WASHINGTON – As the University of Florida continues to search for a permanent leader, interim President Kent Fuchs has agreed to a one-month contract extension ending Sept. 1, a UF spokesperson confirmed Tuesday.
A new interim president will be named before Fuchs steps down, UF spokesperson Steve Orlando said. The university plans to launch a new presidential search early next year. Fuchs was UF’s president from 2015 until 2023, and has been its interim president since August 2024.
Details about the leadership transition were discussed at a presidential Cabinet meeting Tuesday. So far, the university has not released details about the makeup or timeline of the search committee, nor has it announced any potential candidates to succeed Fuchs in the interim role.
The university previously refuted speculation from Nikki Fried, a prominent UF graduate and chair of the state Democratic Party, that Casey DeSantis, wife of Gov. Ron DeSantis, would become interim UF president. Fried said last month on social media that was UF’s plan. “There is no truth to that rumor,” spokesperson Cynthia Roldan said.
Fuch’s contract extension is the latest development in what has been a rocky stretch for leadership at Florida’s flagship university. Former President Ben Sasse abruptly resigned last July after less than two years in office amid his wife’s worsening health and his own escalating tensions with Mori Hosseini, UF’s longtime board chairman and a close ally of DeSantis.
Hosseini and the UF Board of Trustees in May unanimously backed Santa J. Ono, a three-time college president most recently at University of Michigan, as the school’s next leader. But the State University System’s Board of Governors voted 10-6 to block Ono’s nomination, citing the candidate’s past support for diversity, equity and inclusion programs and what they saw as a less-than-swift response to pro-Palestinian encampments that sprung up at Michigan.
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This story was produced by Fresh Take Florida, a news service of the University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications. The reporter can be reached at garrettshanley@ufl.edu. You can donate to support our students here.