‘No Confidence’ in Anti-LGBTQ+ Senator Ben Sasse, UF Faculty Says
(CNN) — The University of Florida Faculty Senate approved a no-confidence resolution Thursday on the selection process to appoint US Sen.
Ben Sasse as the next president, officials said.The 67 to 15 vote comes after Sasse, a Republican senator from Nebraska, became the only person considered for the high-ranking position at one of Florida's largest universities.
His candidacy sparked controversy on campus partially due to his 2015 comments on LGBTQ+ rights after the US Supreme Court ruledto guarantee same-sex marriage at the federal level.When pressed about the comments during an on-campus forum earlier this month, Sasse said the decision was "the law of the land," adding that it wasn't going to change in the near future, The Independent Florida Alligator reported.When asked about promoting diversity at the university, Sasse said, "I want us to figure it out by listening to our community and our conversation, who is not feeling included and how do we tackle those problems and reduce those barriers," according to the Alligator.Following the high court's landmark decision on same-sex marriage, Sasse took the stance that only a man and a woman should get married and create a family."The Supreme Court once again overstepped its Constitutional role by acting as a super-legislature and imposing its own definition of marriage on the American people rather than allowing voters to decide in the states," Sasse said in a June 2015 statement that remains on his official government website.The emergency meeting Thursday included an extensive discussion on the selection process for president, including requests for more clarity on the process.
