The UF Board of Trustees approved an employment agreement for Stuart Bell, who was unanimously appointed as interim president on Monday.
Bell’s contract outlines a one-year term, a $2 million salary and 20 performance metrics used to evaluate his performance, retention and potential contract extension.
His appointment takes effect July 1 and runs through June 30, 2027, unless he is approved by the Florida Board of Governors as UF’s permanent president before the end of his term.
Although Bell begins duties next week, his appointment as interim president will also be subject to approval from the Board of Governors, the university said in a news release.
Bell’s $2 million base salary matches that of current interim president Donald Landry, whose contract included the opportunity to earn up to $500,000 in performance incentives. Former interim president Kent Fuchs earned approximately $1 million during his 12-month tenure leading the university Aug. 1, 2024, to July 31, 2025.
The agreement directs Bell to work with trustees to develop a university-wide strategic vision and execution plan while prioritizing the hiring of permanent leadership across the university. The contract specifically calls for the appointment of a permanent provost, interim deans and other administrative leaders who are “firmly aligned with and support the principles guiding Florida’s approach to higher education.”
Five of UF’s 16 colleges are currently led by interim deans, including the College of Medicine, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Levin College of Law, Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering and the College of the Arts.
The university’s provost position is also filled by interim provost Joseph Glover.
The performance metrics task Bell with elevating the Hamilton School of Classical and Civic Education into the nation’s leading classical and civics higher education program and continuing development of the university’s Jacksonville campus.
The contract also requires Bell to oversee reviews of faculty tenure and post-tenure processes, conduct a strategic review of academic courses and eliminate programs with consistently low returns on investment.
Among the agreement’s more politically significant metrics, Bell is directed to prohibit the funding of DEI initiatives and political or social activism.
The agreement further states campus safety should remain Bell’s top priority. It specifically calls on him to increase outreach to Jewish students who may feel threatened at other institutions and encourage them to attend UF.
Bell’s employment agreement arrives amid ongoing scrutiny from the Board of Governors regarding governance practices at UF. In a June 17 email to Chancellor Ray Rodrigues, Levine said some language in Landry’s interim contract appeared to grant Board of Trustees chair Mori Hosseini authority over personnel decisions that typically fall within a university president’s responsibilities.
Landry’s contract focused largely on appointing a permanent provost and filling UF’s interim leadership positions. All these appointments were stated in the contract to “require the approval of the Chair of the Board of Trustees and notice to the Vice Chair.”
Levine’s letter said Hosseini agreed to remove the language from future contracts. Bell’s agreement does not include similar language.
Such governance concerns in the state’s university system are what Levine has attributed to the delay in the university’s presidential vote.
In Monday’s meeting, Hosseini proposed choosing a third-party, independent expert and working with the Board of Governors to review the governance documents of the entire state university system in an attempt to resolve the issue.
“I am hoping we can get back to normality,” he said in the meeting. “I am hoping we can put our personal agendas aside.”
Hosseini also opposed Levine’s concerns that too much authority had been concentrated in the Board of Trustees chair — the position he fills.
“Mori has not done anything wrong,” Hosseini said. “If I made a mistake, we all made a mistake. But as far as I’m concerned, I’ve made no mistake.”
Contact Swasthi Maharaj at smaharaj@alligator.org. Follow her on X @s_maharaj1611.
Swasthi Maharaj is a political science and politics, philosophy, economics and law (PPEL) junior at UF. This is Swasthi's fourth semester at The Alligator, and her third semester on the university desk. She's also reported on the enterprise desk. Swasthi loves coffee, reading, going to concerts, baking and taking long walks.
