Tensions loomed large before Broward College president’s resignation: A closer look at the simmering concerns

The resignation of President Gregory Haile felt abrupt and unexpected for many at Broward College, but tensions had been actually been building for weeks.

Haile, who had a smooth relationship with the college’s Board of Trustees for most of his five-year tenure, became the subject of increasing criticism from newer members of the Gov. Ron DeSantis-appointed Board of Trustees, especially from Chairwoman Alexis Yarbrough, one of three new members appointed earlier this year.

Since August, she has shared harsh criticism on issues such as declining enrollment, a settlement for a departing administrator and past decisions to end campus athletics and turn over college land for private development.

Yarbrough’s criticisms continued after he announced his resignation, accusing him of being AWOL at a faculty contract impasse hearing, failing to communicate with trustees and failing to properly handle issues identified by a recent accreditation report.

How long Haile will remain with the college could be decided Tuesday when the Board of Trustees meets at 1 p.m. at Broward College’s south campus in Pembroke Pines.

Haile’s Sept. 13 resignation letter said he was giving the college 120 days’ notice, but after supporters attended a Sept. 14 emergency meeting to ask trustees to keep him on, they agreed to talk individually with Haile to see if he might stay with the college.

That now appears unlikely.

In a Sept. 16 note to trustees from his personal email address, Haile said his building access and technology had been cut off. A day later, Yarbrough emailed to Haile, “I am informed that you have accessed your office to gather personal items and that you met with the Provost to transition items for the upcoming regularly scheduled board meetings.”

Provost Jeffrey Nasse offered no suggestions during a Faculty Senate meeting on Thursday that Haile’s resignation might be reversed.

“On Sept. 13, the president tendered his resignation. It was a surprise to the board. It was a surprise throughout the institution,” Nasse told the Faculty Senate. “As someone who has been here for a while, we have these transitions. It happens. The focus remains on our students. That’s what it’s all about.”

College officials have been largely quiet in the last few days, declining to answer questions or immediately provide records requested by the South Florida Sun Sentinel. Neither Haile nor Yarbrough could be reached for comment.

But a review of meeting minutes and videos, previously released emails, interviews with some current and former employees and other materials revealed issues that may have hastened Haile’s departure.

Accreditation/financial aid concerns

In her Sept. 17 email to Haile, Yarbrough questioned whether Broward College’s accreditation and student access to financial aid are at risk.

“I have been surprised to learn from staff that we have accreditation interviews coming up in just three weeks and the Board of Trustees is supposed to have preparation meetings established prior to our interviews,” Yarbrough wrote to Haile. “You never mentioned this to me when we spoke last week before your resignation and no such meetings have been scheduled with the individual Trustees for their preparation to meet the accreditation team.”

However, Yarbrough was present at an Aug. 23 workshop where Vice President Renee Law informed the board of an October visit from Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges, the accrediting body for Broward College, according to meeting minutes.

Law “doesn’t have the date yet, but they will ask to have a discussion with the governing body of the institution,” the Aug. 23 meeting minutes state. “She said she will work with Vice President [Lacey] Hofmeyer to determine Board availability.”

In her letter to Haile, Yarbrough also said that the accreditation team had cited 22 findings.

“Staff has explained 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.

Colleges must maintain accreditation for students to be eligible for federal financial aid. But no public college or university in Florida has ever lost its Southern Association accreditation, and it’s not likely to happen to Broward College, Belle Wheelan, president of the accrediting body, told the Sun Sentinel on Friday.

She said the college is in its regular 10-year accreditation cycle. There were 22 areas where the school was out of compliance, Wheelan said, but she didn’t have specifics. She said the college has sent the association a follow-up report on how it plans to resolve the issues, and a team is meeting with the college over the next week. The team will recommend to the accrediting body’s board of trustees whether any action against the college is warranted.

“It is highly unlikely that they would be dropped from membership just because of these 22 issues, but they could be put on sanctions, which would not impact financial aid,” Wheelan said. “The college would still be accredited. They would just be in a little trouble from us.”

The possible sanctions include a warning or probation. Or the accreditor could take no negative action if the issues have been resolved, Wheelan said.

Administrator payout

Several trustees criticized Haile for the non-renewal of administrator John Dunnuck, which led to a recent $56,000 payout.

Dunnuck was the senior vice president of finance and operations, but the college decided earlier this year to eliminate his job. On April 7, he was placed on paid leave until his contract expired June 30, a standard practice for those non-renewed. But he was also offered another administrative position, vice provost of capital projects, starting July 1.

Dunnuck told the Sun Sentinel he first looked for another job after he was non-renewed, but then accepted the new job June 15. But on June 27, the college rescinded the offer.

“They were slow in responding after I accepted the position, and finally they called and said they were of the opinion that we don’t need this new position we offered you either,” Dunnuck said.

He said he didn’t know why they eliminated the second position, and Haile declined to say publicly at the Aug. 29 trustees meeting, irking some trustees.

The college has a policy that employees who are laid off with more than four months left on their contract are given 120 days’ notice or the equivalent in severance. Since Dunnuck’s second non-renewal was for a job in the 2023-24 fiscal year, where he’d have a full year left on this contract, the college agreed to pay him for 120 days, or $56,449. That’s in addition to the $39,514 he got when he was first placed on administrative leave earlier in the year.

At the Aug. 29 meeting, several trustees accused Haile of paying Dunnuck double severance.

“We made an offer of employment to a high-level executive after I was told this person was not going to be in the organization, and now we’re paying $56,000 because we changed our mind?” Yarbrough asked at the Aug. 29 meeting.

