Living well is the best revenge: George Herbert.
In his first official hatchet job after his secrecy-draped invocation as President of the University of Florida, Ben Sasse summoned Charlie Lane to Tigert Hall and summarily fired him.
No fanfare. No reasons offered. No “Thanks so much Pal, but…”
Just sacked the guy and sent him on his way.
“I want to let you know that we’ve made a change in the leadership of UF’s operation,” Sasse said in a statement to The Sun last April. “Effective today, Charlie Lane, chief operating officer, is no longer with the University of Florida.”
Which was about as bloodless an acknowledgement of a hatchet job as can be imagined.
It was also a surprise because Lane had been UF’s Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer for nearly a decade. And by all accounts he had been doing a great job in that capacity.
But maybe Sasse knew something the rest of us didn’t. Maybe Lane was less than diligent in his duties, and everybody at Tigert Hall was afraid to blow the whistle on him.
Or maybe not.
This just in from Caltech: “Charles E. Lane, a respected, strategic administrative leader with vast higher-education and corporate experience, will join Caltech on October 9, 2023, as vice president and chief operating officer.”
Wait. What?
What about Lane’s checkered past at UF?
Caltech continued: “At the University of Florida, Lane was the university’s chief administrative officer, with oversight of campus planning, facilities, capital construction, information technology, human resources, internal audit, campus security, environmental health and safety, emergency management, business operations, real estate acquisition and development, Title IX and ADA compliance, sustainability, environmental health and safety, and a variety of other administrative areas with an operating budget of $300 million, approximately $700 million in annual capital construction budgets, and oversight of 2,500 university staff.
“Among his many accomplishments in Florida, was his effective leadership in the creation and initial implementation of a comprehensive strategic development plan linking the City of Gainesville and the University of Florida. With an ambitious multifaceted focus on supporting interdisciplinary research, open space and infrastructure, the future of learning, the student experience, and academic space regeneration, the plan calls for $1.5 billion of new construction and the renovation of nearly 1 million gross square feet of academic buildings. During his tenure at the University of Florida, nearly 3 million gross square feet of space were added to the campus. Lane also played a central role in the development of Innovation Square, a 24-acre urban technology redevelopment district that is home to 200 start-up tech companies and hundreds of jobs. With a background in public health, Lane was also integral to UF’s COVID-19 response and campus reopening plans.”
Well no wonder Sasse sacked the guy. Clearly Lane was making everybody else in Tigert Hall look like a bunch of underachievers. He had to go, right?
No. Lane was fired because he would never fit well in the new Ron DeSantis Court of Higher Education Inquisition. Sasse was a political hack who was recruited to purge UF…not to pursue the sort of administrative, visionary and strategic planning excellence that Lane excelled in.
Wanna know why Lane was fired? Here’s one take: Because more than anyone else in Tigert Hall Lane went to extraordinary lengths to bring the City of Gainesville into UF’s strategic planning efforts. To Lane, UF was Gainesville and Gainesville was UF. And neither the town nor the gown was going to prosper unless they did it together.
That’s a problem because Gainesville is a blue city in a sea of Florida red.
Under the new regime Tigert dares have nothing to do with Gainesville. The clues are all there.
The recent legislative takeover of GRU was engineered by a Gainesville legislative delegation (i.e. Chuckles and Keith) that “represents” but despises Gainesville. And the hijacking of GRU was endorsed by a governor who has decreed that Democrats in general, and liberals in particular, are Enemies of the State.
Of course Charlie Lane had to go. He was caught red handed consorting with the enemy in an ideological war that takes no prisoners.
But like the man said, living well is the best revenge.
Charlie Lane is headed to one of the best and most reputable institutions of higher learning in the United States. Simply because he is, in fact, a talented administrator possessed of a sense of vision and commitment.
And UF? Well, listen, at least we beat Tennessee last week. Right?
FreeGNV 