By Ana Go\u00f1i-Lessan, The News Service of Florida <\/p>\n
\u00a0The State University System\u2019s Board of Governors has no legal basis to delay the confirmation vote for Dr. Stuart Bell as president of the University of Florida, Attorney General James Uthmeier\u2019s office has determined.<\/p>\n
BOG Chairman Alan Levine wrote to Chancellor Ray Rodrigues outlining \u201cgovernance issues\u201d at UF concerning the school\u2019s board\u2019s deferral to chairman Mori Hosseini on key decisions. That held up the BOG\u2019s confirmation of Bell, who was unanimously approved by the UF Board of Trustees earlier this month.<\/p>\n
In a letter sent Friday and addressed to BOG member Nicholas Sinatra and written on behalf of Uthmeier, general counsel Greg Slemp stated the university\u2019s board is \u201cnot out of compliance,\u201d and Levine is \u201cincorrect to withhold consideration of the Trustees\u2019 nomination on that basis.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cChairman Levine\u2019s assertions are not a legally correct basis on which to withhold consideration of the Board of Trustees\u2019 nomination of Dr. Stuart Bell to be the president of the University of Florida,\u201d the letter reads.<\/p>\n
Uthmeier is a UF graduate who teaches at the school, a role that pays him $100,000 per year.<\/p>\n
Trustees unanimously approved Bell as the school\u2019s 14th president, and Bell was set to be confirmed by the BOG at\u00a0its next meeting until Levine removed the item from the agenda, saying\u00a0he was concerned about the \u201csweeping authority\u201d granted to Hosseini.<\/p>\n
In his letter to Rodrigues, 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
Uthmeier\u2019s office, however, said Florida law \u201cprovides broad discretion for a university board of trustees to require university presidents to perform various duties, including obtaining approval of the board chair for the hiring and compensation of university personnel or for any other lawful purpose.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rahul Patel, vice chair of UF\u2019s board, called Levine\u2019s letter \u201cunfair\u201d and said Bell\u2019s candidacy was being dragged into a dispute \u201cunrelated to his candidacy.\u201d<\/p>\n
\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 Patel said.<\/p>\n
UF has been searching for a president for two years after former president Ben Sasse resigned in 2024. Initially, former UF president Kent Fuchs took over on an interim basis, then Donald Landry took over the job \u2013 also on an interim basis \u2013 on Sept. 1, 2025.<\/p>\n
In its search for a permanent president, the university approved\u00a0former University of Michigan president Santa Ono in 2025, but the BOG rejected their pick 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
Uthmeier has come to the defense of Bell and Hosseini on social media, slamming conservative activist Chris Rufo for questioning Hosseini\u2019s actions and calling for an investigation by the BOG<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can debate Stuart Bell\u2019s candidacy, but if you want to defame and smear a good man\u2019s name, you\u2019re going to have a real problem with me,\u201d Uthmeier said in response to Rufo.<\/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 \u00a0The State University System\u2019s Board of Governors has no legal…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":176730,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[232,234,233],"class_list":["post-315557","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\/315557","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=315557"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315557\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/176730"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=315557"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=315557"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=315557"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}