What does the choice of a president for Broward College have to do with the choice of a president for Florida Atlantic University? Perhaps a lot. Perhaps it’s an omen.
Broward College trustees last week chose Torey Alston. He has no experience in higher education. But he does have much experience as a political appointee of Gov. Ron DeSantis.
In 2021, the governor named Alston to fill a vacancy on the Broward County Commission. A year later, he moved Alston to the county’s school board, to replace one of several members DeSantis had removed. Alston was an unpopular member, as voters showed last August by giving his opponent 66% of the vote when Alston sought a full term on his own.
But if you’re a DeSantis favorite, there’s always the chance of a second—much bigger—act. Daniel Foganholi, whom the governor appointed to fill another of those school board vacancies, finished third in that August primary. DeSantis then appointed him to the Florida Board of Education.
Here is why this could matter at FAU.
As noted, Alston has no relevant experience for the Broward College job. Neither did the other finalist—a principal at a construction consulting and real estate firm. Against that resume, Alston looked almost appealing.
Alston’s hiring is the latest example of how college presidential searches in Florida have become more secretive and much more political under DeSantis. The governor has had help. Two years ago, the Legislature allowed schools to keep the names of applicants secret unless they became finalists.
Judith Wilde is a research professor at the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University. She told the Tampa Bay Times, “Florida, Texas and a couple other states have moved into this patronage model, where it’s the governor pushing for a candidate from the top down.”
Indeed. DeSantis engineered the choice of Richard Corcoran—who as Florida House speaker was a strong ally of the governor—first to be education commissioner and then president of New College, the smallest of Florida’s 12 public universities with just 732 students in the 2023-2024 academic year.
Since then, three other former Republican legislators have been named to run state colleges—the level below universities. One had not even been a finalist. State University System Chancellor Ray Rodrigues—another Republican ex-legislator—suspended FAU’s first search after the governor’s candidate did not become a finalist.
Still another GOP ex-legislator—Adam Hasner—is an FAU finalist. Like Alston and all those other former legislators, he never has worked in higher education. Each of the other two finalists has three decades of experience.
One of them is Michael Hartline, dean of the business school at Florida State University. He made his campus visits on Monday. John Volin, provost at the University of Maine, visits today. Hasner will appear Friday.
On Monday, FAU’s 13 trustees—four of them new, most of whom DeSantis appointed—will make their choice and send it for approval to the Board of Governors—most of whose members DeSantis has appointed. If Hasner is the choice, it will not be surprising, but it will be hard for his supporters to defend.
When universities anoint politicians who work out as presidents, they tend to be heavyweights. Example: Former Florida House speaker and Senate president John Thrasher. Florida State University hired him in 2014.
Thrasher, a very conservative Republican legislator, surprised skeptics by—in his words—“checking politics at the door.” Example: His opposition alone repeatedly killed GOP efforts to allow guns on campus. Meanwhile, FSU rose steadily in reputation and national rank over Thrasher’s five years.
Hasner was far from a heavyweight during his eight years in the capital. He did become House majority leader, but that post was more title than power. Thrasher was just ending his career in Tallahassee when he became FSU’s president. Hasner has been gone from the capital for 15 years.
Two commentaries in the South Florida Sun Sentinel touted Hasner based on his service as a board member of Boca Raton Regional Hospital and his efforts to combat anti-Semitism. Neither is relevant to being a university president, especially against two candidates with strong relevant backgrounds.
DeSantis also has shown that he doesn’t want presidents who “check politics at the door.” At the governor’s order, Corcoran is turning New College into what critics call a Florida version of Hillsdale College, the Michigan campus that is avowedly right-wing and Christian.
As noted, though, New College is small. It hopes to have just 1,800 students in 2034. FAU is the state’s sixth-largest university, with roughly 30,000 students.
Around FAU, the worry is what happened the last time DeSantis got a little-known politician a university presidency. That was Ben Sasse at the University of Florida; he lasted 18 months before quitting amid reports of outlandish spending.
