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MONDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 2025
VOLUME 119 - ISSUE 19 Not officially associated with the University of Florida
Published by Campus Communications, Inc. of Gainesville, Florida
Gainesville woman addresses domestic violence in upcoming Florida bill COMPANION BILLS IN FLORIDA SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES ARE AMY TRASK’S MONTHSLONG PROJECT
By Sara-James Ranta Alligator Staff Writer
Editor’s note: This story contains sensitive topics of domestic violence and abuse and may be sensitive to some readers.
Madilyn Gemme // Alligator Staff
Amy Trask, a victim of domestic violence, introduces a pair of bills to protect other Floridians from facing the same.
State audit finds overall unnecessary spending under former UF President Ben Sasse
Sasse’s expenditures included more than $300,000 in private jet flights By Garrett Shanley Alligator Staff Writer
A preliminary report from the Florida Auditor General found UF failed to prevent former President Ben Sasse from leveraging his executive privileges to inappropriately spend university funds. The Florida Auditor General’s report, obtained by The Alligator, revealed new details about Sasse’s spending practices, including that he used more than $300,000 in
SPORTS/SPECIAL/CUTOUT
Sober curious finish with comma, Story description
Chasing an alcohol-free lifestyle. pg# Read more on pg. 8.
university funds to charter flights on the University Athletic Association’s private jets for trips with no clear business purposes. The report spelled out the extent to which Sasse, a former Republican U.S. Senator from Nebraska, swerved the university’s existing regulations and guidelines. Auditors found UF allowed Sasse to award a large chunk of his inner circle — including members of his former Capitol Hill staff — salaries far exceeding the uni-
versity’s market-rate averages and without soliciting competing applications from other candidates. The audit also raised concerns over the university’s decision to let Sasse keep his $1 million salary for a continued role as a professor and adviser to the UF Board of Trustees chairman. Sasse’s current roles “appear to be significantly less in scope” than his duties as president, the auditors’ report read. As such, “the public purpose of such
SEE AUDIT, PAGE 3
The Avenue: The Grammys
Gainesville native nominated for five awards, pg. 7
Ten years ago, Amy Trask was in her kitchen making eggs for breakfast, her newborn asleep in the crib. Her partner sat on the couch, still intoxicated from the night before. The air was tense. As her newborn began to wake, Trask was told to “shut the baby up,” she said. With each wail, she felt her partner’s anger begin to escalate. As she grabbed her child, she dialed 911. Moments later, the phone was taken from her hands and shattered against the wall. Through the pain of the physical abuse, Trask said she remembers a moment of stillness came over her, reminding her she was going to protect her child if it was the last thing she’d do. “I remember throwing myself on top of my child … thinking that this was it, that I was gonna die, and that I just needed to hold on until the police came,” she said. In the United States, one in four women are victims of domestic violence. Each year, domestic violence affects nearly 10 million people, according to the National Institute of Health. Last year in Gainesville alone, police responded to an average of about 2.5 domestic violence
incidents per day. Following her own experience, Trask set out to create a pair of bills to protect other Floridians from facing the same. If passed, the bills would expand law enforcement response and victim resources and create a “panic button” to make it easier for people to escape their situation. Senate Bill 240 and House Bill 19, companion bills named “Victims of Domestic Violence and Dating Violence,” is Trask’s monthslong project. Each bill will be voted on through its respective chamber during Florida’s upcoming legislative session in March. A companion bill is a bill introduced in one chamber that is identical or similar to a bill in the other chamber, usually to streamline the approval process. The bills may be amended any number of times throughout each respective committee's reviews. However, both bills must be of identical form when up for vote in both chambers. If passed in both chambers, the identical versions will be drafted into one bill for Gov. Ron DeSantis to sign into law. What would the bills do? The first thing the bills would do is redefine “dating violence” and “domestic violence” to be legally consistent with each other, Trask said. In Florida, domestic violence law encompasses familial relationships, including blood relatives and marriages. It requires the individuals to have lived together at some point or have a shared child.
SEE DV BILL, PAGE 2
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Board of Governors
Approving the search committee’s list of finalists, pg. 5
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