The University of Florida’s board on Wednesday unanimously backed Stuart R. Bell to become the school’s next president, inching toward the end of a tumultuous two-year period that began with the abrupt resignation of Ben Sasse, the former Nebraska senator.
The state university system’s board must still approve Dr. Bell’s selection. The step is often a formality, but it thwarted a candidate for the job last year.
Dr. Bell previously served for a decade as the president of the University of Alabama, where he was recognized for expanding enrollment and elevating the university’s status as a research institution, and for his involvement in Southeastern Conference athletics.
Addressing the board, Dr. Bell pledged to elevate the university to the top three of the U.S. News & World Report rankings, embracing a longtime goal of the board’s president, Mori Hosseini.
“Your vision is my vision,” he told the board. “Our North Star is to be the best public university in the United States.” The school currently ranks seventh among public universities.
By picking Dr. Bell, Florida indicated a desire to return to a leader with a traditional academic background. Before his long tenure as Alabama’s president, he had served as the dean of engineering at the University of Kansas and as provost at Louisiana State University, as well as a professor at Alabama.
The national rankings had driven a wedge between the board and Dr. Sasse, who had questioned their importance.
Dr. Sasse, a Republican who took over at Florida after spending eight years in the Senate, lacked the typical credentials of a major university president. After he resigned, Florida tried to appoint Santa Ono, the former University of Michigan president. The state board blocked the choice after Dr. Ono faced criticism from conservatives who attacked his former support for diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives and what they saw as leniency toward pro-Palestinian protesters.
Last month, the University of Florida, which is in Gainesville, announced that Dr. Bell was the new sole finalist.
But he also immediately came under fire from conservatives in Florida and nationally who said that Dr. Bell, like Dr. Ono, had embraced D.E.I. by far too much. Separately, Senator Rick Scott, a Republican, attacked the search process for lacking transparency. Board members said they had followed a state law shielding presidential searches from public view.
Dr. Bell’s nomination will now move to the board that upended Dr. Ono’s plan, though Dr. Bell can point to the endorsement of Gov. Ron DeSantis, who has enormous sway over the board.
“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,” the governor wrote on social media.
Still, Dr. Bell’s appointment came as something of a surprise to many in Florida, who had assumed that Donald W. Landry, the interim president and former chairman of medicine at Columbia University, would be named to the role permanently.
Dr. Landry’s contract includes a requirement that the university pay him severance of $2 million if he is not selected to the job as permanent president.
Judith Wilde, a research professor at George Mason University who studies university presidential pay, said last year that the provision was highly unusual. Mr. Scott, a former Florida governor, called the clause “crazy” in a letter last month to Ray Rodrigues, chancellor of the state university system.
At Alabama, Dr. Bell, 69, openly embraced D.E.I. plans and ambitions. They included a committee he formed in 2019 to “support ongoing coordination and expansion of efforts” related to D.E.I., as the university put it at the time.
The next year, after the murder of George Floyd, Dr. Bell wrote that the university “must be a beacon of hope, equality and inclusivity.”
But in 2024, citing a need for the university “to ensure compliance” with state law, Dr. Bell announced that Alabama would shut down its D.E.I. division. It was replaced with a division of opportunities, connections and success.
Addressing the issue on Wednesday, Dr. Bell pledged: “I am not coming to Florida to bring D.E.I. or ‘woke’ back,” he said.
Alabama also became closely tied to Donald J. Trump during Dr. Bell’s tenure. Mr. Trump appeared at football games and spoke at a commencement event in 2025, ending the university’s long hiatus from hosting outside speakers for graduation festivities. In that speech, Mr. Trump described Dr. Bell as “highly respected.”
Dr. Bell’s tenure in Tuscaloosa also included a run of debates over free speech and student behavior. In 2018, he pointedly distanced himself and the university from plans for an event with an avowed white nationalist. The event never happened after Alabama withdrew recognition for the group, Students for America First, that had planned it.
Dr. Bell, a Texas native who obtained three degrees from Texas A&M University, came to Alabama as enrollment was on the rise, but he continued that trend. During his first semester, in fall 2015, Alabama had about 37,000 students. A decade later, just after Dr. Bell stepped down, the university reported having more than 42,000 students.
Dr. Bell also spent time as the president of the executive committee of the SEC, the powerful college athletic league. At Alabama, Dr. Bell’s tenure was notable for three national championships in football and the transformation of the Crimson Tide into a men’s basketball force.
That should come as good news for fans of the Florida Gators, whose football program has struggled in recent years.
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