Florida’s Board of Governors voted 16-1 Wednesday to confirm Dr. Stuart Bell, former University of Alabama president, as the University of Florida’s 14th president, with board member Aubry Edge casting the lone dissent.
A year ago, the same board rejected former University of Michigan president Santa Ono 10-6 over his record on diversity programs and COVID-era policy. Bell’s critics bet that precedent would repeat. U.S. Senator Rick Scott (R-Fla.) spent the weeks after Bell’s nomination attacking the search process and Bell’s record, while an online campaign worked to brand him a closet DEI advocate.
UF Board Chair Mori Hosseini shut those tactics aside in May, dismissing the online push as people “getting paid by somebody to tweet.” Trustees confirmed Bell unanimously days later. Wednesday, the board that ended Ono’s candidacy let Bell’s stand.
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Now officially confirmed, Hosseini said with Dr. Bell at the helm, “there is no limit to what the University of Florida can accomplish.”
“Dr. Bell has fully embraced our Board of Trustees’ vision of leading UF to become one of the top three public universities in the nation, and I am absolutely confident he will take us there,” he said.
In a statement, Dr. Bell said: “I’m ready to get to work.”
“The University of Florida is an extraordinary institution with exceptional talent, remarkable momentum and limitless opportunity. I look forward to working alongside our students, faculty, staff, alumni and supporters as we continue building one of the world’s great public universities.”
All told, Bell’s ten-year record at Alabama was the deciding factor UF’s board cited repeatedly through the search.
Alabama Football won three national championships on Bell’s watch, along with six SEC titles and seven College Football Playoff appearances between 2015 and 2023. Men’s basketball also made its first Final Four in program history under his presidency.
Bell served as president of the Southeastern Conference from 2023 to 2025, a stretch that included the SEC’s expansion to 16 teams with the additions of Texas and Oklahoma and new media rights deals with ESPN and the College Football Playoff.
The academic numbers moved just as hard.
Alabama’s enrollment grew from 36,155 students in fall 2014 to a record 40,846 in fall 2024, including six straight years of growth in in-state freshman enrollment. The university achieved Carnegie R1 status, the top tier for research activity, for the first time under Bell, with sponsored research funding climbing to nearly $270 million a year.
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The Rising Tide Capital Campaign, which Bell launched in 2016, blew past its original $1.5 billion goal and pushed toward $1.8 billion, generating more than $1.7 billion in total philanthropic commitments, over 1,100 new endowed scholarships and roughly 70 new endowed faculty positions. UA’s annual economic impact on the state topped $2.9 billion by the time Bell left office.
Alabama added 26 new buildings and renovated more than 60 others during Bell’s tenure, including the Randall Welcome Center, Hewson Hall, Stran-Hardin Arena, Drummond Lyon Hall and the Smith Family Center for the Performing Arts.
Bell hosted President Trump on campus three times – the 2019 Alabama-LSU game, the 2024 Alabama-Georgia game, and the 2025 spring commencement, where he became the first sitting president to deliver a UA graduation address. Bell continued to put Tuscaloosa on the national political map by hosting the December 2023 Republican presidential primary debate at the Moody Music Building.
Rather than distance himself from his Alabama record, Bell advertised how strongly his administration approached DEI.
Alabama closed its DEI office in 2024 to comply with a state law banning taxpayer-funded diversity programs, a closure Bell oversaw directly. Told trustees flatly where he stood: “I’m not coming to Florida to bring DEI or ‘woke’ back.”
Governor Ron DeSantis endorsed Bell the day he was named sole finalist, posting that Bell “did much to elevate the University of Alabama” and had his “full support.”
Nick Saban, who coached under three Alabama presidents before Bell and worked directly with him for eight seasons, went further.
“Dr. Bell is an outstanding person and was a great leader at the University of Alabama. In the locker room after almost every game, he is a good friend and passionate supporter of athletics — and is someone who made a significant impact on the university and the Tuscaloosa community. I know he will do wonderful things in Gainesville!”
Bell leaves Tuscaloosa as the third longest-tenured president in UA history, behind only George Denny and Frank Rose. He arrives in Gainesville with a 16-1 seal of approval from their Board of Governors, emerging victorious in a war on his record.
Grayson Everett is the editor in chief of Yellowhammer News. You can follow him on X @Grayson270.
