The University of Alabama’s 29th President, Dr. Stuart Bell, is set to retire in July after ten years of leading the Capstone.  Under Bell’s direction, the school experienced significant progress and growth in multiple areas including academics, athletics, and student life.

On Tuesday, Kyle South, President and CEO of the West Alabama Chamber of Commerce spoke with the university’s Chief Administrative Officer, Chad Tindol, during a podcast about Bell’s legacy in Tuscaloosa.

“I think Stuart Bell will go down as one of the best presidents we’ve had in the history of this university,” said Tindol. “You think back there are four or five true history makers that have sat in that office. Certainly, Dr. Denny, who took it from a very small school to a nationally prominent school. Dr. Rose, who integrated this university peacefully when so many others failed at that. Dr. Witt, who had the vision to roughly double it in size. Not just the vision to do that, but the acumen to get it done. Stuart Bell has had that sort of transformative moment as president at the university.”

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Tindol spoke about the accomplishments of the University under Bell’s leadership.

“I think these 10 years will be remembered as times of records, relationships, new enrollment records almost every year, it seems. When I came into this position six years ago, he said, I want you to work on in-state enrollment. We’ve had six consecutive falls of increasing resident in-state students, along with our overall record retention records and graduation records and all those things you want to see academically. We talked about research and how that’s tripled or more over his time here. Fundraising is something we didn’t touch on as much, but we’re nearing the end of a $1.8 billion capital campaign, the biggest in the history of this state. It’s going to create, dozens of scholarships and faculty positions that are going to pay benefits for decades to come.”

The statistics represent far more than just data, according to Tindol.

“Those are numbers, and numbers are important because they’re ways of measuring what we do,” he said. “But I like to think behind those numbers, those are lives impacted.”

Tindol called the Bells a blessing to the community and noted their genuine love for the University.

“When you look back on Susan and Stuart Bell’s time in this community, I think people are going to think those are folks who cared for this place, and the care that they had for it mattered, and it impacted this community.”

Dr. Bell is the third longest-tenured president in UA’s history, with only Presidents George Denny and Frank Rose having served more time in the position.

Austen Shipley is the News Director for Yellowhammer News. You can follow him on  X @ShipleyAusten