by Jay Waagmeester, Florida Phoenix
June 24, 2026
The Florida Board of Governors put most of its agenda aside Wednesday, instead airing grievances about governance standards in the State University System.
The disagreement revolved largely around Governors Chair Alan Levine and University of Florida trustees Chair Mori Hosseini.
The vote on UF’s new president, Stuart Bell, was supposed to happen Wednesday, but Levine, early during Day One of the two-day meeting in Boca Raton, explained why he postponed the vote until the university addresses governance procedures Levine believes are not up to state standards.
Rules review, special meeting the product of UF presidential search snag
“Otherwise, he will end up in a parallel reporting structure where one board member is making board decisions while, at the same time, the president has to report to the full board,” Levine said. “Again, I’ll repeat, we’re on the third president in just more than three years. And, based on multiple conversations I’ve had with people at the University of Florida that I trust, this tension has been reported to me as an issue, and it’s been touched on in national publications.”
Levine was seemingly pointing, at least partly, to reporting from the Chronicle of Higher Education that portrayed Hosseini as the string-pulling “godfather” at UF.
The two people previously picked to run the university left in controversy. Santa Ono enjoyed unanimous support from UF trustees but was bucked by the state BOG. Earlier, Ben Sasse resigned amid controversy that he overspent and hired remote-working former Senate staffers of his to help run the university.
Levine’s concerns are that UF’s board chair wields too much power, particularly in approving hiring and salaries of high-ranking officials at the university, otherwise the job of a president.
Various members of the BOG expressed disappointment that the governance worries were tied up in the UF presidential approval, drawing out the already two-year stretch of interim leadership in Gainesville.
Hosseini, a wealthy homebuilder and GOP donor, has touted the success of UF during his time on the board and said he’s been willing to accommodate suggestions from state leaders in the past.
On Monday, Levine and Hosseini agreed that a third party would review governance standards at UF.
Airing of grievances
Wednesday, governors took hours to express frustration with fellow board members, social media drama, and years of pent-up frustration.
BOG member Tim Cerio was among those to step in between the two chairs.
“This is nuanced, this is complex, there are real feelings, there are emotions. There’s some angry history here, and we have to be transparent about it, but we got to address it and move on,” Cerio said.
He pointed to the involvement online from people inside the political bubble making attacks on the leaders.“It’s gotten political, you know, people said some pretty rough things about Chair Hosseini on Twitter, Chair Levine got eviscerated on Twitter,” Cerio said.
The conversation spilled well over the scheduled time and pushed other matters on the agenda to Thursday’s meeting.
At a point, Hosseini questioned Levine’s support for the universities in Tallahassee, noting that the Legislature did not allocate funding for preeminent universities this year, straying from past budgets. Levine banged the gavel and called Hosseini out of order as he began to rehash history of their relationship.
Levine said no matter his feelings about Hosseini’s decisions, “if it was made outside a public meeting, it was not delegated to the president, and it was made outside a public meeting, that decision could be nullified.”
Ultimately, the board agreed that Chancellor Ray Rodrigues would work with Levine to find a consultant to evaluate governance structures at all universities and recommend fixes to the BOG for approval.
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