Donald Landry, former chairman of the Department of Medicine at Columbia University, was approved Monday to serve as interim president of the University of Florida.
With little comment, the University of Florida Board of Trustees backed Landry to replace Kent Fuchs in the interim role as the Gainesville school prepares to restart a presidential search early next year. Fuchs, a former UF president, became the school’s interim leader last year after Ben Sasse resigned as president.
Landry, whose term is set to begin Sept. 1, must be confirmed by the state university system’s Board of Governors next month.
Gov. Ron DeSantis and other Republican leaders frequently target Columbia for what they say is “woke” ideology and the Ivy League school’s handling of pro-Palestine protests after the 2023 attack by Hamas in Israel and retaliation by Israel in Gaza. But Mori Hosseini, chairman of the UF Board of Trustees, said he was “happy to have” Landry as he read the nephrologist’s biography to trustees.
In a news release, Hosseini characterized Landry as having “shown exceptional leadership in academia and beyond, building programs with innovation, energy, and integrity.”
UF needed to hire a new interim leader after the state university system’s Board of Governors in June rejected the trustees’ choice of former University of Michigan President Santa Ono to become president. The Board of Governors cited Ono’s previous embrace of diversity, equity and inclusion, or DEI, programs and his handling of campus protests at Michigan. Fuchs had agreed to serve one year as interim president.
Landry, who attended Monday’s meeting, called the appointment an “opportunity of a lifetime” while making comments that could appease political conservatives.
“We can support a wide range of speech, on topics we dislike. Yet, we would like to maintain civility. At a minimum, we will not allow disruption,” Landry told the trustees.
Asked about the protests at Columbia, Landry replied, “I saw things at Columbia that suggested an alignment between some faculty and students that, I think, encouraged the students to do things that were more reckless.”
“There shouldn’t be constant pronouncements that divide the faculty into those who are aligned and those who are not, dividing the students among those who are aligned and those who are not,” Landry added. “The ones who are aligned with the administration taking sides are emboldened to do things that are a bit more rash.”
Landry’s selection drew support from Christopher Rufo, a senior fellow at the conservative Manhattan Institute and DeSantis appointee to the New College of Florida Board of Trustees, who was among the vocal critics of Ono.
“Landry is a principled leader who will reverse ideological capture and restore truth-seeking within the institution,” Rufo posted on X.
It is not clear how long UF will take in conducting a presidential search. The Tampa Bay Times reported last week that Fuchs said the school’s search for a new president has become “more challenging” after the university system’s Board of Governors rejected Ono.
“The president’s search has become more challenging with the development of the past few months, but fundamentally UF is still one of the nation’s truly great universities with amazing students, staff, faculty, and serving as one of its leaders in any role is a privilege and fabulous opportunity,” Fuchs said Thursday at the university’s first faculty senate meeting of the school year, the Times reported.
Landry earned his doctorate in organic chemistry at Harvard University and a medical degree from Columbia.
In 2008, Landry received the Presidential Citizens Medal from President George W. Bush for “diverse and pioneering research and his efforts to improve the well-being of his fellow man.”
Hosseini noted that under Landry’s leadership, philanthropy to Columbia’s Department of Medicine grew fourfold and reached third place in National Institutes of Health rankings.