Trudie Kibbe Reed is leaving the presidency of Bethune-Cookman University (B-CU). The school’s Board of Trustees accepted her resignation Jan. 20 by an overwhelming margin of 30 to three.Larry Handfield, the trustees chairman and steadfast Reed supporter, is also stepping down from his leadership position on the board although he will remain a member.
Handfield told the Daytona Beach News-Journal that Reed’s exit has nothing to do with the approximately one dozen lawsuits against the school, including wrongful termination actions filed by former football coach Alvin Wyatt and former basketball coach Clifford Reed.
There were numerous other controversies during Reed’s seven and half year tenure. The American Association of University Professors (AAUP) accused her of violating academic freedom and formally censured her administration in June. The AAUP previously censured Reed trampling academic freedom when she was president of Philander Smith College in Arkansas.
In 2008, Reed also turned many heads by hiring former FAMU interim president Castell V. Bryant as her interim vice-president of academic affairs. Castell nearly cost FAMU its accreditation with the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools in 2007.
Alumni, faculty, and student anger against Reed surfaced in a very public fashion in 2009 with the launch of a website that called for her termination. It accused her of hiring incompetent administrators, unfairly dismissing employees who stood up to her, trying to dismantle the School of Social Sciences, and endangering the entire university’s accreditation.