In a week when the University of Florida’s acrimonious presidential search process prompted social-media attacks and angry public debate among top state education leaders, there’s one detail UF officials would prefer not to discuss: 

Donald Landry’s $2 million golden parachute. 

Landry, a former chair of the department of medicine at Columbia University, led UF for a year as interim president, earning a lofty $2 million salary. But his unusual employment contract – the terms of which were never voted on by UF’s Board of Trustees – awarded him an additional $2 million if “he is not selected as UF’s permanent president.”

That benefit is highly unusual and could run afoul of state law, which states that “severance pay provided may not exceed an amount greater than 20 weeks of compensation,” according to an expert in university presidential contracts and a Florida attorney with extensive experience in government law.

For Landry, the state cap would allow for a severance of up to $769,230 – still lucrative but far below the potential $2 million windfall.

The payout is even more surprising when considering an interim university president “never” receives severance pay, according to James Finkelstein, a professor emeritus of public policy at George Mason University in Virginia, and a nationally-recognized expert in university presidential contracts.

“It’s unprecedented that an interim would get any sort of payout at the completion of their term,” Finkelstein said. Referring specifically to Landry’s UF contract, he said, “this is essentially a gift to him.”

UF’s previous interim president, Kent Fuchs, who served as president from 2024 to 2025, did not have a severance clause in his contract. 

Landry did not respond to a request for comment, which was relayed through UF officials. A UF spokeswoman did not respond to questions about Landry’s $2 million severance, including if UF has already paid it.  

UF recently tapped former University of Alabama president Stuart Bell as its new president, although the Florida Board of Governors, which oversees universities, must still approve Bell’s hire. 

Landry is eligible for up to $500,000 in performance bonuses, which, combined with his salary and severance, would add up to $4.5 million for a single year’s work. 

“Landry is 73 years old,” Finkelstein said. “He could retire comfortably. He’s got an extra $4 million in his bank account.”

UF officials appeared aware of the compensation restrictions in state law when they crafted the Landry contract, as the severance pay section concludes with the words, “all severance payments shall be paid with non-public funds,” noted Raul Gastesi, a South Florida lawyer who serves as city attorney for Doral, and town attorney for Miami Lakes. 

“Wow,” Gastesi said. “It would be difficult for him to enforce this contract in court.”

Gastesi said the “non-public funds” provision exists “because they realized this is more than 20 weeks of compensation, and the statute prohibits it.”

“They’re trying to get around the prohibition,” Gastesi said.

But if UF has already paid Landry, it will be difficult to get that money back, Gastesi said. 

In the past, multiple Florida universities, including UF, the University of South Florida, and the University of Central Florida, have been cited by state auditors for paying out severance packages in excess of what is permitted by state law. In 2020, UF agreed to discontinue payments to faculty that state auditors had flagged as excessive severance.  

The university’s trustees this week were put on the defensive about their oversight of Florida’s flagship institution, and in particular Landry’s contract.

The chair of Florida’s board of governors, Alan Levine, had previously raised concerns to the system chancellor about Landry’s contract.

Levine said he was particularly troubled that Landry’s compensation was not voted on by the UF board, but instead negotiated in private between Landry and UF board chair Mori Hosseini, a Republican megadonor, and close ally of Gov. Ron DeSantis. 

“It would be highly imprudent for a board to delegate authority for negotiating a contract, and then permitting the chair to execute the contract without first reviewing it in public,” Levine wrote to Ray Rodrigues, the chancellor, in a May 20 email.  

Levine later postponed a board of governors vote on hiring a new UF president because of the red flags he said he’d identified at UF. 

Contentious debate about UF presidency

Bell, the UF presidential pick, is supported by DeSantis, and Levine’s decision to delay Bell’s final vote led to him being attacked by DeSantis allies on social media. 

Jeremy Redfern, the deputy chief of staff for Attorney General James Uthmeier, mocked the board of governors chair on X as “Drag Queen Levine” – because Levine’s hospital chain had apparently participated in an LGBT-themed event in Tennessee. 