“What’s troubling me is the thinking that got us in this position in the first place,” she said. “It shows a real deficit in how we are managing our team. This cannot happen again.”

Enrollment

Another sore spot for the trustees has been the college’s enrollment, which fell from the equivalent of 28,000 full-time students when Haile became president in 2018 to about 21,000 last year.

“The College has been in an enrollment decline for the five years of President Haile’s leadership and there is a lack of recognition by management of the seriousness of the decline,” Trustee Akhil Agrawal said at an Aug. 23 workshop, according to meeting minutes.

At another workshop the same day, Agrawal said that he “can’t tell whether strategic investments made in the past are yielding results. He sees that we’ve
consistently spent on marketing, yet enrollment continues to decline,” the minutes state.

Yarbrough added, “There is frustration on all sides of the table that enrollment is declining, and it is not clear why.”

Broward College is not alone in enrollment drops. Its 25% dip in recent years is about the same as Palm Beach State College, but more than Miami-Dade College (17.5% drop) and the state college system as a whole (16%). However, enrollment at some state schools, including Valencia College and Hillsborough Community College, has remained steady.

Community college enrollment historically falls when the job market is strong because potential students are working. Out-of-work employees often flock to community colleges during a recession, past trends have shown. Colleges also saw steep declines during the COVID-19 pandemic and have been slow to rebound.

Haile told the trustees Aug. 23 that Florida universities may be lowering their eligibility requirements “to solve their own enrollment issues,” which could impact schools such as Broward College, which have open admission policies.

On Thursday, Nasse told the Faculty Senate the numbers are starting to improve, with the full-time equivalent enrollment up 1.63% this fall.

“That is a bounce back, which is great news for the college,” Nasse said.

Sports and housing development

Two decisions Broward College made in 2020 have angered some newer trustees: eliminating sports while turning some of the vacated athletic space on the central campus in Davie over to a private developer.

In June of that year, the college ended basketball, softball, volleyball and all other sports on campus, affecting 147 student-athletes. College officials said the program cost $1.6 million, which was redirected to pay for more academic advisers.

Later that year, the college entered into a 99-year lease agreement with 13th Floor Investments, which is developing a retail and 700-unit housing complex on the edge of the Davie campus. The housing will be for the general public rather than students. The deal is expected to provide up to $1 billion to the college over the next century, according to college documents.

The athletic and development decisions were made with the support of the Board of Trustees at the time.

But an Aug. 24, 2023 meeting, Yarbrough slammed the plan, saying she “found it convenient that the college is now eliminating athletic programs, which also happened to free up acres for the college to sell to private developers,” the minutes state.

Yarbrough said she doesn’t understand how the redevelopment benefits students.

Haile told her that the athletic cuts were made after surveying students and “the development of Central Campus was never about giving land to a developer.”

Dunnuck told the Sun Sentinel the athletic cuts and development deal were unrelated. He said the sports programs were expensive and not generating much student interest.

“When we made the announcement, we made it very publicly months in advance that we were eliminating athletics and we had zero public comments,” Dunnuck said. “We’d made the case to our student body and to everyone that the greater good was more advisers rather than athletics.”

At the August workshop, Haile said the development also aligned with the mission of former Gov. Rick Scott, who encouraged colleges to partner with the private sector rather than asking the state for more money.

But three years later, trustees appeared to have seller’s remorse. Agrawal asked if the college could terminate the agreement. Attorney Eric Singer said it was too late to terminate on the first phase without risking litigation and it would cost about $7 million to cancel the second phase. No decisions were made at the meeting.

Faculty salary negotiations

Haile has had a contentious relationship for several years with the United Faculty of Florida union. In June, the union sent the trustees a letter voicing concerns that they hadn’t gotten a raise in five years, as well as other issues. The college declared an impasse on this year’s negotiations.

At a bargaining session this spring, the administration would not include faculty in an $800,000 allocation for employee bonuses, according to the June 22 letter to trustees.

“The faculty were informed that the ‘Board’ made this decision and administration inferred that this was because negotiations were taking a long time to conclude even though it was the administration who declared impasse,” the unsigned letter said. “We feel that this is the administration’s attempt to intimidate and silence faculty.”

A magistrate made recommendations this summer to resolve the dispute, siding with the union on several key issues. The Board of Trustees considered the issues at a Sept. 14 impasse hearing.

At Thursday’s Faculty Senate meeting, Andrea Apa, president the college chapter of United Faculty of Florida, said she expects the board to come back with an offer that includes the first major pay raise in years.

“The outcome was favorable,” Apa said, without giving specifics, which are still being negotiated.

The impasse hearing happened the same day the Board of Trustees held the emergency meeting to discuss Haile’s resignation letter.

Although Haile’s access to email and secure building access had been cut off, Yarbrough told Haile in a Sept. 17 email that he should have attended the impasse hearing.

“A meeting to discuss the contract for our full-time faculty was not only required, the faculty deserved for you to be there and it was disrespectful to have intentionally refused to attend,” Yarbrough wrote. “Likewise, the Board was there to consider your recommendations without the benefit of your presence. … There were no access barriers to your attendance, no doors were locked, and the public was present.”

Apa told the Sun Sentinel she, too, was surprised Haile wasn’t at the hearing.

“We’ve had a rough couple of months with the administration. A lot of the blame was put on the Board of Trustees,” she said. “And the day we thought would hear from our president, he decided to resign. That’s what was shocking to us.”