Bethune-Cookman names new president—again

Black Issues in Higher Education, May 20, 2004

DAYTONA BEACH, FLA.

Bethune-Cookman College (B-CC) has tapped the sitting president of Philander Smith College in Little Rock, Ark., as its new president. Dr. Trudie Kibbe Reed is expected to begin her duties July 1, according to Dr. J. Stanley Marshall, chairman of the B-CC board of trustees. The board voted unanimously last month to offer her the position.

"Dr. Reed possesses the skills, qualities and characteristics to achieve success as the next president of Bethune-Cookman," Marshall said. "She is an experienced president, a champion of the liberal arts, a tenured professor, and she has the enthusiasm and determination to take this school to new levels of prominence."

Bethune-Cookman renewed its search for a new president in January after contract negotiations failed with Dr. Gloria Bromell-Tinubu, an economics professor at Spelman College in Atlanta. The college announced last year that Bromell-Tinubu would be the next president (see Black Issues, Nov. 20, 2003). Board members reopened the search because the two sides could not agree on contract terms.

Reed will replace Dr. Oswald Bronson, who has been president of the private historically Black college since 1975.

She will be the college's second female president, joining founder Mary McLeod Bethune.

"As I become the fifth president of this great institution, I will always remember the vision and the philosophy of Dr. Bethune," Reed said. "There are unlimited resources for taking this institution to the next level, and I am committed with energy and vitality and faith in God to take this leadership responsibility very seriously and continue the rich legacy of this institution."