“Are you still holding drag queen story hour at Ballad Health?” Redfern wrote in his post.   

Levine, himself a DeSantis appointee, shot back: “As a public official. you are claiming a private company held a drag queen story hour?  That’s provably false. Lawyers will be in touch.” 

In Gainesville, UF trustees bristled at the suggestion of any unethical, back-door dealings, and responded with outrage at a Monday emergency meeting of the board.

During that meeting, one trustee after another lavished praise upon Hosseini. 

In Florida political circles, Hosseini is often referred to as the unofficial “president” of UF. 

“I find it completely offensive that they would think the trustees have not done their job,” said UF trustee Richard Cole. 

Marsha Powers defended Hosseini, saying: “There is no one who has more integrity, and is harder-working, than you are.”

Hosseini defiantly defended himself at the UF meeting, while doing most of the talking, throughout the meeting. 

Two days later, he angrily confronted Levine at a board of governors meeting in Boca Raton. Hosseini reminded the state board it had been provided Landry’s contract last year, and it never raised any objections back then. 

“One question: did you have Dr. Landry’s contract or not?” Hosseini demanded.   

“We did,” responded Levine. 

“You should have read the contract,” Hosseini said. “Did you read it or not?”

Levine responded that he’d had “questions” about the contract last year, but because the state board of governors doesn’t specifically vote on presidential contracts (it only approves presidential hires), Levine said he didn’t have an opportunity to debate the issue back then.

Ultimately, a truce was forged between the two men: Levine would get a top-to-bottom review of state university governance policies, for all 12 universities, to be conducted by an independent outside expert. 

In exchange, Levine allowed UF’s new presidential hire, Bell, to move forward to a vote by the full state board. That vote is scheduled for next week.

Hosseini declined comment when approached by a Florida Trib reporter at the board of governors meeting.  

‘Who is paying for this?’

When Landry arrived at UF last year, the university was in a full-blown panic. UF’s unanimous pick for president – former University of Michigan president Santa Ono – had just been soundly rejected by the board of governors, largely due to Ono’s prior support of diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.

In conservative political circles, DEI programs are deeply unpopular, and DeSantis has crusaded against them – even though the state’s own university system once had its own DEI initiatives. 

DeSantis’ political loyalists have assumed the presidency of universities across the state, and the governor has aggressively pushed Florida colleges to embrace conservative ideology. 

But Ono’s public crash-and-burn demonstrated – to the entire nation – how deeply politicized Florida’s higher education system has become, and in some cases beyond even DeSantis’ control. 

In stepped Landry, who carried an aura of credibility, thanks to his impressive “physician-in-chief” and Columbia University bonafides. 

UF’s trustees delegated the final approval of Landry’s interim contract to Hosseini, and the boisterous, charismatic board chair got the deal done.

In the short term, UF’s image in the world of academia was slightly restored, as the university had selected a credible leader, and temporarily quieted the chaos. 

But now that chaos has returned, with a growing chorus of criticism surrounding Landry’s $2 million severance – including from some Republicans. 

“It’s inappropriate,” said former Republican state Sen. Jeff Brandes, who represented the Tampa Bay area in the Legislature. Brandes said UF’s board of trustees has a compensation committee that should have been involved. 

Brandes also said hiring the president is “frankly the board’s primary job … and apparently they aren’t doing that job.”

Rick Scott, one of Florida’s two U.S. senators, was even more blunt in a letter sent last month to the state university system chancellor. In that letter, Scott called for “an investigation of Dr. Landry’s contract.”   

“It’s only fair to the thousands of UF students and families who pay tuition and are hoping for a good paying job that there is a clear explanation as to why Dr. Landry is about to walk away with millions of dollars for not getting a job,” Scott wrote. “Who is paying for this?”

Michael Vasquez is an investigative reporter at The Florida Trib. He can be reached at michael.vasquez@floridatrib.org.