Ex-GOP senator ran up $1.3M catering bill as UF president

12 September 2024

Former Sen. Ben Sasse's (R-Nebraska) time as president of the University of Florida (UF) may have been short-lived, but new details are emerging about his lavish spending on opulent parties.

The South Florida Sun-Sentinel reported Wednesday that Sasse – who was president of UF between February of 2023 and July of 2024 — spent more than $1.3 million on catering over just 16 months. To put that number in perspective, his predecessor, Ken Fuchs (who has since been hired back as interim president) spent an average of $476,000 per year over his eight-year tenure.

During a Dec. 7, 2023 holiday party, Sasse spent more than $38,000 on a sushi bar alone. The Sun-Sentinel reported that the December party — which had two open bars serving more than $7,000 worth of liquor — accounted for roughly 15% of the catering expenses he racked up at Florida's largest public university.

The total bill for that event came out to more than $176,000 for roughly 200 people, according to the newspaper's estimate, or around $900 per person. That's nearly the amount paid by 28 in-state students' combined tuition & fee payments, according to figures from SoFi. According to the paper, UF pushes employees to keep the per-person cost for catering to $75 or less.

"It was not immediately clear whether UF covered the costs for all the items on Sasse’s catering tabs using taxpayer dollars or donor contributions," the Sun-Sentinel reported. "The university enforces rules requiring – even for pizza parties in classrooms – only the use of approved caterers that it says meet requirements for liability, health inspections and business insurance."

Roughly one-third of Sasse's catering costs went toward tailgating parties in the football season, given UF's reputation as a football school in the Southeastern Conference (which is prominent for football in particular).

"One such event came with a price tag of $31,312, or roughly $313 per person," the paper reported. "At another game, food costs exceeded $30,000. Guests in the stadium’s luxury suites that day were treated to brisket coated in peach-flavored barbecue sauce, bacon-wrapped hot dogs and a caramel macchiato cheesecake."

The former Republican U.S. senator defended his office's spending during his tenure, saying reports of inappropriate spending were "not true." He added that "fiscal stewardship is a fundamental obligation of public institutions – and also because our alumni, donors, and hardworking taxpayers should be confident that such stewardship and oversight have been and are being exercised."

High catering costs weren't the only financial scandal that dogged Sasse at UF. Last month, UF's student-run newspaper revealed that the former college president's office spent more than $17 million, which is far above the $5.6 million Fuchs spent when he held the office. Much of that money reportedly went toward "lucrative contracts with big-name consulting firms and high-salaried, remote positions for Sasse’s former U.S. Senate staff and Republican officials," according to the university's student newspaper.

Two of his former senior Senate staffers were hired for top jobs despite working remotely from the D.C. area. Raymond Sass, Sasse's former chief of staff, was paid $396,000 to be UF’s vice president for innovation and partnerships — a position which didn’t exist under Sasse's precedessor. Sasse's erstwhile Senate communications director became UF's vice president of communications, even as he continued to live in Washington, D.C.

Sasse's contract stipulates that he'll still be paid a base salary of $1 million per year through 2028, and will occasionally teach classes on campus as a professor. He resigned as UF's president on July 18th, citing his wife's health issues.

Click here to read the Sun-Sentinel's report in full (subscription required).

Editor's note: A prior version of this article carried a headline that speculated that taxpayers may have footed the bill for Sasse's parties. While possible, the parties were donor fundraising events and may also have been paid for by donations.

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