{"id":1638,"date":"2026-06-10T21:31:45","date_gmt":"2026-06-10T21:31:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/floridamovingchronicle.com\/?p=1638"},"modified":"2026-06-10T21:31:45","modified_gmt":"2026-06-10T21:31:45","slug":"uf-trustees-advance-president-elect-stuart-bell-to-final-state-board-vote-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/floridamovingchronicle.com\/?p=1638","title":{"rendered":"UF trustees advance President-elect Stuart Bell to final state board vote"},"content":{"rendered":"<article><!-- --><!-- --><!-- WPS-5038 -- removed the script from WPS and added the placeholder for trinity player --><!-- --><!-- --><!-- --><!-- --><span>GAINESVILLE<\/span><!-- --><!-- --><!-- CONTENT --><!--[--><!--[--><\/p>\n<p>The University of Florida\u2019s Board of Trustees on Wednesday mounted a full-throated defense of Stuart Bell, unanimously voting to make him the university\u2019s next president and signaling that UF\u2019s leadership has little appetite for another politically driven collapse of a presidential search.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/floridamovingchronicle.com\/?p=1637\">Miami Gardens homicide and home invasion end in $5 million drug seizure: police<\/a><\/p>\n<p><!-- --><!--]--><!--[--><\/p>\n<p>The vote advances Bell, the former University of Alabama president, to the final stage of a hiring process that has become entangled in culture-war battles over diversity, equity and inclusion. Since a search committee named Bell the sole finalist on May 18, conservative activists and high-ranking Republican officials have scrutinized his past support for DEI initiatives at Alabama, raising the same concerns that derailed UF\u2019s previous presidential search.<\/p>\n<p><!-- --><!--]--><!--[--><\/p>\n<p>But if Bell arrived in Gainesville expecting the kind of bruising ideological cross-examination that doomed Santa Ono\u2019s candidacy last year, he found something closer to a show of institutional solidarity.<\/p>\n<p><!--]--><!--[--><\/p>\n<p>Throughout a meeting at UF\u2019s Emerson Alumni Hall that stretched for two hours, trustees repeatedly vouched for Bell\u2019s qualifications, dismissed right-wing commentary and sought to defuse many of the political landmines that blew up Ono\u2019s failed bid. Rather than putting Bell on trial \u2014 as they did with Ono in an apparent attempt to assuage his conservative opponents \u2014 board members repeatedly made the case for the former Alabama leader.<\/p>\n<p><!-- --><!--]--><!--[--><\/p>\n<p>The display reflected both the unusually high stakes surrounding Florida\u2019s flagship college presidency and a growing sense of fatigue on a campus that has spent years navigating political battles, leadership turnover and increasingly contentious fights over the direction of higher education in Florida.<\/p>\n<p><!--]--><!--[--><\/p>\n<p>Mori Hosseini, the politically connected chairman of UF\u2019s board and a prolific ally of Gov. Ron DeSantis, delivered what amounted to an unusually direct rebuke of a conservative campaign to shut down Bell\u2019s candidacy. Critics have pointed to statements Bell made following George Floyd\u2019s murder in 2020 and questioned whether his administration merely repackaged diversity programs after Alabama lawmakers banned DEI initiatives at public universities in 2024.<\/p>\n<p><!-- --><!--]--><!--[--><\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou have been getting emails. You have been getting people\u2026 sending tweets, writing op-eds, and so on and so forth. But this is your responsibility. You make your decision based on your own conscience,\u201d Hosseini told trustees. \u201cPut politics aside. It is not about personal vendetta. It\u2019s not about jealousy. It\u2019s about the future of 67,000 students.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><!-- --><!--]--><!--[--><\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is too important to have your personal reason or paying somebody to tweet,\u201d the chairman added. \u201cThis board is not going to give in. This board is going to do the right thing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><!--]--><!--[--><\/p>\n<p>Hosseini noted that many university leaders \u2014 including officials in Florida\u2019s own higher education system \u2014 embraced diversity initiatives during the years when such programs were widely encouraged across academia. He argued that universities were responding to directives and expectations that were commonplace at the time, long before Florida\u2019s political leadership turned sharply against DEI.<\/p>\n<p><!-- --><!--]--><!--[--><\/p>\n<p>It was just a few years ago, Hosseini reminded the boardroom, that the Board of Governors ordered state universities to inject DEI into curriculum after Floyd\u2019s murder. It was only when DeSantis began questioning DEI programs, he added, that the political winds shifted to the right.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/floridamovingchronicle.com\/?p=1636\">Walmart to Wynwood: Keke Palmer makes the rounds all over Miami<\/a><\/p>\n<p><!-- --><!--]--><!--[--><\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo what should we do? Go kill everybody on the Board of Governors?\u201d Hosseini quipped.<\/p>\n<p><!--]--><!--[--><\/p>\n<p>Bell, for his part, forcefully rejected suggestions that he would attempt to revive such programs in Florida.<\/p>\n<p><!-- --><!--]--><!--[--><\/p>\n<p>He said Alabama conducted a \u201ctop-to-bottom\u201d review of its diversity initiatives after state lawmakers approved restrictions and eliminated programs that conflicted with a merit-based approach to education. Bell noted that the Alabama legislator who sponsored the law later told him the university had fully complied with its requirements.<\/p>\n<p><!-- --><!--]--><!--[--><\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m not coming to Florida to bring DEI or woke back. Period,\u201d Bell said.<\/p>\n<p><!--]--><!--[--><\/p>\n<p>Wednesday\u2019s meeting, however, featured relatively little discussion of DEI. Trustees steered most of their questions away from politics and toward what faculty and staff see as some of the most pressing issues of the time: athletics, research funding, UF\u2019s sprawling hospital system and climbing the U.S. News and World Report college rankings.<\/p>\n<p><!-- --><!--]--><!--[--><\/p>\n<p>The unanimous vote tees up what could be another closely watched showdown before the Board of Governors, where Bell\u2019s nomination is expected to face scrutiny from some of the same conservative figures who helped derail Ono\u2019s candidacy last year.<\/p>\n<p><!-- --><!--]--><!--[--><\/p>\n<p>The 17-person body\u2019s current leadership \u2014 Chairman Alan Levine and Vice Chair Tim Cerio \u2014 were among the 10 board members who voted against Ono last year. But Bell will arrive for his confirmation vote with the public backing of DeSantis, who in January appointed a slate of six new state board members who are generally aligned with Hosseini.<\/p>\n<p><!--]--><!--[--><\/p>\n<p>And Bell already has the backing of at least one state board member. Former State Sen. Keith<\/p>\n<p><!-- --><!--]--><!--[--><\/p>\n<p>Perry, a new DeSantis appointee, endorsed Bell on Wednesday, telling UF trustees that he had met with Bell and determined that he was \u201ca good choice.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/floridamovingchronicle.com\/?p=1635\">Inflation surged in May, new data shows. Here\u2019s what that means for South Florida<\/a><\/p>\n<p><!-- --><!--]--><!--[--><\/p>\n<p>Perry noted: \u201cI\u2019m also not speaking on behalf of the Board of Governors.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><!--]--><!--]--><!-- --><\/p>\n<p>This story was originally published <span>June 10, 2026 at 4:47 PM<span>.<\/span><\/span><!-- --><\/p>\n<p><!-- --><!-- --><!-- --><\/article>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>UF trustees unanimously advanced Stuart Bell, the former Alabama president, to a final Board of Governors vote amid debate over DEI and campus leadership.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":641,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1638","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-florida-politics"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>UF trustees advance President-elect Stuart Bell to final state board vote - 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