GAINESVILLE, FL (352today.com) – There wasn’t an empty seat in University Auditorium on Thursday, Nov. 2, for the investiture ceremony of Ben Sasse as the 13th president of the University of Florida (UF).
At the reception outside following the ceremony and Sasse’s inauguration speech, an air of optimism and energy wafted across the lawn.
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Jeff Clarke, the Associate Director of Development for UF’s College of Engineering, says he loved listening to the new president’s intentions to advance the university.
“I’ve loved hearing about how he wants to move things forward, how he wants to take what he thinks the trends are throughout the country and base it here in Gainesville and use what we have to benefit Floridians and benefit the country,” said Clarke.
Clarke is a fairly new staff member at the university and says transitioning from Tennessee to Florida was a ‘weird’ at first. But, he says Sasse has ignited his enthusiasm.
“I think he’s really made me excited to be a part of something. He’s made it seem like this is much bigger than us and I love that he always deflects the attention from himself to the just the students, what the faculty is doing, what the staff is doing, what the university has done before he was here and what we will continue to do,” added Clarke.
UF senior Charles O’Keefe, an accounting student, described Sasse as ‘unconventional’ and says he loved many points mentioned in Sasse’s inauguration speech as well.
“I love how he related a lot of it to the youth, and how he compared private sector to public sector… and how much of an obligation the public sector has to bring forth a lot to America,” said O’Keefe. “I love how he’s going to be integrating that with you know our technology that we have for the future, and I love the investment that he’s going to put forth for the University of Florida, for alumni, and our students.”
O’Keefe credited former president Kent Fuchs for bringing students together and says he looks forward to more of that from Sasse.
Jack Ready, a business and political science student at UF, thinks Sasse was a great choice to lead UF.
“I think he has a really great vision when it comes to our future, particularly enhancing artificial intelligence within every curriculum and merging the humanities with more practical other majors,” said Ready.
Ready says Sasse’s vision gives UF a “real sense of community.” He added that he loves how Sasse highlighted his background and how he plans to apply it to better UF.
“I really enjoyed how he talked about his experience as a historian and how he wants to connect the history with the present in terms of learning,” said Ready. “Especially when it comes to the fact that a lot of people now are questioning whether it’s worth it to even come to university, especially with the rise of costs and student outcomes. I think it’s great that he’s focusing on that with a historical perspective.”