Trump’s education secretary weighs in on University of Florida president pick
U.S. Education Secretary Linda McMahon on Friday injected herself into the increasingly politicized University of Florida presidential search, reposting a scathing letter from U.S. Sen. Rick Scott and emphasizing Florida Republicans’ push against diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives in higher education.
“We need bold leaders to reorient higher education toward merit, truth-seeking, and academic rigor,” McMahon wrote in a post on X. “Florida has led the fight to get discriminatory DEI out of our schools and universities. UF deserves a president who will continue to drive those reforms.”
McMahon, the Trump administration’s top education official, is the highest-ranking Republican official yet to apply pressure on Florida’s flagship university to install a firmly conservative president.
She did not mention the sole UF presidential finalist Stuart Bell by name, but her comments arrived as Bell faces mounting scrutiny from conservative activists over his past support for diversity initiatives during his tenure leading the University of Alabama.
Within hours of Bell’s selection earlier this week, conservative higher-education activists began circulating opposition research on social media highlighting Alabama’s diversity recruitment efforts, antiracism initiatives and campus inclusion programs under Bell’s leadership.
Yet Bell has drawn strong support from some within Florida’s Republican establishment. Gov. Ron DeSantis quickly endorsed Bell after UF announced him as the lone finalist, calling him “a great selection” who would help UF “reach new heights.” The chairman of UF’s Board of Trustees, Mori Hosseini, is a GOP megadonor and prolific DeSantis ally.
UF officials have stressed that Bell’s DEI record was vetted during the search process, an apparent attempt to avoid a repeat of the political firestorm that engulfed former finalist Santa Ono.
The education secretary also amplified Scott’s Wednesday letter criticizing UF’s presidential search as lacking transparency and questioning several university financial decisions, including the $2 million severance payout owed to Interim President Donald Landry after he was passed over for the permanent job. Scott separately criticized UF’s decision to pay Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier $100,000 to teach a law school course.
McMahon did not publicly weigh in during UF’s previous presidential search, which collapsed after Ono withdrew amid conservative backlash over his support for DEI programs and other policies while president of the University of Michigan.
Her comments Friday make her the latest Republican official so far to publicly engage in UF’s latest search, underscoring how the fight over the university presidency has become entangled in the national Republican campaign against DEI in higher education.
Bell emerged this week from another tightly controlled search process that produced only one public finalist — now a common feature of presidential searches in Florida’s university system. If approved by UF trustees and later ratified by the Florida Board of Governors, Bell would become UF’s 14th president.