LINCOLN UNIVERSITY, Pa.
Faced with a scathing report from the
state, Lincoln University’s president, Dr. Niara Sudarkasa, announced
on September 15 that she would relinquish her position at the end of
the calendar year.
Sudarkasa made her announcement during a hastily-called
all-university convocation, just four days before the college’s board
of trustees was set to vote on a measure to fire her. Dr. Kenneth M.
Sadler, a North Carolina dentist and president of the university’s
board of trustees, acknowledged that he had asked for Sudarkasa’s
resignation.
The 60-year-old Sudarkasa has been president of Lincoln, an
historically Black college near Philadelphia, since 1987. She said her
departure was in the best interest of the school and would allow
Lincoln to regain a sense of normalcy.
“For most of the past academic year, I have been under siege,”
Sudarkasa told a crowd of about 500 students, faculty, and others who
gathered for the convocation. “Today, I am publicly and officially
announcing that I will leave the presidency of Lincoln University,
effective December 31, 1998.”
Many people broke out in applause when Sudarkasa spoke those words.
Others stood up before her remarks were complete and simply walked out
of the campus’ sweltering gymnasium.
It was not immediately clear who would replace Sudarkasa, or
whether the board of trustees would even allow her to stay through the
fall semester. A number of trustees have said privately that, given the
gravity of the findings by the Pennsylvania Auditor General’s Office,
Sudarkasa should leave immediately.