And if the trustees choose Hasner, suspicion will follow that his employer called in a big favor.
Hasner works in “public policy” for Boca Raton-based GEO Group. In that role, he tries to put the best public face on the private prison and detention operator. FAU trustee Pablo Paez is a GEO executive.
When DeSantis ran in 2018, he got an early $50,000 from GEO Founder George Zoley and another $50,000 from the company. GEO operates four facilities in Florida. When he ran for re-election, GEO donated $1 million to the Republican Governors Association, which was the main source of DeSantis’ campaign money. Zoley and eight other GEO officials donated to DeSantis’ failed presidential bid.
GEO operates the Adelanto detention center in California. In 2020, COVID-19 tore through the facility. In October, U.S. Rep. Judy Chu, D-Calif., issued a statement after Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) extended GEO’s contract.
“There is no public evidence available,” Chu said, “that GEO Group is capable of reversing its long history—confirmed by non-profit, media and government reports—of neglecting and mistreating immigrants detained at Adelanto, where inadequate. Medical care, poor living conditions and even preventable deaths have been the norm.”
I’ll have more after the trustees vote.
Delray Beach will not remove fluoride from water
Delray Beach will continue to add fluoride to its water.
The city commission voted Tuesday against a motion by Commissiner Angela Burns to remove fluoride. Commissioners Juli Casale, Rob Long and Thomas Markert outvoted Burns and Mayor Tom Carney.
City Manager Terrence Moore scheduled the issue for debate after Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo—whom DeSantis appointed—recommended in late November that local governments stop adding fluoride. Ladapo acted after President Donald Trump nominated Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., to be secretary of health and human services. Kennedy opposes fluoridation. Without evidence, he also has questioned the safety and efficacy of childhood immunizations.
Compared to some debate on this topic that I’ve covered, the one in Delray Beach was civil. Carney said Wednesday, “I’m not disappointed by the vote.” He acknowledged past benefits from fluoride, but he noted that it’s available in toothpaste and pills, not just public water supplies.
Ladapo appeared at the meeting to speak against fluoridation. He claimed, “I haven’t sought controversy. The only thing I’ve sought is truth.” This is the man whom the Food and Drug Administration criticized for his “proliferation of misinformation” about the COVID-19 vaccine.
Carney might have contributed to that misinformation when he suggested a possible relationship between fluoride and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Carney told me that he heard it from Ladapo. No credible study has found such a link between fluoride at the level that cities and counties use and any neurological disorders.
Delray requests four-way gates to be installed at Brightline crossing
Delray Beach will ask the Florida East Coast Railway to install four-way gates at the crossing where a Brightline train collided with a city fire department ladder truck. The truck had driven around the crossing gates.
In a Friday email to Moore, Public Works Director Missie Barletto said two of the city’s 13 other crossings also lack “quad gates,” which make it virtually impossible for drivers to avoid. The city wants quad gates at all three crossings.
Barletto also said the city is making other safety improvements at crossings after an audit by the Federal Railway Administration. The work, Barletto wrote, will be “substantially complete within 45 days.”
Pine Grove Elementary principal named PBC principal of the year
Shauntay King of Pine Grove Elementary School in Delray Beach is Palm Beach County’s principal of the year.
In its announcement, the school district said King has led Pine Grove “to significant academic gains. Under her leadership, reading proficiency has improved, and the school has received multiple Model School Awards.”
Under King, Pine Grove implemented the Accelerated Math Program in 2021. “Thanks to her efforts,” the statement said, “all students in the first class passed advanced math and scored at least a level three or higher” on the Florida Assessment of Student Thinking.
King said, “I love my staff. I love my students. Our entire school proudly repeats our mission statement every day, which ends with, ‘I expect nothing less of myself than greatness, because I am great. Good, better, best. I will never let it rest until my goal becomes better, and my better becomes my best.'”
