To read Tributary investigative reporter Michael Vasquez’s past coverage of Gov. Ron DeSantis’ conservative makeover of Florida higher-education, read here and here.
Dismissing complaints alleging an unfair selection process, the University of West Florida board of trustees on Thursday tapped former Republican lawmaker Manny Diaz Jr. as the school’s permanent president, providing him a premium salary and a degree of job protection not provided to even the leader of Florida’s preeminent university, the University of Florida.
Diaz has limited education experience but was approved in a single-candidate competition – despite rules intended to normally require “more than two” finalists for the trustees to consider. A chief architect of the state’s retooling of higher education in Florida, Diaz had the support of both Gov. Ron DeSantis and members of the conservative Heritage Foundation.
Diaz will enjoy a nearly $1 million compensation package: a $674,000 base salary, up to $107,840 in annual performance pay, a $60,000 housing allowance, and a $14,000 car allowance, among other perks.
His total annual compensation is valued at $946,040.
“We will continue to excel,” Diaz said after getting the job, which he has held on an interim basis since July. “We will strive for more. We will stretch, and we will never be satisfied.”
Despite his lack of experience, Diaz enjoyed a substantial pay bump from his predecessor. The 2025 contract of Martha Saunders, the prior president, provided a $536,273 base salary, a housing allowance of $24,000, and a $14,000 car allowance, among other perks.
Diaz became the fourth ex-GOP lawmaker to lead a Florida public university — joining the ex-politicians currently in charge at New College, Florida International University, and Florida Atlantic University.
As governor, DeSantis has aggressively engineered a conservative takeover of higher education by installing his loyalists as university presidents and university trustees, all across the state.
These new presidential hires have often been welcomed with generous salary and benefit packages, prompting financial worries at both New College and Florida A&M University.
College president salaries are often exorbitant, and the University of Florida’s interim president, Donald Landry, has a $2 million base salary. But even Landry doesn’t have the job security of Diaz at UWF. Landry can be fired by a simple majority of the board of trustees, while Diaz, under his new contract, can only be fired by two-thirds of board members.
Last year, DeSantis appointed a new slate of university trustees at the Pensacola university, including two trustees who are affiliated with the Heritage Foundation.
Those appointments set the stage for Thursday’s vote, in which the DeSantis-aligned UWF trustees instantly supported Diaz as the next president.
But the board meeting began with a warning from faculty, some of whom allege the presidential-selection process violated state rules that require universities to consider multiple finalists when hiring a new president.
Instead, UWF announced in November that Diaz was its “sole finalist” out of more than 80 candidates. Zack Smith, a university trustee who chaired the presidential search committee, explained this decision at the time by saying Diaz is “uniquely prepared” to lead the institution.
Smith is also a senior legal fellow at the Heritage Foundation.
The vice president of the faculty senate, Amy Mitchell-Cook, told UWF’s board on Thursday that there are concerns among students, faculty, and staff, as well as within the surrounding community.
“If the search truly produced only one worthy candidate to bring on campus, then this should be considered a failed search,” she told the board.
She continued: “If, however, there were other worthy candidates, then the perception is that this search was predetermined, or flawed.”
Florida’s Board of Governors regulations require “more than two” finalists to be considered unless there are “exceptional circumstances making fulfillment of this requirement infeasible.”
Mitchell-Cook said Smith, the chair of the search committee, had not provided evidence of “exceptional circumstances.”
“In bypassing the standard procedures, the committee chair exposes UWF to potential lawsuits,” she said.
After Mitchell-Cook’s comments, UWF’s board of trustees did not respond to the issues that she raised.
Instead, the board conducted a roughly hour-long job “interview” with Diaz, in which the former GOP lawmaker highlighted his achievements as interim president, and explained his long-term vision for elevating UWF’s financial health, fundraising prowess, and academic prestige.
As the only finalist, Diaz’s job interview lacked the tension or suspense often experienced by job applicants in the current employment market, where a mid-salary job can attract hundreds of applicants, and the screening process can be both rigorous and demanding.
An exception was when he challenged his public critics over a proposed charter school on campus.
Diaz said an ongoing controversy regarding the issue, fueled in part by a Somerset University Preparatory Academy website announcing a UWF location on its website, is a result of “confusion” among the public.
For starters, Diaz said, UWF is not yet authorized by the state to approve charter schools. And while Somerset Academy is a well-known charter chain, Diaz stressed that the organization also has some private schools, and its initial plan for UWF is a private school model, although it could later transition into a charter school.
“Let’s talk about truths,” Diaz said. “Let’s not make things up.”
For UWF, Diaz said becoming a charter authorizer, perhaps for multiple schools, could be quite lucrative — and provide an opportunity for the university to expand its brand around the state.
“This is a benefit to the institution,” Diaz said. “We’re not spending money, we’re going to take in revenue and benefits … and I’m never going to apologize for that.”
Email records obtained by The Tributary show that one of the first acts Diaz took as president was to connect his dean of education with charter school operators, in hopes of opening a school on campus.
“Dean Soares,” Diaz wrote on July 29, roughly two weeks after becoming interim president. “I want to introduce you to Eddie Ruiz, He is the state superintendent for Charter Schools USA and is overseeing the Warrington Prep School.”
Diaz went on to say, “UWF is very interested in a potential partnership with you at Warrington, and we would love to meet and discuss.”
As a state lawmaker, Diaz consistently pushed for the expansion of charter schools, which are public schools, but with private operators, who are sometimes connected to for-profit management companies.
Diaz worked for nine years as chief operating officer at an online college started by Academica, a politically-connected charter school management company.
During the interview session, one board member, Ashley Ross, disclosed that she previously worked for Diaz when he was a state senator. Ross is a well-known Republican finance consultant, and she has advised top lawmakers in the Florida Legislature.
“I know he is a man of true integrity,” Ross said. “I know he is a true servant leader.”
Ross said she did not have a legal conflict that prevented her from voting for Diaz, and so she joined the majority of the board in voting to give Diaz the permanent job.
Only one member of the 13-person board, Heather Riddell, voted against Diaz’s hire. Riddell is the faculty senate’s representative.
Riddell said she was not passing judgment on Diaz individually, but she remained uncomfortable with the selection process.
“The hiring of a president should be public and transparent, as a public institution,” Riddell said.
Michael Vasquez is an investigative reporter at The Tributary. He can be reached at michael.vasquez@jaxtrib.org.
