The Tribune

By SANCHESKA BROWN

Tribune Staff Reporter

sbrown@tribunemedia.net

COLLEGE of The Bahamas union representatives yesterday said they are “very disappointed” that nearly two months after the College’s Council named their choice for the school’s new president, the government still has not announced a decision on the matter.

Representatives of the Union of Tertiary Educators of the Bahamas (UTEB), Public Managers Union (PMU), Bahamas Public Services Union (BPSU), and The College of The Bahamas Union of Students (COBUS) released a joint statement that demanded to know what plans Education Minister Jerome Fitzgerald has for the institution when the doors open today for the start of a new academic year.

“Monday, August 18, will not only mark the start of the academic year at the college, it will also mark the 40th year of existence for the institution,” said the statement. “And, yet, at the start of what should be an exciting and historic chapter in the institution’s development, employees and students are still at a loss about the direction that their institution is headed under the present leadership.

“Unsure as to why the new president has not yet been approved and appointed, faculty, staff, and students are all gravely concerned by this sad state of affairs,” the release said.

“(Today) morale among faculty, staff, and students – all who are closely watching this debacle play out – will most certainly be at an all-time low. Signs of unease and tension are already surfacing within the institution. The employees and students of COB all want to know who will be leading the college to its goal of university status. Can COB’s faculty, staff, and students still expect to be stagnating, barely making it, for the next academic year because they will still not have the competent, visionary, sufficiently experienced, systematic leader that was promised at the start of the presidential search process?”

The union representatives said in the coming days they will look to the minister to show some “courtesy and respect to the institution’s majority stakeholders” by informing them of his answer by way of a decision – whatever that decision is.   

In mid-June, the College Council recommended that Dr Rodney Smith be chosen as COB’s new president, according to a statement by Council President Alfred Sears. The College Council acted on a recommendation made by COB’s Advisory Search Committee.

Dr Smith was president of COB until he resigned in 2005 amid a high profile plagiarism controversy. Dr Smith recently apologised for the incident and promised never to make the same mistake again.

However, many observers have called on the government not to reappoint Dr Smith in view of the scandal.

Franklyn Wilson, the college’s former council chairman and a major benefactor, has said that Dr Smith’s reappointment would be a “significant error for the country.”

The Bahamas National Citizen’s Coalition, a civic group, has said it is opposed to any move to reappoint Dr Smith as president and said that him being considered shows the “regressive thinking” of the college’s nominating board. Last week, church leader Rev CB Moss called on Cabinet to reject the recommendation to reappoint Dr Smith.