
I stand by my statement that holding the agenda hostage was an arbitrary and capricious abuse of power. I will stick that label on it. I will grant you there is a potentially colorable case this has to be resolved before a new permanent president comes into office, but wWe don’t need to argue if the Presidential confirmation is an abuse of power because you also held up the housing bond approval to the governance issues.
And look at what’s happening at Florida Poly. [Lakeland ledger clip] It mocks the very idea of merit and good governance to see what’s happening down there.
The issues with the Inspector General should not be overlooked. Asking for a “review” I have never heard of quote-unquote review. I would like to focus on the absurdity of the IG receiving a complaint about the Chair of the Board of Trustees and forwarding that down to the university for handling.
Vice-Chair Cerio is right you shouldn't be getting legal opinions. The legal opinions that have been released already are helpful.
But if you look for an example of Good Governance, it's Vice Chair Cerio leaning forward to steers the meeting from the audit committee to the facilities committee.
I’m a member of the public. 25 years ago exactly I was a student at New College when the first Boards of Trustees came into being, and I saw the campaign to pass Amendment 11 and create the Board of Governors. So I want to see this
So inclusion, I hope that you look at what’s going on at Florida Poly and at New College. I of course will have more to say about governance in the weeks and months and year to come.
