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By fourth grade, I had broken my left arm three times, each time in the same place, and each time was the result of botched stunts—jumping off a swing, a side table, and a staircase—all in an attempt to imitate my hero, Spider-Man. By the summer of 2017, when I was doing my first internship on Capitol Hill, my hero had changed. Now I was obsessed with education policy—an area I later worked in—and admired Senator Ben Sasse. Sasse, a former college president, had just published The Disappearing American Adult. He argued that college-age students are infantilized and unprepared for adult life – I agreed. His drive for Uber resonated with me too—I later worked part-time as an Uber driver while running for office in Mississippi. For a while, Sasse was my hero. But just as my admiration for Spider-Man waned after his girlfriend claims that the Washington Monument was built by slaves, I also respect Sasse.
I first became skeptical about Sasse’s presidency when I learned that the University of Florida (UF) had given him an almost 10 million US dollars Compensation package over five years.
His base salary started at $1 million per year, with potential raises, incentives and benefits bringing the total to more than $5.4 million. In addition, he was promised a $1 million retention bonus, nearly $800,000 in retirement contributions and at least $1.7 million in benefits, including life insurance, rent-free housing and tuition waivers for his family.
I have always been of the opinion that such high compensation packages are unjustified. As Richard Vedder argues, university presidents operate in a market distorted by public subsidies, where clear performance metrics are lacking, and where funds intended for education are diverted to enrich top officials.
Despite his excessive compensation, I still harbored hope that Sasse could steer the UF in a fiscally conservative direction and practice the “political celibacy” he promised. But when news of his spending spree hit the headlines last week, that hope was quickly dashed.
As reported from the UF student newspaper, Independent Florida AlligatorDuring his 17 months in office, there was a dramatic increase in spending and secretive decisions. After taking office, Sasse increased the president’s office budget from $5.6 million to $17.3 million, largely to fund consulting contracts and high-paying positions for his former Senate staffers and political allies. Among the highest-paid were Raymond Sass and James Wegmann, both of whom worked from a remote location in Washington, D.C. Sass earned $396,000 as vice president for innovation and partnerships – a newly created position – more than double his salary on Capitol Hill. Wegmann, who worked from his $725,000 home in Washington, D.C., earned $432,000 as vice president for communications.
And the expenses were not limited to salaries.
Travel expenses for the president’s office rose to $633,000 in his first full fiscal year – more than 20 times the annual average of $28,000 during his predecessor’s term. This increase in travel costs was due to the frequent commuting of out-of-state staff working from home. In fact, in just 17 months, Sasse’s travel expenses exceeded the entire travel costs of his predecessor’s eight-year term, according to the Independent Florida Alligator.
Working out of state is not unusual for UF employees — I work from home and know firsthand that I get more work done when I don’t have to commute to the office — but as the student newspaper wrote, it is unusual for high-ranking university officials and administrators to work from outside Florida. And Sasse’s office has so far been unwilling to Independent Florida Alligator a full log of these expenses. A partial report shows that between April 29 and July 29 alone, over $20,000 was spent on flights to bring these employees to campus.
In addition, Sasse provided $7.2 million for consulting services, including $4.7 million to McKinsey & Company, where he previously worked. Details of McKinsey’s work at UF remain unclear, and key documents have been heavily redacted due to state public records laws.
In response to the criticism claims that the spending spree was necessary for reforms such as the new UF-Jacksonville campus, innovative K-12 charters and the development of UF into a leading institute in key academic disciplines. But his abrupt resignation in July, citing his wife’s health — an admirable reason to leave his post (a weaker man would choose his career over his family) but probably not an option for his less compensated faculty and staff – leaves many questions unanswered. I have no questions – it seems pretty clear that taxpayer money was wasted and that political celibacy was a myth – but like other critics, I have doubts about the future of his reforms at UF.
Spider-Man left me with broken bones. But Sasse’s fall from grace leaves me with something that won’t quite heal: a constant reminder that we live in a world without heroes. “Up, up and away, web.”
Image by Konstantin Yuganov – Adobe Stock – Asset ID No: 242988433
