Html non breaking space character not recognized?

Hi,
I'm using jakarta-oro-2.0.4 and I'm looking for a match in an html file:

html:   	>Alumni</b>&nbsp;<
regex:   &gt;Alumni&lt;\/b&gt;&nbsp;&lt;

It seems to have trouble with the non breaking space (&nbsp;). The regex can
find everything up to  &gt;Alumni&lt;\/b&gt;  and it even works with
&gt;Alumni&lt;\/b&gt;&nbsp;  but when I use  &gt;Alumni&lt;\/b&gt;&nbsp;&lt;
it can't find the less than (&lt;). I'm almost positive that it's the &nbsp;
that is causing the problem.

I tried substituting &nbsp; with \s and \s* but it still doesn't work. 

Does anyone know why it doesn't recognize the &nbsp?...or is something else?

Thanks,
Richard