GOP senator’s $1.3M catering bill as UF president may have been partly funded by taxpayers’

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 June 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 December 7, 2023 holiday party, Sasse spent more than $38,000 on a sushi bar alone. The Sun-Sentinel reported that the December party alone — which has 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, or around $900 per person . That's nearly the amount paid by 28 in-state students' combined tuition 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."

Journalist Garrett Shanley examines Sasse's stint as UF president in an article published by the Independent Florida Alligator (UF's student newspaper) on August 12, reporting that spending "ballooned" to "$17.3 million — a major increase from $5.6 million under former UF President Ken Fuchs."

"A majority of the spending surge was driven by lucrative contracts with big-name consulting firms and high-salaried, remote positions for Sasse’s former U.S. Senate staff and Republican officials," Shanley reports. "Sasse's consulting contracts have been kept largely under wraps, leaving the public in the dark about what the contracted firms did to earn their fees."

Shanley adds, "The university also declined to clarify specific duties carried out by Sasse's ex-Senate staff, several of whom were salaried as presidential advisers."

Shanley notes that when Sasse became UF president, he promised to distance himself from partisan politics — yet "tripled his office's spending, directing millions in university funds into secretive consulting contracts and high-paying positions for his GOP allies."

"Under Sasse's administration," Shanley explains, "two of his former Senate staffers — Raymond Sass and James Wegmann — were among the highest-ranking and highest-paid officials at UF. Both worked remotely from the D.C. area, roughly 800 miles from UF's main campus in Gainesville."

The reporter adds, "Sass, Sasses former Senate chief of staff, was UF's vice president for innovation and partnerships — a position which didn't exist under previous administrations. His starting salary at UF was $396,000, more than double the $181,677 he made on Capitol Hill."

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).

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 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." The details of those contracts and what work was performed remain unknown.

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.