Howard University President Sidney A. Ribeau abruptly stepped down Tuesday after months of internal debate over the management and financial health of one of the nation’s premier historically black universities.
Ribeau, in office for five years, announced his retirement “from our beloved institution” after a tense three-day Board of Trustees meeting at the Northwest Washington campus that ended Saturday. He said he would officially leave the presidency at the end of December.
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.
Ribeau, 65, had just this summer signed a contract extension to serve through June 2015, but he said Tuesday that he was not forced out.
“This is the time, this is the season, for me to retire from the presidency,” he told The Washington Post. He said the university had made progress on an ambitious agenda in a challenging economic time. “We’re focused, we’re back on track and the momentum is building.”
Ribeau declined to discuss what the university will pay to buy out his contract. He earned $759,340 in total compensation in the fiscal year that ended in June 2012, according to the university’s federal tax return.
The announcement, several weeks into the fall term, took some on campus by surprise.“I was quite astonished,” said Lorenzo Morris, a political science professor who chairs the Faculty Senate. He called Ribeau a “solid president” but said the transition could prove positive as the university shows that it is taking “a new direction in leadership.” But several older students and alumni who milled around the campus’s famed yard Tuesday evening said they saw Ribeau’s resignation coming. Tia Parchman, 20, a junior from Inglewood, Calif., said she hoped a change at the top will help fix longstanding administrative problems.“This may be a good thing for Howard,” she said of Ribeau’s retirement. “Hopefully somebody can come in and improve” relations with students. “Oftentimes, our requests are ignored.”
The board appointed Wayne A.I. Frederick, 42, Howard’s provost since June 2012, as interim president. Frederick, a professor of surgery and a cancer specialist at Howard’s College of Medicine, holds three Howard degrees.
The announcement of Ribeau’s exit came nearly four months after a rupture between the board’s two top leaders emerged, 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 fundraising, university hospital expenses and student enrollment, calling Ribeau’s job performance “lackluster.”
Board Chairman Addison Barry Rand, who is chief executive of AARP, replied on June 10 that Howard “remains academically, financially and operationally strong.” He said the vice chairwoman’s letter had painted “an unduly alarming picture of the university’s condition.”
Posted By: Reginald Culpepper
Wednesday, October 2nd 2013 at 7:44PM
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