Tuskegee Ousts Board Chair

TUSKEGEE, ALABAMA, CASCADE PRESS (CP) Sources close to the Tuskegee Board of Trustees have reported to the CP that the Board of Trustees at prestigious Tuskegee University removed Charles “Chuck” Williams as chairman of the Board. Williams had been the chairman of the Board since 2010 when he replaced long time board chairman Andrew Brimmer.

Williams was an undergraduate student at Tuskegee. He went on to have a distinguished career in the military. He obtained the rank of General. He came to the Tuskegee Board with a checkered career in the business world.

The CP in an article titled Who Runs Tuskegee outlined the details of allegations that followed Williams to his position on the Tuskegee Board of Trustees.

See https://haroldmichaelharvey.com/2015/03/24/who-runs-tuskegee/

Our sources indicate that the decision to remove Williams occurred today around 1:30 pm Central Standard Time. This information has been confirmed by two sources inside the Tuskegee Board of Trustees. According to these sources, Williams was replaced by John Page and that Norma Clayton was elevated to the position of First Vice Chair. Tuskegee has never had a woman to serve as the chairperson of its Board of Trustees.

Reasons for the ouster were not immediately known, but last spring the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC) gave the school a warning notice because of the university’s inability to properly submit information to the accreditation commission.

Additionally, an alumni group organized a petition on change.org calling for the removal of  first year President Brian Johnson. Also, this week a student organizing the entertainment for Homecoming tweeted that Homecoming was being cancelled allegedly because President Johnson would not release student fees from the general fund to pay for the groups they had contracted with to perform at Homecoming. Proponents for the dismissal of President Johnson believed that Williams hand selected Johnson and was Johnson’s first line of defense in keeping his job.

One Tuskegee alumni who was part of the change.org petition to remove President Johnson said, “This is the best news since Barack Obama won the presidency. God shined on Mother Tuskegee today.”

This is a developing story and we will provide additional details as they become available.

Harold Michael Harvey is an American novelist and essayist, the author of Paper puzzle and Justice in the Round. He can be contacted at haroldmichaelharvey.com.