University of Floridas latest presidential pick is another DEI-pusher

“Safe to Pee.” That was just one wacky woke initiative Stuart R.Bell oversaw as president of the University of Alabama, in this case to prevent “discrimination against gender variant people in public restrooms.”Earlier this month, a search committee at the University of Florida—the flagship institution of the state where Gov.

Ron DeSantis says “woke goes to die”— unanimously recommended Bell as the sole candidate to be UF’s next president.DeSantis almost immediately endorsed him as a “great selection” who enjoys his “full support.”Say it ain’t so, Ron! The critics are out, and so is the déjà-vu.Less than a year ago, UF picked former University of Michigan president Santa J.

Ono to take the top job in Gainesville.Ono, who was poised to make $3 million a year at UF – almost twice his Michigan salary – claimed a sudden conversion from his DEI-saturated past.

Not everybody was fooled.After sailing through the search committee and UF’s Board of Trustees, the Florida state university system’s Board of Governors nixed his candidacy in a 10-6 vote.The stakes are higher now.

UF’s rebuffed trustees whined about Ono’s rejection, alleging the Board of Governors overstepped its role despite state constitutional language suggesting otherwise.Now they seem to want to try again with Bell, who implemented DEI policies at Alabama.

As soon as he became president, the university launched a DEI-infused program building on an earlier commitment to “diversity as part of its educational mission.” This included race-based recruitment programs for students and faculty, which are now illegal.In 2017, Bell hired G.

Christine Taylor, a DEI guru, as Alabama’s new vice president and associate provost for DEI, a job paying nearly $300,000.Taylor was joined by 30 other DEI personnel, including DEI deans in six of Alabama’s nine colleges, at an estimated payroll cost of $2 million per year.

The university boasted that 36% of undergraduate cour...