The LinkedIn page, and X profile, of Florida’s Keiser University reported last month that on September 13 the school “hosted a public policy forum in West Palm Beach featuring discussions on safety and the economy.” But the Facebook page of Florida state Representative and state Senate candidate Randy Fine, a Republican who participated in the forum, described the same gathering as a “‘Reclaim America’ event” and declared, “There is so much at stake this November!”

The photos of the event, held at the Majestic Ballroom in West Palm Beach, on the Keiser LinkedIn page showed monitors behind the speakers displaying the words “Policy Perspective Panel on National Security and Safety.”

But the photo on Fine’s Facebook page shows a similar backdrop with the addition of the words “Reclaim America.”

 

Reclaim America is the name of a political action committee associated with Florida Republican Senator Marco Rubio. Belinda Keiser, Keiser University’s Vice Chancellor, last year donated $1000 to that committee, according to federal records.

I tried to contact Reclaim America, but a phone number listed online for the PAC did not seem to work, and a person answering the phone at Senator Rubio’s office was unable to provide any other contact information.

However, Jeff LaLiberte, Keiser University’s Associate Vice Chancellor of Media and Public Relations, today sent me an email that said the event “was not associated with any Political Action Committee.”

I don’t have any reason to doubt this statement, but the event still raises concerns.

The program, according to the Keiser LinkedIn page, featured Arthur Keiser, the “Chancellor and CEO” of Keiser University, and Belinda Keiser, who “led the panels,” plus, as panelists, Rep. Fine, Florida state chief financial officer Jimmy Patronis (R), U.S. Rep. Kat Cammack (R), former U.S. Ambassador Robin Bernstein, Matt Bogdanoff, and Barbara Feingold.

Bogdanoff is, according to his LinkedIn page, the Florida Regional Director of the Republican Jewish Coalition. Barbara Feingold is on the board of the Republican Jewish Coalition (and is also the Vice Chair of the board of public Florida Atlantic University, appointed by Florida governor Ron DeSantis).

Counting the Keisers, it appears that every single speaker listed for the event is an active Republican.

In his email today, Keiser spokesperson LaLiberte wrote, “Keiser University’s public policy forum was one of a series of public gatherings, which include panel discussions and speaker series, meant to inspire creative thinking, develop an exchange of ideas, and facilitate open dialogue about topics that are important to our country and Florida communities.” He said the event followed other similar events addressing issues including water safety, women in the workplace, and labor shortages, and that the event was “free and open to the public, openly advertised on Eventbrite, and attendance was not limited.” He added, “Participants expressed their own views, in an open forum, regarding public safety and the economy.”

But the September 13 event had a sharply partisan group of speakers, and the discrepancy between how it is described on Keiser University’s social media and the version on Rep. Fine’s page — with the Keiser version omitting the slogan “Reclaim America” — suggests an effort by Keiser to downplay the political nature of the event. When I followed up and asked LaLiberte about the discrepancy, and what “Reclaim America” meant in the context of the event, he did not respond.

The description and depiction of the event on Rep. Fine’s Facebook page raises the question of whether Keiser, a non-profit university, improperly lent its name and resources to a partisan political event. Non-profit institutions are prohibited by law from engaging in electoral activity. Keiser University was until 2011 a for-profit school owned by the married Arthur and Belinda Keiser. After a troubling conversion that has allowed the Keisers to keep making big money off the school, Keiser is a non-profit institution, but one that is tightly controlled by the Keisers and connected to multiple for-profit businesses owned by the Keisers.

The Keisers collectively are worth hundreds of millions of dollars, if not billions. Much of the revenue of their schools has come from taxpayers through federal grants and loans for students.

The Keisers wield political power in both Florida and in Washington DC, using campaign contributions, lobbying groups, and expensive lawyers to buy influence and push for conservative policies as well as reduced accountability for career schools like theirs.

A former Keiser University employee told me last year that staff working under Belinda Keiser, who oversees the school’s lobbying and media outreach, were told to contact prospective donors, many of them recipients of contracts with Keiser University, and solicit contributions to political campaigns, including those of Senator Rick Scott (R-FL),  Representative Mike Waltz (R-FL), and Jimmy Patronis, one of the speakers at last month’s “Reclaim America” event. Staff also were directed to plan political fundraising events in Florida, including at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club.

