The University of Florida publicly denounced DEI as “discriminatory” as political backlash intensifies over the flagship’s closed-door presidential search.
Last week, trustees named Stuart Bell as the sole finalist for the university’s top post. Bell led the University of Alabama from 2015 to 2025, breaking in-state enrollment records during his tenure.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis took to X, formerly Twitter, to congratulate Bell and stated that the selection had his full support. DeSantis has helped mold the modern Republican agenda on education by defunding DEI and denouncing a range of academic topics that he believes reinforce “woke liberal ideology.”
Other Republican voices casted doubt over the university’s announcement.
U.S. Sen. Rick Scott issued a four-page letter criticizing the search and the cost of the process, pointing to what he described as millions in expenditures to attract top candidates.
Scott’s chief complaint is with a state law signed in 2022 allowing all state colleges and universities to shield the identities of presidential candidates until the final stage of the process.
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Interim president Dr. Donald Landry, chair emeritus of Columbia University’s Department of Medicine, is eligible for a $2 million buyout if he is not selected. Bell, by contrast, could earn up to $3 million annually, Mainstreet Daily News reports.
This announcement “gives no clear reason as to why Dr. Landry was not suited for the job. Maybe he was, maybe he wasn’t. I don’t know. No one knows,” Scott wrote in a letter to the state’s university system chancellor.
“Again, 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,” he added. “Who is paying for this?”
Others focused on Bell’s perceived alignment with DEI. In a rare intervention, U.S. Education Secretary Linda McMahon responded directly to Scott’s post, arguing the university needed leadership committed to dismantling DEI initiatives.
During his time in Alabama, the president formed an advisory committee on diversity, and enrollment among minority students increased significantly between 2020 and 2024, The Gainesville Sun reports.
McMahon’s statement echoed hundreds of other critics on social media, as well as the rhetoric used to derail UF’s last sole finalist, Santa Ono, who was undone by his past commitments to DEI at the University of Michigan.
The university then issued an unusually forceful defense of Bell and the board’s decision.
“DEI is discriminatory by design, antithetical to the purpose of a university and incompatible with the pursuit of truth,” UF’s official X account wrote, replying to the Education Secretary’s comments.
“Dr. Stuart Bell stands with Secretary McMahon, the Board and the people of Florida on this,” the post continued. “He is ready to lead UF forward as a university defined by merit, rigor and the pursuit of truth.”
The exchange underscores how Florida’s vision for higher education leadership is increasingly shaped by conservative politics.
Last year, Florida A&M University selected Marva Johnson, a corporate lobbyist with strong ties to DeSantis, as its next president. Florida Atlantic University opted for Adam Hasner, a former Republican Florida House Majority Leader and executive of a private prison company.
Bell’s turbulent selection also represents continued leadership instability for the state’s flagship. The university’s last permanent president, Ben Sasse, resigned in July 2024 after less than two years on the job.
