Backroom briefing: Anti-DEI voices chomp at UF finalist, taxing ideas

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks during an event in Ocala on April 17, 2025. [Bruce Ackerman/Ocala Gazette file photo]

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Posted May 22, 2026 | By Jim Turner, The News Service of Florida

Conservatives opposed to diversity, equity and inclusion programs are taking aim at the latest candidate to be the University of Florida’s next president.

Shortly after former University of Alabama President Stuart Bell was named on May 18 as the lone finalist for the same job at Florida’s flagship university, social media buzzed with opposition over his past efforts to back DEI initiatives at the Tuscaloosa school.

John Sailer, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, was among those leading the crusade against Bell. His postings on X derided Bell’s “dismal record at Alabama” as not reassuring for those hoping for “continued and deeper reform at the University of Florida.”

“Even when Alabama’s legislature abolished DEI, Bell kept the school’s DEI officers and renamed the DEI office. His diversity chief is still a senior administrator at Alabama today,” Sailer posted.

Sailer also claimed the UF Board of Trustees, who have yet to vote on Bell, were “breaching protocol” by having Bell as the lone finalist.

A 2022 law provides exemptions to public-records and public-meetings laws for presidential searches. Under the law, identifying information about most presidential applicants is not disclosed, though information about finalists for the positions is made public.

Gov. Ron DeSantis, though, was quick to support Bell.

“Congrats to Dr. Stuart Bell on being selected by the University of Florida to be the next university president,” DeSantis posted on X on Monday. “Dr. Bell did much to elevate the University of Alabama when he was the president in Tuscaloosa and I have no doubt that he will help UF reach new heights during his tenure in Gainesville. He is a great selection and has my full support!”

But DeSantis’ predecessor, Rick Scott, now a U.S. Senator, is taking a dim view of the selection process for Bell.

He wrote State University System Chancellor Ray Rodrigues this week, questioning the UF presidential search process, as well as the school’s contract with Donald Landry, who served as interim president since September.

Landry’s contract provided an annual base salary of $2 million and included the potential for another $2 million in severance if he didn’t get the permanent job as president.

“Frankly, what is occurring at UF sounds like something we would see coming out of states like California or New York,” Scott wrote.

Scott also took aim at Attorney General James Uthmeier’s $100,000 contract to teach at UF’s Levin College of Law. The letter included a request for all contracts involving the hiring of elected officials or their family members.

Landry was brought in last year after the state university system’s Board of Governors rejected former University of Michigan leader Santa Ono as president in a 10-6 vote.

After Ono was announced as the lone candidate for the presidency, conservatives, including Christopher Rufo, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute and an appointee of DeSantis to the New College of Florida Board of Trustees, questioned Ono’s “evolution” on DEI efforts.

Ahead of the Ono vote, DeSantis gave lukewarm backing to the pick, saying he supported the UF Trustees and would “let the process play out.”

DeSantis and the Republican-controlled Legislature have outlawed DEI programs and initiatives in public schools and universities.

TAXING IDEAS

Gov. DeSantis is already looking past the ongoing special session on the budget toward a session on a homestead property tax measure that can be placed on the November ballot.

“We obviously know that what the next item on the agenda is after that job (the budget) is done,” DeSantis said while at the Space Coast Association of Realtors in Melbourne on Monday.

DeSantis has been pushing for a large property tax cut for more than a year but hasn’t put forward a written blueprint for his ballot measure. Among the ideas are limits on what governments can spend money on beyond public safety and education, caps on local governments increasing property tax rates on small businesses, and time limits on when people could start to receive any exemption.

“I don’t want every Tom, Dick and Harry from out of state moving and rushing to buy a home here because they get a tax benefit,” DeSantis said. “And the reason is, because Floridians have been paying taxes. And so I think if you move here after this is enacted, you got to pay tax for a certain period of time before you qualify for this.”

The House approved a proposal in the regular session that would eliminate all non-school taxes for properties with a homestead exemption, but Senate leaders expressed concerns about the effect on rural counties with small tax bases.

DeSantis maintains the state could “temporarily” provide grants from existing state surplus to some counties.

“We couldn’t do it forever. But we definitely could do it,” DeSantis said. “It’s a couple $100 million a year for all these fiscally constrained counties.”