Ono Resignation Letter Reflected Tensions With UM Board

Santa Ono’s resignation letter to the University of Michigan, obtained by a public records request from MLive, indicated that tensions with trustees factored into his decision to leave.

In the May 4 letter Ono submitted when he stepped down from the top job at Michigan to pursue—unsuccessfully, as it turned out—the presidency at the University of Florida, he suggested that friction shaped his decision. He wrote that he had “come to believe that the current dynamics within the board—and with a subset of the regents and myself—make it difficult for me to continue leading as effectively as I would hope and as the university deserves.”

The letter also noted Ono had declined “occasional inquiries from other institutions” while at UM, but that “given the circumstances, I felt I needed to accept a recent call,” a reference to the UF job. The other inquiries reportedly came from the University of Oxford and Harvard University.

The acrimonious feelings seem to go both ways. University of Michigan regent Jordan Acker appeared to take a swipe at Ono on X earlier this month, on the same day Ono was rejected from the UF job. Though Acker did not name Ono, he posted a quote from the writer Fran Lebowitz: “He doesn’t believe in anything—just auditions for approval in whatever room he’s in.”

The UF Board of Trustees unanimously voted to hire Ono in late May. But the Florida Board of Governors rejected his appointment over concerns about his past views on diversity, equity and inclusion. Though Ono sought to distance himself from his previous support of DEI and touted an ideological evolution on the topic, the Board of Governors blocked his hire on a 10-to-6 vote.

What happens next in the UF search remains uncertain.

As for Ono, some observers have suggested that ambiguity in the language of his Michigan contract could open the door for him to rejoin the tenured faculty ranks there. UM officials, speaking anonymously, told The Detroit News that Ono failed to give six months’ notice of his resignation from the presidency, which they said was required to keep his faculty job. However, one expert told the newspaper that the contract language was not clear cut on that point.