Stuart Bell survived his first test in the gauntlet to become President of the University of Florida.
The UF Board of Trustees voted unanimously Wednesday to hire Bell, who led the University of Alabama from 2015 to 2025. Since Bell was chosen as the only successful candidate for the job, his selection has been subject to consistent criticism for his embrace of diversity, equality and standardization, including his plans for inclusive education. When the board questioned DEI’s practices in Alabama, Bell defended his record in the context of the times and noted that he later dismantled such programs.
Now, his nomination will go to the Florida Board of Governors for final approval. That board voted down the last person nominated to permanently lead UF.
While many conservatives blasted Bell for DEI on social media, UF’s board quickly defused the controversy when Chairman Mori Hosseini spoke out against critics who are “paid by somebody to tweet.”
“This board will not agree,” said Hosseini. “We will do what is right.”
Various critics, including Republican Senator Rick Scott, accused UF of failing to conduct the search, but the board disputed that view in the first minutes of the meeting. Rahul Patel, the trustee leading the search committee, stressed that it followed Florida law.
“To suggest that we and our committee need to be transparent would be to suggest that our committee violated Florida law. So, I hope people understand that we have followed the letter of the law when it comes to disclosure,” said Patel.
Despite DEI’s ire hanging over the meeting, board members touched on the topic sparingly during a wide-ranging, nearly 90-minute public discussion with Bell. About 20 minutes into the interview, trustee Dan O’Keefe asked about DEI in Alabama.
“I would like to understand from your point of view why you had those plans and what was the purpose of those plans,” O’Keefe asked.
“First of all, let me be clear: I’m not coming to Florida to bring DEI or wake up,” Bell said.
Bell emphasized that he intends to “build on the vision of this board and the vision that I find consistent throughout the country” to develop “a great institution based on merit, based on hard work, based on accountability.” Bell repeated variations of that theme throughout his interview.
Bell added that “as a government agency, we will follow the law of the land, we will follow what has been given to us by the legislature and the people of the state of Florida.” He also said that DEI’s efforts in Alabama—which significantly increased minority enrollment during his administration—came at a time when many government agencies and large corporations were adopting such practices.
But over time, Bell argued, such efforts changed.
“They moved from that initial goal in some cases, to goals that do not show what we can say is hard work based on success and success, so companies, institutions, universities, and their regions, began to evaluate their plans. [and] laws were passed,” said Bell.
He noted that after Alabama passed an anti-DEI law in 2024, his team began a thorough review of the entire university to dismantle such practices and programs.
But the question also prompted a response from Hosseini who has publicly clashed with the Florida Board of Governors, which has the final say on the hiring of the UF president and rejected former University of Michigan President Santa Ono last year due to concerns related to his position in the DEI. (Ono tried unsuccessfully to distance himself from previous statements about DEI.)
Hosseini pointed out that in 2020, following the killing of George Floyd in Minnesota, the Florida Board of Governors issued a memo noting concerns about “discrimination and social injustice” and listed DEI as a priority for the Florida State University program.
“So what should we do?” Hosseini asked. “Go and kill everyone on the Board of Governors?”
While UF trustees celebrated Bell’s election, conservative critics quickly appeared online, including board members at other public institutions in the Sunshine State.
“Further investigation of the ‘lone winner’ for the president of the University of Florida shows that he is a very bad choice,” wrote Ilya Shapiro, dean of Florida Polytechnic University, in X shortly after the meeting. “Big fan of @GovRonDeSantis here—and he appointed/reappointed me to the @FLPolyU board—but this is a mistake. Bell might be worse than Santa Ono.”
