Gov. Ron DeSantis on Friday reappointed lawyers Rahul Patel and Richard Cole, who are also major political donors, to the UF Board of Trustees.
The appointments are effective Jan. 7 and subject to confirmation by the Florida Senate.
Patel, an Atlanta-based corporate lawyer, has served as the board’s vice chair since 2023 and is currently heading the search for UF’s next president. He was first appointed to the board in 2015 by former Gov. Rick Scott.
Cole was first appointed to the board by DeSantis in 2020 and is the president of Cole, Scott and Kissane, a general practice firm located in Miami. Both trustees are UF law graduates and significant donors to DeSantis’ political efforts.
Patel gave $70,000 to Desantis’ gubernatorial campaigns and $175,000 to Empower Parents PAC, which supported DeSantis. Cole gave $132,500 to DeSantis’ gubernatorial campaigns, $130,000 to Empower Parents PAC and $100,000 to Never Back Down, a super PAC supporting DeSantis’ 2024 presidential bid.
The reappointments come amid the search for UF’s 14th president, which formally began last month. The 15-member search committee, appointed by UF’s long serving board chair and prominent DeSantis ally Mori Hosseini, will name finalists for the role, but the ultimate selection rests with the board of trustees.
Six of the 13 seats on the UF Board of Trustees, including Patel’s and Cole’s, are gubernatorial appointments. The remaining seats include five appointed by the state university system’s Board of Governors and two reserved for UF’s student body president and Faculty Senate chair. Trustees appointed by DeSantis and the Board of Governors serve staggered five-year terms with no term limits.
The terms of two more DeSantis-appointed trustees, Fred Ridley and Anita Zucker, end on Monday. It is unclear whether they will be reappointed.
Grace McClung is a third-year journalism major and the graduate & professional school reporter for The Alligator. In her free time, Grace can be found running, going to the beach and writing poetry.
