Post by gramfamforever on Oct 1, 2013 18:07:28 GMT -6
Howard University President Ribeau retires
Howard University President Sidney A. Ribeau stepped down Tuesday after five years on the job, an abrupt retirement that culminates months of internal debate over the management and financial health of one of the nation’s premier historically black universities.
Ribeau announced his retirement “from our beloved institution” after a tense three-day Board of Trustees meeting that ended Saturday at the Northwest Washington campus. He said he would officially leave the presidency at year’s end.
His departure follows two developments last month that many Howard boosters found dispiriting — a drop for the university in a major national ranking, and a downgrade in its credit rating. It also came a year after enrollment at the university suddenly fell 5 percent.
The board appointed Wayne A.I. Frederick, 42, Howard’s provost since June 2012, interim president. Frederick, a professor of surgery and a cancer specialist at Howard’s College of Medicine, holds three degrees from the university.
The announcement of Ribeau’s exit came nearly four months after a rupture between the board’s two top leaders emerged in public, sending shock waves through the university community.
In a letter to trustees in April, disclosed in a June 7 published report, board Vice Chairwoman Renee Higginbotham-Brooks warned that Howard “is in genuine trouble.” The Texas attorney, a Howard graduate, cited concerns about fund-raising, university hospital expenses and student enrollment, calling Ribeau’s job performance “lackluster.”
Such developments raised alarms among loyalists of a school that the Fiske guidebook calls “the flagship university of black America.”
“We’re very upset,” said Marrel Foushee, of Chapel Hill, N.C. He said he earned a bachelor’s degree from Howard in 1974 and a master’s in 1977. “It’s terrible. The university is putting out propaganda. The real question from alumni is, what’s the real truth?”
Ribeau, a communications scholar who came to Howard after 13 years as president of Bowling Green State University in Ohio, pushed to overhaul Howard’s academic offerings. He engineered a phaseout of certain programs, such as a bachelor’s degree in fashion merchandising, in an effort to concentrate on core fields such as science, technology, engineering and math.
Ribeau also sought to streamline administration in a drive for efficiency and cost controls. He cited a string of balanced budgets as evidence of progress.
But in June, Howard’s academic deans charged that “fiscal mismanagement is doing irreparable harm” to the university and urged the dismissal of its chief financial officer, Robert M. Tarola, who is an independent contractor. The deans alleged that the university was making staff cuts based on “inaccurate, misleading” data, and they raised questions about why Pricewaterhouse Coopers this year terminated its work for Howard after serving seven years as its external auditor. In October 2012, the firm reported “certain deficiencies in internal control over financial reporting” at Howard that it considered “material weaknesses.”
Ribeau denied the mismanagement charge. Tarola remains in his position, but the university is searching for a new CFO.
Ribeau earned $759,340 in total compensation in the fiscal year that ended in June 2012.
m.washingtonpost.com/local/education/howard-university-president-ribeau-retires/2013/10/01/8d2f4004-27ac-11e3-b75d-5b7f66349852_story.html
Howard University President Sidney A. Ribeau stepped down Tuesday after five years on the job, an abrupt retirement that culminates months of internal debate over the management and financial health of one of the nation’s premier historically black universities.
Ribeau announced his retirement “from our beloved institution” after a tense three-day Board of Trustees meeting that ended Saturday at the Northwest Washington campus. He said he would officially leave the presidency at year’s end.
His departure follows two developments last month that many Howard boosters found dispiriting — a drop for the university in a major national ranking, and a downgrade in its credit rating. It also came a year after enrollment at the university suddenly fell 5 percent.
The board appointed Wayne A.I. Frederick, 42, Howard’s provost since June 2012, interim president. Frederick, a professor of surgery and a cancer specialist at Howard’s College of Medicine, holds three degrees from the university.
The announcement of Ribeau’s exit came nearly four months after a rupture between the board’s two top leaders emerged in public, sending shock waves through the university community.
In a letter to trustees in April, disclosed in a June 7 published report, board Vice Chairwoman Renee Higginbotham-Brooks warned that Howard “is in genuine trouble.” The Texas attorney, a Howard graduate, cited concerns about fund-raising, university hospital expenses and student enrollment, calling Ribeau’s job performance “lackluster.”
Such developments raised alarms among loyalists of a school that the Fiske guidebook calls “the flagship university of black America.”
“We’re very upset,” said Marrel Foushee, of Chapel Hill, N.C. He said he earned a bachelor’s degree from Howard in 1974 and a master’s in 1977. “It’s terrible. The university is putting out propaganda. The real question from alumni is, what’s the real truth?”
Ribeau, a communications scholar who came to Howard after 13 years as president of Bowling Green State University in Ohio, pushed to overhaul Howard’s academic offerings. He engineered a phaseout of certain programs, such as a bachelor’s degree in fashion merchandising, in an effort to concentrate on core fields such as science, technology, engineering and math.
Ribeau also sought to streamline administration in a drive for efficiency and cost controls. He cited a string of balanced budgets as evidence of progress.
But in June, Howard’s academic deans charged that “fiscal mismanagement is doing irreparable harm” to the university and urged the dismissal of its chief financial officer, Robert M. Tarola, who is an independent contractor. The deans alleged that the university was making staff cuts based on “inaccurate, misleading” data, and they raised questions about why Pricewaterhouse Coopers this year terminated its work for Howard after serving seven years as its external auditor. In October 2012, the firm reported “certain deficiencies in internal control over financial reporting” at Howard that it considered “material weaknesses.”
Ribeau denied the mismanagement charge. Tarola remains in his position, but the university is searching for a new CFO.
Ribeau earned $759,340 in total compensation in the fiscal year that ended in June 2012.
m.washingtonpost.com/local/education/howard-university-president-ribeau-retires/2013/10/01/8d2f4004-27ac-11e3-b75d-5b7f66349852_story.html