Broward College accepts president’s resignation, plans to name acting president soon
After nearly two weeks of uncertainty since Broward College President Gregory Adam Haile abruptly announced his resignation, the college’s board of trustees accepted his resignation Tuesday, but decided to wait another week to name an acting president.
The college will advertise the presidential position and take applications for five days from only current and former college employees and trustees. The board will meet again next week to interview the qualified applicants, select an acting president and vote on the compensation package. Board members, the student government president and the faculty senate chair will all submit questions for the candidates.
In the meantime, the rest of the college’s senior management team, especially provost Jeffrey Nasse, will handle operations, said Board of Trustees Chair Alexis Yarbrough at a meeting Tuesday on the south campus in Pembroke Pines. Haile, who submitted a resignation letter on Sept. 13, will help with the succession.
“I think we’re at the point where we need to respect Mr. Haile’s decision,” Yarbrough said. “I want to thank Mr. Haile enormously for your dedication to Broward College. You have made a difference in the lives of many people.”
In his two-page resignation letter, Haile gave the board a 120-day notice of termination. He wrote that all of the board members were fairly new and that he felt a need for transition.
Gov. Ron DeSantis appointed three new board members in February — Yarbrough, Cindy Kushner and Mario Zanotti-Cavazzoni. He also reappointed Zachariah “Reggie” Zachariah Jr., the current vice chair, to the five-person board.Sure
The board initially refused to accept Haile’s resignation at an emergency meeting Sept. 14 until they could learn more about what led to his decision. During that meeting, about a dozen people spoke in support of Haile’s record, urging the board to keep him.
But the next day, Sept. 15, Haile’s attorney, Leonard Samuels of Berger Singerman, sent a letter to the board reiterating Haile’s intent to leave.
“Mr. Haile has no desire to continue as President of the College,” Samuels wrote. “I suggest that we talk early next week to discuss the financial obligations that the College has to Mr. Haile.”
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Resigning was the ‘hardest thing’ he’s done
Haile, 45, didn’t attend the Sept. 14 emergency board meeting but he sat in the public area for Tuesday’s. meeting. After the board’s decisions, he spoke for a few minutes. He that sending the notice letter “was probably the hardest thing” he has ever done.
“I have been blessed. It has been my greatest gift to sit in that seat,” he said. “I know people have questioned ‘the why’ ... but I think it’s critically important that I let the letter speak for itself.”
He left the meeting immediately after. Asked by the media if he had any future plans, he said: “I haven’t made a decision yet.”
Haile became the college’s seventh president in July 2018, running the nation’s fourth-largest community college with about 54,000 students and about 4,500 staffers. He made an annual salary of $287,000 and could also receive a supplemental merit pay of $70,000 annually, according to his contract, which goes through June 2024.
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In January, he became the first public college president to serve as deputy chair of the Atlanta Federal Reserve Bank.
A New York native, Haile earned his bachelor’s from Arizona State University, where he graduated magna cum laude and received the Most Outstanding Graduate award, and received a law degree from Columbia University School of Law. At Columbia, he was a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar, which, in part, requires not getting any grades lower than a B-, and worked as the editor-in-chief of the National Black Law Journal.
Broward College, created in 1959 by the state legislature, is one of 28 institutions that make up the Florida College System. It has three main campuses in Broward County and eight specialized centers. It offers certificates, two-year university-transfer degrees, two-year career degrees and some bachelor’s degrees.
