Page 22 - Florida Sentinel 10-26-18

HBCU News
Bethune To Retain Interim President Amid Financial Chaos
The announcement was made during a press confer- ence held after the univer- sity’s scheduled board meeting last week.
The commitment to lead- ership stability followed re- ports that trustees entertained a $150 million donation offer from an un- named alumnus, with the condition that all members of the Board of Trustees resign and Grimes would be re- tained as interim president.
Bethune-Cookman Uni- versity sued former Presi- dent Edison O. Jackson in January, a pair of former school officials and the devel- oper of the university’s newest dorm, Quantum, claiming that bribery, corrup- tion and fraud surrounded the project, which will ulti- mately cost the university $306 million.
The suit, said “secretly built” into the dormitory’s price tag are “millions of dol- lars in improper payments,”
Retired judge, Hubert Grimes is the interim president of B-CU, following Edison Jackson who many feel is at the center of the fi- nancial controversy.
some of which are alleged to have been made to Jackson and two former high-ranking school officials who were Jackson’s longtime associ- ates. It also alleges that “hush bonuses” were paid to B-CU staff to obtain their “silence” on the deal.
In lawsuits filed in the Seventh Judicial Circuit Court in April, Delaware- based real estate investment
firm USRA BC Investors al- lege B-CU committed nine counts of fraud, negligence, or other acts in facilitating the dorm project.
Quantum filed a counter claim and has said in a recent letter that B-CU now owes it $4 million in back rent.
Wells Fargo has sued B- CU in foreclosure proceed- ings regarding the dormitories.
Bethune Loses To #10 NC A&T; Face Nebraska Saturday
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Hall of Fall Weekend 2018 was diminished with Bethune-Cookman's 35-10 Mid-Eastern Athletic Confer- ence (MEAC) setback to North Carolina A&T in front of a Daytona Stadium crowd of 6,225 on Saturday after- noon.
Redshirt junior quarter- back Akevious Williams left the game in the third quarter after he sustained an injury on the Aggies 1-yard line. He fumbled, but senior receiver Keavon Mitchell recovered the ball in the end zone for a touchdown.
North Carolina A&T regis- tered a safety late in the third quarter, then used an eight- play, 85-yard drive in the fourth quarter to seal the vic- tory.
Lamar Raynard threw for 189 yards and two touch- downs, while Jah-Maine Martin rushed for 107 yards
B-CU head football coach Terry Sims.
and a score as the Aggies (6-2 overall, 3-1 MEAC) scored on their first three possessions and four of their first five.
Williams was 14 of 21 for 108 yards passing before ex-
iting.
Bethune-Cookman travels to Nebraska to face the Cornhuskers out of the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) next Saturday. Kickoff is slated for 12 p.m. EST (11 a.m. CST).
FAMU had a bye week and will face Morgan State on Saturday.
Talladega College Has Record-Setting Enrollment Increase; 3 New Buildings Added To Campus
Dr. Billy Hawkins, president of Talladega College in front of the now completed residence hall.
TALLADEGA, AL — Tal- ladega College has had a record-setting enrollment in- crease for the 2018-2019 aca- demic year.
Enrollment has increased 55.5 percent, rising from 782 students during the 2017-2018 academic year to 1,217 stu- dents during the 2018-2019 academic year.
“There is a magnificent transformation underway at Talladega College. A new resi- dence hall, a student center, and the Dr. William R. Harvey Museum of Art are currently under construction.
“While academic excellence is our primary focus, the beau- tification of our campus has undoubtedly helped us to at- tract many new students,” said Talladega College President Dr. Billy C. Hawkins.
Talladega received 2 rural development loans from the U. S. Dept. of Agriculture for the new constructions.
The Princeton Review named Talladega College among the best colleges in the Southeast in the recently re- leased 2019 edition of its an- nual college guide.
Talladega College’s new state-of-the-art residence hall is scheduled to open in No- vember, 2018. The Dr. William R. Harvey Museum of Art, which will house the critically- acclaimed Hale Woodruff Amistad Murals and other works of art, will open in spring 2019, and Talladega’s first-ever student center will open in summer 2019. Tal- ladega recently launched its first-ever master’s degree pro- gram.
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