Bethune-Cookman Renews Search
For President After Talks Fail
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla.
Contract negotiations with the woman selected to become Bethune-Cookman College’s new president have been abandoned, school officials said recently.
The college will renew its search to replace retiring President Oswald P. Bronson after the school could not agree to terms with Gloria Bromell-Tinubu, spokeswoman Catherine Kershaw said.
Bromell-Tinubu, a Spelman College economics professor and former Atlanta City Council member, said the major contract issues such as salary, benefits and length of employment were settled shortly after she was selected in November.
But the offered contract did not address other issues such as severance pay, vacation time and sick leave, she said.
“I’m as surprised as probably everyone in Daytona Beach that things took the turn they did,” Bromell-Tinubu said. “I don’t have any explanation. … All that needed to happen was some discussion.” Bethune-Cookman board of trustees vice chairman Burney Bivens made a short statement to faculty and staff last month, but would not answer questions.
Kershaw did not know the specific reasons the negotiations failed, and the college would not respond to Bromell-Tinubu’s statement that the proposed contract was incomplete, she said.
Bronson, the college’s president since 1975, plans to retire June 30 from his job at the helm of the private, historically Black college with 2,700 students, 450 employees and a $45 million annual budget.
It was unclear whether the school would start a new search process, or focus on the original candidates for the job, Kershaw said.
The two other finalists in the original search were Dr. Henry Lewis III, dean of pharmacy and pharmaceutical sciences at Florida A&M University, and Marvin L. Yates, vice president of programs at the United Negro College Fund.
— Associated Press
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