Florida Senate President in Hotseat Over Pro-DEI College President Pick

Florida Senate President Ben Albritton is attracting controversy after he allegedly greenlighted board appointments that paved the way for a candidate with a history of supporting diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives to become the sole candidate for the University of Florida presidency.

“You can thank @Sen_Albritton for green-lighting these board appointments right before a new governor takes office,” U.S. Rep. Greg Steube, R-Fla., wrote on X on Tuesday.

Under Florida statute, the governor appoints members to the Florida Board of Governors, which oversees the state’s public universities. Those appointments are later confirmed by the state Senate. Similarly, members appointed to the University of Florida board of trustees are confirmed by the state Senate.

Both boards are responsible for confirming the university’s presidential candidate.

Steube’s remarks add to a growing list of Florida politicians who have slammed the University of Florida for allowing Stuart Bell, the University of Alabama’s former president, to be the office’s only candidate.

As president of the University of Alabama, Bell founded a DEI office in 2017 and hired its first chief diversity officer, The College Fix reported. John Sailer, a higher education scholar, added that Bell’s strategic plan for the office “heavily emphasized DEI.”

In 2020, Bell appointed a DEI committee to produce a “Path Forward Diversity Report,” which ratcheted up DEI infrastructure and surveillance.

This history prompted U.S. Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., to write a letter last week to the Department of Education, claiming that the university’s board of trustees ensured Bell would be the sole candidate in line for the appointment.

“The multimillion-dollar amount, lack of transparency, and lopsided process here ALL still speak for themselves. Not to mention that this all appears to be a sham since the school is acting as if the new presidency is a foregone conclusion,” Scott wrote in the letter. “No one really knows anything about either of these people, or any other potential candidate, because there was no public search or vetting process.”

Scott said the university’s response amounted to what he described as a “crock of legalese.”

In a post on X, the university wrote, “The law further provides that while a finalist may be publicly announced, information regarding other candidates and committee deliberations remain confidential. This framework was adopted for a reason: Without confidentiality, many of the nation’s most qualified candidates simply would not participate in public university searches.”

The university referenced the Florida Legislature’s role in the selection process, which it said is spearheaded by Albritton.

“Florida’s process reflects a deliberate policy choice by the Legislature and the Board of Governors to ensure universities can attract the strongest possible candidates while still providing robust public scrutiny of finalists,” the university added.

Albritton did not respond to the Daily Signal’s request for comment.

After the university’s response, U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon responded to Scott’s letter, stating that the next president should continue to stand against DEI initiatives.

“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.”

The Department of Education did not respond to the Daily Signal’s request for comment.