Dive Brief:
- Broward College’s trustee board cannot vote on a motion to fire the institution’s president, Torey Alston, until its members attempt to work out an employment contract dispute with him via mediation, according to a court ruling filed Wednesday.
- The public Florida college’s trustees had originally scheduled a special meeting for Wednesday on the vote. However, Alston sued the board Monday, arguing that holding the vote would violate his contract provision requiring the board to first “attempt in good faith” to resolve employment disputes, including through formal mediation.
- At a hearing Tuesday, Circuit Court Judge Keathan Frink agreed with Alston’s arguments, ordering the board to delay the vote until it attends mediation and setting an Aug. 25 deadline for doing so. Alston said in an email Thursday that mediation has been scheduled for Aug. 24.
Dive Insight:
The mediation does not mean Alston is out of the woods. The board added a motion to an Aug. 25 meeting — the day after the scheduled mediation — to consider whether to fire Alston or ratify a settlement agreement.
In the email to Higher Ed Dive, Alston said he hopes to remain as president. “I was selected by the board 5-0,” Alston said. “We can work together 5-0 to address these matters.”
Alston also pointed to recent accomplishments under his tenure, including enrollment, retention and completion increases and being recognized by the Aspen Institute as a top college.
A spokesperson for Broward said Thursday that the college does not comment on pending legal matters or board agenda items.
Broward Trustee Michael Caschette brought the motion to terminate Alston after the board clashed with the president during two June meetings to discuss his performance, according to meeting minutes.
During those sessions, trustees criticized the president over several issues. They accused Alston of not doing enough to address Broward students’ low passage rate on nursing licensure exams and of not responding to calls from donors and community leaders, according to the meeting minutes.
Broward’s nursing program was placed on probation in February by the Florida Board of Nursing. Broward students’ passage rate on the nursing licensure exam reached a recent low of 68.4% in the first quarter of 2026, according to the Florida Department of Health. It rose to 72.3% in the second quarter, compared with the national average of 88.5%.
Trustees gave Alston 50 out of 100 possible points on his performance evaluation in June, a score too low to receive an additional $50,000 of merit compensation under his contract, according to Alston’s lawsuit.
However, Alston alleges that the performance evaluation was delayed and “administered inconsistently” with his contract, board criteria and previous written communications. He also contested the accuracy of the June meeting minutes, arguing in his lawsuit that they were “materially incomplete and inconsistent” with proceedings.
Early on Aug. 12, Alston filed a formal complaint with the college’s vice president of human resources seeking an independent investigation into whether his evaluation was conducted properly.
He also asked for a probe into whether board members had improperly retaliated against him, including for cooperating in a state investigation into the board chair, firing a senior executive the chair had advocated hiring, and raising concerns that the board was improperly involved in college operations traditionally under the purview of the president.
“The submission of this complaint should not be interpreted as an unwillingness to accept oversight, criticism, or accountability,” Alston wrote in his complaint. “As President, I expect all three. I do, however, believe that accountability must operate within a governance and employment structure that is lawful, fair, transparent, and consistent with the responsibilities assigned to the President.”
Broward’s board chair, Alexis Yarbrough said that she has directed college officials to work on launching an outside investigation, the South Florida Sun Sentinel reported last week.
Hours after Alston filed the complaint, the board scheduled the meeting to determine whether to fire him, according to his lawsuit. In the meeting notice, the board specified the termination would be “without cause.”
Under Alston’s three-year contract through Feb. 29, 2028 , the board can terminate Alston without cause with 30 days’ written notice. If Alston was fired without cause, he would not receive compensation past his last day, according to the contract terms.
Alston earns $329,000 annually under the contract, with the opportunity for additional merit compensation each year.
The contract also specifies that the board could terminate Alston’s employment for cause immediately, including for fraud or dishonesty, or participating in a situation that brings the college into “public disrepute, contempt, scandal or ridicule.”
Alston in February 2025 became Broward’s first permanent president in over a year. He previously served as a trustee of Florida A&M University and held appointments by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to local school and county commission boards.
His predecessor, Gregory Haile, resigned unexpectedly in September 2023 after serving as president for five years.
Haile did not publicly give a reason for his resignation. However, Haile did mention that there were three newly installed members to Broward’s board in his resignation email to trustees, Inside Higher Ed reported. Haile also had reportedly experienced tension with the board before his resignation, including over accreditation and cuts to sports.
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