What’s New
Leadership at Broward College, in Florida, is in flux after the public institution’s president, Gregory A. Haile, resigned last week.
But Broward’s Board of Trustees refused at an emergency meeting to accept Haile’s resignation, and several community leaders pleaded with him to stay.
Broward’s board, whose members were taken aback by Haile’s decision, meets again on September 26. In the meantime, Haile appears to be president in name only; while a statement from the college said he remains in the role, Haile has indicated his access to his Broward email and office has been cut off.
The Details
In his resignation letter, Haile expressed pride in Broward, a community college that has been regularly recognized by the Aspen Institute, and called working at the college “a true honor.” But he also acknowledged that Broward’s board is in a state of transition. Of its five members, three are new to the job, having been appointed in February by Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida. “While you have not requested such a transition,” Haile wrote, referring to his departure, “the time is now.”
While you have not requested such a transition, the time is now.
Haile sent his resignation letter on Wednesday night; the next day the board held an emergency meeting, which he did not attend and at which the trustees refused to accept his departure. “Are questions being raised? Absolutely,” Akhil K. Agrawal, a board member, told WSVN at the time. “Has anything been said from the board that I am aware of that asks for President Haile’s resignation or fire him or let him go or whatever the terms are that are being bandied about? The answer is absolutely, positively not.”
Attempts to reach Haile and all five Broward trustees were unsuccessful. A Broward spokesperson referred The Chronicle to a statement made on Thursday after the board’s emergency meeting.
“We intend to do everything we can to engage President Haile in an open dialogue about his decision to resign, and then to determine the best next steps to advance the college’s mission to transform the lives of students through quality, affordable education,” the board chair, Alexis Yarbrough, who joined the board this year, said in the statement.
The Backdrop
There’s been tension between Haile and trustees, Yarbrough told the editorial board of the South Florida Sun Sentinel. Among other issues, enrollment has dropped by 28 percent under Haile, Yarbrough told the newspaper, describing a “nosedive” with “no plan to fix it.”
The president also did not inform Yarbrough of coming interviews with Broward’s accrediting agency, the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools’ Commission on Colleges, according to emails published in the Sun Sentinel. “This is a very serious matter which could have severe consequences for our students’ ability to obtain financial aid, which would then lead to a significant loss in enrollment,” Yarbrough wrote to Haile, saying she’d learned about the accreditation concerns only after his resignation. “Apparently, the college suffered findings in 2018 which resulted in the loss of $5.6 million in student financial aid. If the college has any findings in the current 10-year accreditation, the damage could be severe.”
Haile, who took office in 2018, seemed to indicate in an email to the trustees that he had not attended the emergency board meeting at which they discussed his resignation because he had been blocked from doing so. Before the meeting’s start, Haile wrote to Yarbrough that his access to his Broward email and to the president’s office, and therefore “my capacity to serve as the president,” had been removed. (Yarbrough responded that “there were no access barriers to your attendance, no doors were locked, and the public was present” at the meeting.)
The Stakes
Broward is not the only public institution in Florida enduring tumult in its leadership. Florida Atlantic University had its search for a new president halted after state officials said two parts of the process may have violated state law.
Meanwhile, Haile’s status remains unresolved. As he wrote in his email to the trustees following their vote to reject his resignation, “can one person please explain to me, in writing, the planned next steps as a result of the meeting last Thursday?”
