By Ana Go\u00f1i-Lessan, The News Service of Florida <\/p>\n
The University of Florida has hit another snag in the push to install a new president.<\/p>\n
Even though the school\u2019s board unanimously approved Stuart Bell as the school\u2019s 14th president, the chairman of the Board of Governors said Bell would not be confirmed until \u201cgovernance issues\u201d at UF are reviewed.<\/p>\n
In a May 20 letter to State University System Chancellor Ray Rodrigues, BOG Chairman Alan Levine wrote he was concerned about the \u201csweeping authority\u201d granted to UF\u2019s Board of Trustees chairman Mori Hosseini and therefore would not put any item on the agenda from a university that is \u201cout of compliance.\u201d<\/p>\n
Levine alleged Hosseini has been granted \u201cfinancial, contractual and other delegations that I feel are problematic, inconsistent with best practices in governance,\u201d and run afoul of state regulations.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne board member may not substitute his or her judgment for that of the other duly appointed board members,\u201d Levine wrote.<\/p>\n
Now, UF\u2019s board plans to name Bell as an interim president until Levine\u2019s concerns are resolved, said Rahul Patel, vice chair of UF\u2019s board.<\/p>\n
In a statement the university posted on X, Patel called Levine\u2019s move \u201cunfair\u201d and that his candidacy is being dragged into a dispute \u201cunrelated to his candidacy.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cEqually concerning is that a decision of this magnitude has been made unilaterally rather than by the full Board of Governors,\u201d Patel said. \u201cDelaying consideration of the unanimously approved president designate of Florida\u2019s flagship university is a consequential action that should be decided by the Board of Governors as a body, not by a single individual acting alone.\u201d<\/p>\n
UF\u2019s board will meet on Monday so the university can \u201ccontinue to move forward while the issue is addressed,\u201d Patel added.<\/p>\n
Last week, Bell was confirmed as the next UF president after a volatile two-year search. The university\u2019s first choice in 2025, former University of Michigan president Santa Ono, was approved by UF\u2019s board of trustees, but was later rejected by the BOG with a 10-6 vote.<\/p>\n
BOG members questioned Ono\u2019s avowed reversal on diversity, equity and inclusion programs, which he embraced at UM when he was president.<\/p>\n
Bell has been criticized for the same thing by online activists, who say he backed DEI initiatives during his 10-year tenure as president of the University of Alabama.<\/p>\n
In his meeting with UF leaders last week, Bell assured the board he would not enact DEI programs as president.<\/p>\n
\u201cLet me be clear. I am not coming to Florida to bring DEI or \u2018woke\u2019 back, period,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Before serving as president of the University of Alabama, Bell served as provost and professor of engineering at Louisiana State University and as dean of the School of Engineering and professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Kansas.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Ana Go\u00f1i-Lessan, The News Service of Florida The University of Florida has hit another snag in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":37498,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[232,234,233],"class_list":["post-313180","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tallahassee","tag-tallahassee","tag-tallahassee-headlines","tag-tallahassee-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313180","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=313180"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313180\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37498"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=313180"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=313180"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=313180"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}