Three key takeaways
- DeSantis’s influence may outlast his term. His appointees to university governing boards will remain in place after he leaves office.
- Politics is reshaping higher education leadership. Former lawmakers and administration officials now lead colleges and universities across Florida.
- FAMU is part of the broader transformation. Marva Johnson’s selection as president drew controversy over her political background and lack of experience in higher education.
In less than four months, Ron DeSantis will leave the Florida governor’s office, ending eight years in which he made Florida’s public colleges and universities a prominent part of his political agenda.
But his influence on higher education is unlikely to end with his departure.
During his two terms, DeSantis pushed to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion programs, reshaped academic requirements, remade New College of Florida and exerted greater influence over the governing boards that oversee the state’s public universities.
He also helped usher a growing number of political figures into college and university leadership.
A recent investigation by The Guardian described the transformation as an effort to place allies in powerful positions throughout Florida’s higher education system. The article noted that several of those leaders came from politics or government rather than traditional academic administration.
The pattern can be seen across both the State University System and the Florida College System.
From politics to the president’s office
Marva Johnson, a DeSantis loyalist, and former telecommunications lobbyist with longstanding ties to Florida’s Republican establishment, became FAMU’s 13th president last year after a closely contested selection process. Her appointment drew opposition from students, faculty and alumni, as well as four members of the university’s Board of Trustees.
But Johnson appointment is not an isolated case.
Florida International University, former Lt. Gov. Jeanette Nuñez became president after the university’s trustees acknowledged that DeSantis had urged them to consider her. At Florida Atlantic University, former state House Majority Leader Adam Hasner became president.
Former state lawmaker and Education Commissioner Manny Diaz Jr. became president of the University of West Florida, while Richard Corcoran, a former Florida House speaker and education commissioner, became president of New College.
The trend extends to the state’s 28 colleges. Former lawmakers Mel Ponder, Tommy Gregory, Fred Hawkins and John Temple have moved into presidencies at Northwest Florida State College, State College of Florida, South Florida State College and Lake-Sumter State College. DeSantis also installed his former Deputy Chief of Staff Anastasios Kamoutsas as president of Polk State College.
Former education officials and political appointees have also moved into leadership positions at other institutions.
Inside Higher Education, took note of Florida's the unusually large number of politically connected leaders now running public colleges and universities has become a defining feature of Florida higher education. All came with heft salary increases.
FAMU’s controversial choice
FAMU became part of that debate when its Board of Trustees selected Johnson in an 8-4 vote in May 2025.
Johnson had extensive experience in business, government affairs and education policy but had never served as a university president.
Her political background was also scrutinized.
Her selection generated strong opposition from FAMU students, alumni and trustees, who questioned whether her government and business background was sufficient for leading the state’s largest historically Black public university.
Supporters pointed to her experience with state policy, government affairs, performance-based funding and institutional accountability.
The debate illustrated a larger question confronting Florida’s public colleges: whether political and government experience is becoming a more important pathway to the presidency.
The structure behind the appointments
While the governor does not directly choose the presidents of Florida’s public universities.
But the governor has significant influence over the people who do.
While the governor does not directly choose the presidents of Florida’s public universities.
But the governor has significant influence over the people who do.
The State University System’s 17-member Board of Governors oversees the 12 public universities, and 14 of its members are appointed by the governor and confirmed by the Florida Senate. The governor also appoints members of university boards of trustees.
That structure allows a governor’s influence to extend beyond an individual administration.
Amanda Phalin, a University of Florida professor who served as a faculty representative on the Board of Governors from 2023 to 2025, told The Guardian that the significance of DeSantis’s approach goes beyond individual presidential appointments.
DeSantis, she said, has sought to promote what she described as a Florida “blueprint” nationally, potentially encouraging other Republican-led states to increase political involvement in higher education.
But Phalin said the structure of Florida’s system may be more consequential than any individual president.
“Each university has a board of trustees, the governor controls who’s on those boards of trustees, and the boards of trustees ultimately answer to the board of governors,” she told The Guardian.
“So it’s not even about the presidencies,” she said. “That is almost beside the point.”
Phalin argued that DeSantis had changed the system’s governance in ways that could survive his departure.
“What DeSantis has really done is, in a behind-the-scenes structural way, politicized the entire system, top to bottom, in terms of its governance structure,” she said.
New College, UF and the broader transformation
The most dramatic example of DeSantis’s approach has been New College.
DeSantis replaced much of the institution’s Board of Trustees with conservative allies, including figures who had advocated a broader political challenge to traditional higher education. The new board eventually installed Corcoran, a former Republican legislative leader and education commissioner, as president.
The governor’s influence was also evident at the University of Florida, where Ben Sasse, a former Republican U.S. senator, became president after a search in which he was the sole finalist. Sasse later resigned after 17 months.
More recently, the Board of Governors rejected Santa Ono, who at the time was president of the University of Michigan, an experienced university president selected by UF’s trustees, after questioning him about his past support for diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.
Meanwhile, DeSantis’s administration has pursued broader changes to curriculum and university programs, including restrictions on DEI initiatives and the removal of sociology from the list of required general education subjects at state universities.
Taken together, the changes have altered both the policies governing Florida’s universities and the backgrounds of some of the people leading them.
What Comes After DeSantis?
The next governor will inherit a higher education system that looks markedly different from the one DeSantis entered in 2019.
Whether the next governor maintains, modifies or reverses parts of his agenda remains uncertain.
What is certain is that, whatever changes come to Tallahassee, FAMU will have to navigate them. As the leaders of “Strike Forward for FAMU” like to say: FAMU is on the ballot.