To do the fundraising, according to the former staffer, employees were provided with email addresses and phone numbers from Southeastern College, a separate for-profit school still owned by the Keisers, and Southeastern email addresses and phones, but they were Keiser University employees; at least some of the employees engaged in the political fundraising got their paychecks entirely from Keiser University, not Southeastern. The staff did their fundraising work from Keiser University offices, during business hours. (The former employee asked, out of concern for their career, not to be identified in my article.)

Contacted again last month to discuss the September Reclaim America event, the former staffer told me that the Keisers “did stuff like this all the time.  They did partisan events. They didn’t want Democrats — they only wanted Republicans.”

A former Keiser University executive told me, discussing the Keisers, “This definitely sounds like something they would do and just rebrand it afterwards. Everything they do is in the political arena. Numerous politicians speak at events — look at graduations — Keiser would always bring in a politician. The chancellor’s office picks and you have no choice because it’s always about the politics.”

A for-profit company, like the Keiser business that runs Southeastern College, is permitted under the law to participate in partisan political activity. But a non-profit organization with tax-exempt 501(c)(3) status, like the operator of Keiser University, clearly is not. The Internal Revenue Service stresses that 501(c)(3)s “are absolutely prohibited from directly or indirectly participating in, or intervening in, any political campaign on behalf of (or in opposition to) any candidate for elective public office. Contributions to political campaign funds or public statements of position (verbal or written) made on behalf of the organization in favor of or in opposition to any candidate for public office clearly violate the prohibition against political campaign activity.” The IRS warns, “Violating this prohibition may result in denial or revocation of tax-exempt status and the imposition of certain excise taxes.”

Past filings with the IRS of Keiser University’s parent organization, Everglades College, Inc., report no political campaign activities.

It is certainly true that other non-profit colleges, from Harvard to Hillsdale, often feature speakers or panels with a strong ideological or political tilt. There is no obligation that every speaking event present all sides of an issue or multiple political parties.  And I don’t know what the speakers said at the Keiser University “Reclaim America” event. But it appears to have been a panel of Republican politicians and political operatives, and, at a minimum, any advocacy on behalf of candidates for office — Rep. Cammack, as well as Rep. Fine are on the ballot in November — would raise questions about Keiser’s compliance with laws governing non-profits.

Representative Fine, the state senate candidate who spoke at and posted on Facebook about the Keiser event, is a man of strong views. After the Israeli exploding pager operation that led on September 17 to the deaths or maiming of perhaps 3000 members of Hezbollah in Lebanon and Syria, Fine posted, “Seeing Muslim terrorists get their privates blown off brings a smile to my face. For those who died, say hi to Allah!” In another post, after a man apparently pointed a weapon at Donald Trump on his Florida golf course, Fine wrote, “They have tried to kill him again. I no longer want to share a country with these people.”

Trump endorsed Fine for state senate in August, calling him “a MAGA warrior.”

Beyond its troubling political-related activity, Keiser University has repeatedly gotten in trouble with law enforcement, and settled claims, including with then-Florida attorney general Pam Bondi and with the U.S. Justice Department, over allegations of deceptive and unlawful recruiting practices. And recent staff members have told us about predatory behavior still happening at the school, including recruiting of low-income people seemingly unprepared for college programs and of people with insufficient English language skills to understand the course work.

Senior Democrats in Congress, including senators Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) have called on the U.S. Department of Education to investigate Keiser’s schools, which have received billions in federal student aid over decades. In 2022, the Department determined that Keiser University’s accreditor, SACS, was out of compliance with numerous federal regulations and directed it to provide more information regarding its oversight of Keiser University and that school’s troubling conversion to non-profit status. Keiser University admitted under congressional questioning in 2021 that the IRS imposed a penalty on the school for improperly steering profits to Arthur Keiser by entering into leases above fair market value with Keiser-related for-profit companies.

The Keisers seem to be carrying on without an interest in reforming to better serve students. The school’s new Vice Chancellor of Enrollment Management, Charlie Parker, has a history of working for predatory for-profit colleges like South University and the University of Phoenix. And employees of for-profit Florida National University, whose surviving founder died in 2022, say they hear rumblings that Keiser might be contemplating an acquisition of their school.