Photo Credits: Harold Michael Harvey
Floyd Griffin withdrew his attempt to replace John page as chairman of the Tuskegee Board of Trustees. His withdrawal left Skegee Alumni angry.
Griffin had promised to bring transparency to the board and to open up board meetings to members of the Skegee Alumni.
Skegee alumni rallied around Griffin in his desire to become chairman of the board of Trustees. They argued that Skegee was the only elite HBCU that did not have an alumnus as head of its board.
Today, Skegee still does not have a graduate as its chairperson. This honor remains with John Page, a graduate of two Historically White Institutions.
The alumni push for an alumnus as chair fell on deaf ears as members of the board were not in the mood to entertain the alumni position during lobbying efforts the first day of the Board’s spring meeting last week.
In a conversation with construction magnet H. Jerome Russell, CEO of H. J. Russell & Company the Skegee alumni were notified that there was no reason why an alumnus should be the chair of the board.
Russell is an alumnus of Georgia State University. He was asked to name the chairman of the GSU board of trustees. He could not name his alma mater’s chairperson.
Georgia public colleges and universities do not have boards of trustees. They are governed by the Board of Regent. But GSU does have a Foundation and Deepak Raghavan a 2009 graduate of GSU is the Chairman of the Georgia State University Foundation. Of the 41 members on the board, 25 are graduates. Tuskegee alumni numbers do not come anywhere close to GSU’s alumni representation on its board.
Russell acknowledged he was only on the board because his father the late Herman J. Russell, a Skegee alumni, had served on the board. He said he was reluctant to vote against Page because Page had brought him onto the board.
“I counted the noses,” Griffin, a veteran of Georgia politics said, “and the votes simply were not there. So I decided to withdraw before a vote was taken.”
Several alumni said they were not satisfied with either Griffin’s withdrawal or the outcome of the Trustees re-election of John Page.
According to several prominent alumni, since they were unable to get the ear of the Tuskegee Board of Trustees, they will seek to get the attention of Golden State Food Corporation, where John Page is employed as Senior Corporate Vice President, Chief Corporate Social Responsibility and Legal Officer.
The group is exploring a nationwide boycott and social media campaign against products distributed by Golden State Food Corp., until Page steps down as chair of the Tuskegee Board of Trustees.
GSF supplies meat and liquid products like ketchup and mustard to McDonalds and through a joint venture with Mid-South Bakery in Bryan, Texas supplies buns that are used by McDonald’s for its hamburgers.
Given the absence of nutritional value, McDonald’s is an easy target. Drive down the sales of quarter pounders and GSF has fewer beef patties and buns to distribute.
Mark S. Wetterau, Chair and CEO of the $50 billion company can expect to receive a deluge of letters bearing the tenor of those submitted to the Tuskegee Board detailing their dislike of Page and the intimation of threats he has made to alumni with his reference that he grew up in Brooklyn.
Soon Page will have to decide whether he likes his job more than he like being chair of the Tuskegee Board of Trustees, especially, given the fact, that a large contingent of alumni do not like him as their board chair.
One member added that Trustees like Russell should be placed on notice that a similar boycott of their business interests maybe the price they will have to pay to keep Skegee alumni locked out of the process of helping to maintain the legacy of the Pride of the Swift Growing South.
Harold Michael Harvey is an American novelist and essayist. He is a Contributor at The Hill, SCLC National Magazine, Southern Changes Magazine and Black College Nines. He can be contacted at hmharvey@haroldmichaelharvey.com
Listen,
I have known Griff a while. I was in the military. This is not about the dislike of J. Page. Nor is this about the like of Trustee Griffin. This is about the facts. Let’s stick to the facts people. J. Page has not raised a single red cent for the university. Griffin is a retired military officer and a politician. He knows from his experience in Vietnam you have to know when to pullout. He knew the troops needed to retreat in this battle to win the war. He had to live to fight another day! Griff has heart. He had spineless alumni trustees unwilling to go into battle with him. He had to live or withdraw so that he could fight another day! Perfect Strategy Griff. He was able to expose specifically Page, alumni trustees and ignite a fire and wake up a mighty lion, in the alumni that we have not seen in a long time. Unlike Griffin, J. Page has donated mere shillings, from his employer, in comparison to the prior heavy hitting chairs.
J. Page and his volatile behavior and SLANDEROUS comments directed at two Tuskegee University alumni made at the University’s town hall meeting last spring alone are grounds for immediate removal as chairman. Not to mention, the bible scripture slinging shyster totally disregarded and offended attendees present of the MUSLIM, HINDU, CREATION and BUDDHIST faiths. JP was so busy pandering to the southern baptist it was lost on him that the first person to speak was MUSLIM, second was HINDU! I had to watch the video a few times. I could not believe any attorney would behave in such an indignant manner publicly. Even laypersons in attendance that day recognized his err. I thought he would issue an immediate apology and retract his comments. He did not.
PLEASE SOMEONE SEND THIS VIDEO TO GOLDEN STATE FOODS and JP’s employers!
This alone will be enough for to them ask JP to resign. If he is this reckless publicly on behalf of a prestigious, historic, university, how is he engaging on behalf of Golden State Foods? He believes the alumni are ignorant. Or either he doesn’t believe his behavior while representing Tuskegee University, in the chair compacity, is liable.
This is an official SOS to the Tuskegee University Alumni. If you stepped foot on the campus and even attended Chambliss Children’s School you need to be involved in saving Mother Tuskegee. Complicity from alumni trustees or any trustee for that matter is not acceptable. We must move immediately to retain the dignity and respect of our University. Let’s flood Gold State Foods and its board with these videos and letters to let them know the extremely poor behavior of their employee on OUR BOARD.
Alumni are getting what they are willing to accept and tolerate. The whole scenario is really sad. At least when I was there we felt like General Williams had pride in his school and cared. Under the current chairman the Kellogg has closed and is a dormitory. Corporate and alumni funding is at a new low. Students still do not have constant access to adequate minimal health care and will continue to die. No one realizes how many students have died when their lives could have easily been saved if they just had access to medical care. Students will continue to eat cold lunches because the facilities are poor. They will continue to live in mold and bat infested conditions while John Page hikes back to California. This is what the alumni chose to accept.
None of Page’s children or family attended Tuskegee. He is not concerned in the school. He has done nothing for us.