Kate Murphy

kmurphy@enquirer.com

Santa J. Ono made it official Monday. He’s leaving the Queen City after four years as the president of the University of Cincinnati – and taking a 30 percent pay cut in the process.

He will become the 15th president and vice-chancellor of the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, UBC announced at a news conference Monday. Ono’s last day at UC will be in mid-July and he will start his new job in August.

UC Board Of Trustees Chairman Rob Richardson Jr. said there would be a national search to replace Ono that will begin next week. The board Monday named Provost Beverly Davenport as UC’s interim president.

Richardson said board members had multiple meetings to try to persuade Ono to stay. He informed trustees last week that he was leaving.

“We did everything we could,” but Ono’s desire to return to his hometown couldn’t be overcome, Richardson said. “We’re confident we’re going to keep moving forward.”

Ono acknowledged his love for Cincinnati and its people at a Vancouver news conference.

“It will be very tough leaving them and more generally the city of Cincinnati and the state of Ohio,” he said. “The only reasons I’m willing to do so are one, that I know the university is on strong footing and has a very capable executive team. And two, that UBC is that very special, once-in-a-lifetime place that I simply could not pass (up) the opportunity to lead.”

Ono is leaving in the middle of his 10-year contract with UC, which he signed in 2012. The move is a homecoming of sorts for Ono, who was born in Vancouver. His father, Takashi Ono, was a mathematics professor at UBC in the early 1960s.

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“Vancouver is one of our special, favorite places,” Ono said at a news conference there. “It’s incredibly important. When you think of any family, there are certain people and certain places that our transformative. For the Ono family, University of British Columbia was transformative.”

Ono added that if his family’s experience in British Columbia hadn’t been so positive, the family might have left North America.

Ono also released a letter thanking the UC community and Cincinnati for his time spent in the Queen City:

“It is with very mixed emotions that I write to tell you that I have accepted an offer from the board of governors of the University of British Columbia to serve UBC as its 15th president and vice-chancellor. ...

“Please accept my thanks for giving me the opportunity to serve the University of Cincinnati as your 28th president. UC will always have a special place in my heart. It has been an honor and privilege to serve you.

“I will miss you Cincinnati. Go Bearcats!”

UBC is larger than UC, with more than 60,000 students (an enrollment nearly 40 percent bigger than UC’s. Its annual budget is $1.8 billion U.S., or about 44 percent bigger than UC’s. The UBC website calls the university, the third largest in Canada in enrollment, “a global center for research and teaching, consistently ranked among the top 20 public universities in the world.”

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Canadian universities rarely appoint senior leaders from the United States, the Globe and Mail, Canada’s national newspaper, noted in a story about Ono. Only 15 percent of recent Canadian university appointments for the top job came from outside senior administrative ranks, according to a 2012 study.

It wasn’t clear if Ono is a dual U.S.-Canadian citizen, but he could be since he was born in Canada. He also received his Ph.D. in experimental medicine from Montreal’s McGill University.

UBC began looking for a new president after Arvind Gupta abruptly resigned last August.

At UBC, Ono will be paid $367,000 a year, free housing on the university’s coastal property, a car, club memberships and six weeks paid vacation. He also will be named a professor of medicine.

At UC, Ono’s annual salary was $525,000 and his contract included additional compensation, including a housing stipend, a car and an annual performance bonus (which Ono has consistently turned down).

Ono has become a high-profile figure and advocate during his tenure as UC’s president.

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Ono, 53, was Ohio’s first Asian-American university president and was recently awarded the national Diversity Leadership Award by the American Council on Education. At UC, Ono created the most diverse executive team in the institution’s history. He was also named the nation’s most notable college president by Washington, D.C.-based website Inside Higher Ed in 2015.

He recently spoke out on mental health issues, publicly acknowledging his own battle with depression as a young man. He said he hoped to act as a model for college students and warn them against putting too much pressure on themselves.

Ono has promoted efforts by the university to expand by considering bringing UC’s law school Downtown, building a new outpatient facility for the UC Neuroscience Institute, and remodeling academic buildings and dorms.

His presence on social media has left a lasting impact on students. He raised UC’s profile on Twitter, naming it the #HottestCollegeinAmerica, which has been adopted internationally. Ohio Gov. John Kasich made that official in 2013 by passing a Twitter resolution that recognized UC by its nickname.