ATLANTA
It became pretty clear that it was time for Clark Atlanta University President Walter Broadnax to leave the school.
There was the faculty who didn’t speak whenever they saw him on campus. Then there was the time when some members of the CAU Board of Trustees didn’t show up at Broadnax’s table for a luncheon where he was being honored as one of Georgia’s 100 Most Influential People.
So after six tumultuous years in which some students, faculty and alumni fiercely criticized his management of the school and Broadnax oversaw the shutting down of two academic programs resulting in two lawsuits, he has decided to retire, effective July 31.
“We’ve done things that have been unusual,” he tells Diverse. “You don’t see universities go through right-sizing. But it leaves scars.”
With the school deep in debt — he’s says CAU’s expenses exceeded revenues by $7.5 million when he arrived in 2002 — Broadnax oversaw the dismantling of the school’s library sciences program and engineering department to help save money.
The university has gone from deficits to surpluses, embarked on a new campus housing building project, and the school’s accreditation by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools was reaffirmed last year.
