"Save UWF!" text in bold white on a black background with a red border.

Let’s Keep It OUR University

Behind the Appointments

Keep It OUR University

We are Save UWF — a grassroots coalition of students, alumni, faculty, and neighbors standing together to protect our public university from political takeover. We're standing together to say: UWF belongs to all of us — not political appointees with outside agendas.

Our goal is to inform, engage, and mobilize our community. From eye-catching billboards and signs to public forums like our Town Hall (which drew over 400 concerned citizens), we are making it clear: This university is ours — and we’re not giving it up without a fight.

WHAT’S REALLY HAPPENING TO UWF?

Over the last year, the Governor and the Florida Board of Governors allowed eight trustee terms to quietly lapse, replacing them with appointees who have little to no experience in higher education, no ties to UWF, and in many cases, no connection to Pensacola or Northwest Florida at all.

Not a single one of the eight appointees lives in Pensacola:

  • Scott Yenor, the new Chair, lives in Idaho

  • Adam Kissel splits his time between West Virginia and Washington, D.C.

  • Rachel Moya only recently moved from South Carolina a few months ago

  • Only one appointee lives in Northwest Florida, and that’s in Crestview, over an hour from campus

On January 23, in a brief virtual meeting with no public discussion, these appointees immediately voted to install Scott Yenor as Chair and Rebecca Matthews as Vice Chair. On March 20, Chair Yenor didn’t even show up in person to the board meeting — instead, he Zoomed in from Tallahassee.

This isn’t how a public university should be run. And it’s not how OUR university has ever operated.

WHO MAKES THESE DECISIONS?

Florida’s public universities fall under a two-layered system:

  • State University System (SUS): 12 universities governed by a 17-member Board of Governors (BOG)

    • 14 appointed by the Governor

    • 3 seats reserved (Education Commissioner, Faculty Rep, Student Rep)

    • Members serve 7-year terms

  • Each University’s Board of Trustees (BOT):

    13 members total:

    • 6 appointed directly by the Governor

    • 5 appointed by the BOG (which is itself appointed by the Governor)

    • 1 Faculty Senate representative

    • 1 Student Body representative

    • Trustees serve 5-year terms (and may be reappointed)

This process is now being used not to strengthen universities — but to stack them with political loyalists. We’ve seen it at FGCU, New College… and now UWF.

CONFIRMATIONS: WHERE WE STAND

To serve, trustees must be confirmed by the Florida Senate. As of March 26:

7 of the 8 new UWF appointees have been sent by the Governor to the Senate for confirmation or rejection by two committees: Higher Education Appropriations and Ethics and Elections.

Even if rejected, nominees can be reappointed for two years — which is why public pressure matters more than ever.

WHAT COMES NEXT — AND HOW TO HELP

The next confirmation hearings are expected—possibly as early as April 11.
Here’s how you can stand up for UWF:

  • Ride to Tallahassee with us — SaveUWF is organizing buses for public testimony

  • Write letters — Handwritten notes to Senate committee members are incredibly effective

    • Emphasize: Lack of qualifications, no UWF connection, and agendas that prioritize politics over the needs of students and educators.

👉 Full list of Senators and addresses: Contact Legislators
👉 Meet the Appointees: View PDF

THIS IS OUR UNIVERSITY

UWF belongs to the people who built it, study here, teach here, and serve our region every day.
We will not stand by while it’s handed over to outsiders with ideological agendas.

We love this university. We built it. We belong here.
We will not stand by while it’s handed over to outsiders with ideological agendas.
Let’s keep it OUR university — together.

Thank you for standing with us.